Ravana proceeds to cut off his heads,
one by one, and to offer them to Shiva.
As he is about to cut off the last of his
heads, Shiva appears before him and
grants Ravana a boon. Ravana asks for
Shiva to come and live in his palace in
Lanka, a request that would have made
Ravana invincible. Shiva agrees to come
in the form of a linga, but warns Ravana
that wherever the linga touches the
earth, it will stay there forever. As
Ravana begins traveling back to Lanka,
he feels the urge to urinate (which in
some versions is described as being
caused by Shiva himself, because the
other gods have begged Shiva not to go
to Lanka). Given the condition of his
boon, he cannot put the linga down;
moreover, since urination renders one
ritually impure, the linga would be
defiled if he holds it while answering
nature’s call (or touches it before he has
taken a purifying bath). Ravana ends up
handing the linga to a cowherd, giving
him strict orders to keep it off the
ground. The linga is so heavy, however,
that the cowherd eventually has to let it
rest on the ground, where it sticks fast,
and remains there to this day.
Vaijayanti Shakti
In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, this is the name of an
all-conquering weapon that the storm-
god Indragives to the warrior Karna.
Karna has been born wearing earrings
and a suit of armor, and Karna’s father,
the sun-god Surya, has ordained that as
long as Karna wears these, he cannot be
harmed. Indra gains them from Karna
by taking the guise of a brahmin, and
beggingfor them as alms from Karna,
who is famous for his generosity.
Despite being warned in a dream,
Karna cannot bring himself to refuse
and gives them to Indra. When Indra
gives him a boon in return, Karna asks
for the Vaijayanti Shakti. Karna keeps
this weapon in reserve to kill his neme-
sis, Arjuna, but is forced to use it
against another mighty warrior,
Ghatotkacha, when the latter proves
unconquerable during the Mahabharata
war. The loss of this weapon leaves
Karna at a disadvantage against Arjuna,
and Karna is eventually killed.Vaikasi
Second month in the Tamil year, corre-
sponding to the northern Indian solar
month of Vrshabha (the zodiacal sign of
Taurus), which usually falls within May
and June. This name is a modification of
Baisakh, the second month in the lunar
calendar. The existence of several differ-
ent calendars is one clear sign of the
continuing importance of regional cul-
tural patterns. One way that the Tamils
retain their culture is by preserving their
traditional calendar. Tamil is one of the
few regional languages in India with an
ancient, well-established literary tradi-
tion. See also Tamil language,Tamil
months, and Tamil Nadu.Vaikuntha
In Hindu mythology, the name of the
heavenin which the god Vishnulives.Vaishali
City and region in northern Bihar; the
region’s western border is the Gandaki
River, and its southern border the
Gangesriver. Although now the region
is extremely backward, at the time of
the Buddha, Vaishali was one of the
largest cities in India and a center of
intellectual culture of the time. Vaishali
is famous as the birthplace of Mahavira.
He was the last of the Jain tirthankars,
the founding figures in the Jain religious
tradition. Tradition also holds Vaishali
as the site of the second Buddhist
council, convened one hundred years
after the death of the Buddha (ca. 386
B.C.E.), at which the Buddhist community
split between the Sthaviravadins and
the Mahasanghikas.Vaisheshika
(“noting characteristics”) One of the
six schools of traditional HinduVaisheshika