Encyclopedia of Religion

contamination of mythic fancy. Radin opposed this sublime figure to the figure of the transformer, a nonethical, material- istic ...

zoni documented the existence of all-seeing, celestial su- preme beings in Australia, Asia, Indonesia, Melanesia, Africa, and th ...

logical Beings; Mountains; Müller, F. Max; Num; Num-Tu ̄rem; Pettazzoni, Raffaele; Polytheism; Preuss, Kon- rad T.; Radin, Paul; ...

Tovagonze, Venance. “God-Concept: ‘Supreme Being’ in African Tribal Religions.” Journal of Dharma 17 (1992): 122–140. LAWRENCE E ...

a glimpse of Kr:s:n:a playing his flute Mural ̄ı and shares her vision with a friend, likening her mind and eyes to two birds: t ...

out and restore light to the world. Their solution was to have Ame no Uzume, a female deity, perform an erotic dance in front of ...

many variant forms of soma sacrifices collectively called jyotis:t:oma, among which are the seventeen-day-long Va- japeya and th ...

same time began to practice Zen with Ko ̄sen at Engakuji, an important Rinzai monastery in Kamakura. When Ko ̄sen died in 1892, ...

his own Japanese introduction to Swedenborg’s life and teachings, dubbing him “the Buddha of the North.” Where- as his passion f ...

he did make substantial contributions to Buddhist scholar- ship. His three-volume study of the Lan ̇ka ̄vata ̄ra Su ̄tra pub- li ...

This fusion of the sacred and the secular in daily life, made practical and specific in its form, was Sho ̄san’s most important ...

West Slavic four-headed military gods were variously named, but in fact they probably represent one multifaceted god, the archet ...

marriage, widow immolation (sat ̄ı), and female infanticide, all practices that had excited concern among the indigenous intelli ...

patri (S ́iks:a ̄patr ̄ı), provide the foundation for Swaminarayan bhakti. Other important texts include hagiographies cum his- ...

among the Vallabha Sam:prada ̄ya and in Vais:n:avism in gen- eral. (Founded by Vallabha in the sixteenth century, the Val- labha ...

Heber, Reginald. Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Prov- inces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825, vol. 2. Phil ...

A prominent motif among origin myths is the cosmo- gonic dive, in which a swan or other aquatic bird is sent by God to the depth ...

tile soils, abundant perennial bush pasturage, forests alive with wondrous trees and wild animals, precious minerals, and four m ...

stereotyped techniques that are especially expressed through the ancestral cult, the vital religion of the Swazi. In the ancestr ...

ple is the Ncwala, a ritual which grows in elaboration and potency as the king increases in power. If the king dies and his succ ...