harsh physical asceticism(tapas) to
generate the spiritual powers neces-
sary to do this. Her austerities eventu-
ally please the god Shiva, who
promises her that she will be reward-
ed in her next birth. Amba then raises
a pyre and burns herself to death.
Amba is reborn as Shikhandi to
King Drupada, whose wife has
received a boon that she will give birth
to a girl, but that the girl will later be
transformed into a boy. When
Shikhandi is born, it is announced
that the child is a boy and the child is
given the training appropriate for a
prince. It is only upon fixing
a marriage for Shikhandi that the
issue of the child’s gender comes up
and it is finally resolved when
Shikhandi exchanges sexes with a
nature spirit (yaksha) named
Sthunakarna, who becomes a
woman, and Shikhandi a man. The
switch is originally intended to be for
only a short period, but is later
extended until Shikhandi’s death, at
which time Sthunakarna again
becomes male.
During the Mahabharata war
Shikhandi challenges Bhishmain bat-
tle but the latter refuses to fight him,
since Shikhandi has been born a
woman. Shikhandi takes advantage of
this gallantry to shoot a barrage of
arrows at Bhishma, as does the warrior
Arjuna, who hides behind Shikhandi
for protection. With this assault,
Bhishma finally decides that the time
has come for him to give up the fight
and die. In the battle that follows after
Bhishma falls, Shikhandi is killed by
Ashvatthama, the sonof Drona, who
fights on the side of the Kauravasin
the war. Based on Shikhandi’s role in
shielding Arjuna from harm, in mod-
ern Hindithe name Shikhandi is used
to designate a scapegoat, someone
behind whom another person hides
and escapes blame.
Shikhara
Temple tower that was the central fea-
ture of the Nagaraarchitectural style,
prevalent in northern and eastern India.
The temple’s tallest tower was always
directly over the image of the temple’s
primary deity, although there were
often also smaller, subsidiary towers to
lead the eye up to that primary one.
Within this general pattern there are two
important variations, exemplified by the
temples at Khajurahoand Orissa. In the
Khajuraho style a group of shikharas is
unified into one continuous upward
swell, which draws the eye upward like a
series of hills leading to a distant peak.
In contrast, the Orissan style tends to
emphasize the differences between the
temple’s parts, with a low entrance hall
(jagamohan) next to a beehive-shaped
temple tower (deul), which is often
three or four times taller than the
entrance hall.Shiksha
(“learning”) One of the six Vedangas.
These were the supplemental branch-
es of knowledge connected with the
Vedas, the oldest Hindu religious
texts, and all the Vedangas were asso-
ciated with the use of the Vedas.
Shiksha was concerned with articula-
tion, proper pronunciation, and the
laws of euphonic combination (sand-
hi), that is, sounds combined in a cer-
tain way to have a pleasant effect.
Although this may sound trivial, it
was a central concern in the cult of
sacrificelaid out in the Brahmana
literature. This was because the
power of these sacrifices was believed
to depend on the proper delivery of
the Vedic mantras, with any mistake
being potentially ruinous. Aside from
shiksha, the other Vedangas are vya-
karana(Sanskritgrammar), chandas
(Sanskrit prosody), kalpa (ritual
instructions), nirukta (etymology),
and jyotisha (favorable times for
sacrifices).Shiksha