Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism

muni

Someone who keeps silence, a sage, a

saint; also a title of honour for religious

persons.

muñja

A kind of grass or rush from which the

girdle of a brahmin at initiation is made.

Munshi, Kanaiyalal Maneklal

(1887–1971)

Prominent freedom fighter and Con-

gress politician, instrumental in re-

building and rededicating the ancient

Ÿiva temple at Somnäth, founder of the

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an important

cultural institution that promotes the

study of Sanskrit and traditional Indian

learning, and publishes a scholarly jour-

nal (Bhäratïya Vidyä) and a monograph

series, Bhavan’s Book University, with

hundreds of volumes on Hindu shrines

and saints, Hindu literature and art,

translations and summaries of Hindu

classics. It also has branches outside

India, promoting the teaching of

Sanskrit and Hindï.

Muräri

(‘the enemy of the demon Mura’)

A favourite epithet of KØÆŒA.

mürti (‘embodiment’)

An IMAGEused in worship, the presence

of the deity.

Murti, Tiruppatur

Rameseshayyar Venkatachala

(1902–85)

Born into a South Indian brahmin family,

educated both in the traditional and

modern academic ways, for many years

a professor of Philosophy at the Benares

Hindu University, with guest professor-

ships in many prestigious Western uni-

versities, although best known for his

work The Central Philosophy of

Buddhism (1955), one of the foremost

Hindu philosophers and exponents of

ADVAITAVEDÄNTAin our time. He pub-

lished dozens of important papers on all

aspects of Indian philosophy; some of

these are found in H. C. Coward (ed.)

Studies in Indian Thought: Collected

Papers of Prof. T. R. V. Murti(1983).

Murugan

Tamil god of youth, beauty, divine free-

dom, the Lord of the World, war god;

also known as Sey, Vel and Neduvel.

The elephant and peacock are associat-

ed with him. Part of his cult is a frenzied

kind of dance, the Veriyadal. He is

121 Murugan

Music making from the Ho Tribe, Bihar.

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