states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra
Pradesh. It was in the Satavahana
domains that the first cave temples were
constructed in the chaityaand vihara
architectural styles, which paved the
way for later architectural forms.
Satguru
(“true guru”) In the santreligious tradi-
tion, an epithet (label) that can refer
either to the Supreme Being or to a gen-
uinely realized religious teacher,
through whose instruction a disciple
attains the Supreme Being. The sants
were a loose group of central and north-
ern Indian poet-saints who lived
between the fifteenth and seventeenth
centuries and who shared several general
tendencies: stress on individualized
and interior religion, leading to a per-
sonal experience of the divine; disdain
for external ritual, particularly image
worship; faith in the power of the divine
Name; and a tendency to ignore con-
ventional castedistinctions. Many of
the sants, particularly in northern India,
thought of the divine as without quali-
ties (nirguna) and beyond human pow-
ers of conception. Given these aniconic
and occasionally iconoclastic tenden-
cies, it is not surprising that the sant tra-
dition highlights the importance of the
spiritual teacher (guru), since the guru’s
human form is the only image that a dis-
ciple has to work with. In human form,
the satguru guides the disciple’s spiritual
practice and thus becomes the vehicle
for spiritual attainment. Yet a true guru,
according to the tradition, always
remains a servant rather than a master,
maintaining and transmitting the teach-
ing of his or her particular lineage. The
sant notion of the satguru has been
adopted into many modern Hindu
movements, most notably the Radha
Soami Satsang.
Sathya Sai Baba
(b. Satya Narayana Peddi Venkappa
Raju, 1926) Modern Hindu teacher and
religious figure who presides as religious
teacher (guru) over millions of devotees
(bhakta), both Indian and foreign. He
was born in the small village of
Puttaparthi in the state of Andhra
Pradesh, where his main ashramis still
located. He first claimed to be an incar-
nation of Shirdi Sai Baba, a
Maharashtrian saint, at thirteen—a
move that gave him religious authority
and obviated the need to accept a
human guru and a spiritual lineage.
Sathya Sai Baba has since stated that he
will be reincarnated a third time, thus
eliminating awkward questions about a
successor. His fame rests upon his sup-
posed magic powers, particularly the
ability to heal and to materialize objects
from thin air. Sai Baba has many mid-
dle- and upper-class Indian devotees,
whom he obliges to perform service
(seva) to others. Some observers are
highly skeptical about his reputed pow-
ers and about Sai Baba in general. For
further information see Lawrence Babb,
“Sathya Sai Baba’s Saintly Play,” in John
Stratton Hawley (ed.), Saints and
Virtues, 1987; “Sathya Sai Baba and the
Lesson of Trust,” in Redemptive
Encounters, 1987; and “Sathya Sai Baba’s
Miracles,” in T. N. Madan (ed.), Religion
in India, 1991.Sati
Hindu goddess, daughterof the demigod
Dakshaand wife of the god Shiva, whose
death and dismemberment are pivotal
incidents in the mythology of both Shiva
and the Goddess. According to legend,
after Sati marries Shiva, her father Daksha
feels that Shiva has not shown him proper
respect and develops bad feelings toward
him. Inflated with pride, Daksha plans a
great sacrificeto which he invites all the
gods but deliberately excludes Shiva.
When Sati learns about the sacrifice, she
insists that she wants to go, since it is in
her natal home. Shiva, after trying to dis-
courage her by pointing out that one
should not go without an invitation, final-
ly gives her his permission. When Sati
arrives at the sacrificial grounds and asksSati