great Hindu epics, he is portrayed as a
man who is willing to sacrificea boy,
Sunassepha, in place of a sacrificial cow
that Indrahas stolen. At the moment of
the sacrifice, Sunassepha prays to the
gods, and Indra appears to bless both
Ambarisha and Sunassepha. In another
story, from the Bhagavata Purana,
Ambarisha is portrayed as a fervent
devotee (bhakta) of Vishnu. When the
sage Durvasas tries to disrupt
Ambarisha’s ekadashi(“eleventh day”)
observances, Ambarisha calls for help
from Vishnu’s discus weapon,
Sudarshana. At Ambarisha’s prayer, the
discus pursues Durvasas throughout the
universe and gives him no place of
refuge. In the end, a humbled Durvasas
is forced to beg Ambarisha’s forgiveness,
and the latter informs Durvasas of the
powers of ekadashi observance.
Ambedkar, Dr. Bhim Rao
(1891–1956) Thinker, writer, and
social activist whose worldview always
reflected his birth as a Mahar, a caste of
untouchables in the state of
Maharashtra. Ambedkar’s father had
joined the British army, which brought
the family enough social mobility for
Bhim Rao to get an education: a B.A. in
Bombay, an M.A. and Ph.D. from
Columbia University in New York City,
and a D.Sc. from London University. He
also passed the British bar exam.
Ambedkar spent his life fighting for the
rights of the untouchable classes,
through both political lobbying and
social action. In 1932, through his
efforts, untouchables were given a sepa-
rate electorate as a minoritygroup.
Mohandas Gandhiwas bitterly opposed
to removing untouchables from the
larger Hindu body politic and began a
fast unto death. In the end Ambedkar
relented, but for the rest of his life he
maintained that Gandhi had used the
untouchables as pawns in India’s politi-
cal struggles with Britain. Ambedkar
claimed that for untouchables there was
no material difference between
Gandhi’s practices and traditional caste
Hinduism, because rather than having
any real political power, the untouch-
ables had to continue relying on the
“goodwill” of Hindus to look after their
needs. Ambedkar played an important
role in the formation of the Republic of
India, including being called upon to
author its constitution, but social
inequality continued to rankle him. In
1956 he and many of his followers for-
mally converted to Buddhism as a way
to leave the caste system behind. These
“neo-Buddhists” still exist, and despite
their relatively small numbers, their mil-
itancy makes them an important group.Ambika
(“mother”) Epithet of the Goddess. In
many cases it refers specifically to
Shiva’swife Parvati, but it is also used
as the name of a powerful female deity
in the Devimahatmya, the earliest text
in which a female divinity is presented
as the Ultimate Reality in the universe.Ambika
(2) In one of the great Hindu epics, the
Mahabharata, Ambika is the daughter
of the king of Kashiand the wife of King
Vichitravirya. When Vichitravirya dies
childless, his mother, Satyavati, calls
upon her oldest son, Vyasa, to have sex
with Ambika and her sister Ambalikain
the hope that the womenwill conceive
and continue the family line. According
to tradition, Vyasa is very ugly, and each
woman involuntarily reacts when Vyasa
appears in her bed. Ambika covers her
eyes, causing her son Dhrtarashtrato
be born blind, and Ambalika turns pale,
causing her son Pandu to have an
unnaturally pale complexion.Ammonite
Spiral-shaped fossil shell of a prehis-
toric sea creature. The black stones in
which these fossil shells are embedded
are known as shalagrams and are
found in great numbers in the Kali
GandakiRiver in Nepal. The name
ammonite comes from the LatinAmmonite