associate with fellow devotees (bhakta).
The word covers an enormous range of
activities and contexts, from an informal
gathering for singing and conversation
in someone’s home, to highly orches-
trated meetings in which a guru may
preach to thousands of devotees, and
anything in between. In all these cases
the importance of satsang lies in the
wholesome religious atmosphere gener-
ated by the presence of good people,
which is believed to create beneficial
effects in terms of reinforcing one’s own
good qualities and reforming one’s
faults.
Sattan
(7th c.) Tamil poet who was the author
of the Manimegalai, a text that
was clearly written as a sequel to the
earlier poem “The Jeweled Anklet”
(Shilappadigaram). Sattan’s story
focuses on a young woman named
Manimegalai, who was wooed by the
local prince but eventually became a
Buddhist nun. Although the story’s bias
clearly favors the Buddhists, the
Manimegalai has numerous debates
with people from competing religious
traditions, thus giving a rounded if
somewhat subjective picture of contem-
porary religious life. See also Tamil epics
and Tamil language.
Sattva
(“goodness”) One of the three funda-
mental qualities (gunas) believed to
be present in all things. The other two
gunas are rajas(“passion”) and tamas
(“darkness”). According to this model,
the differing proportions of these
qualities account for the differences
between the properties of concrete
things, and in individual human
capacities and tendencies. Of the
three, sattva is invariably positive and
carries associations with goodness,
truth, wholesomeness, health, cogni-
tive thought, and deep-rooted reli-
gious life. The notion of these three
gunas originated in the metaphysics of
the Samkhyaschool, one of the six
schoolsof traditional Hindu philoso-
phy. Although much of Samkhya
metaphysics connected with the
gunas have been long discredited, the
idea of the gunas and their qualities
has become a pervasive assumption in
Indian culture.Saturday
(Shanivar) The sixth dayof the Hindu
week, whose presiding planet is Saturn
(Shani). Saturn is by far the most feared
of all the planets, and Saturday is con-
sidered by far the most inauspicious day
of the week. In Hindu iconography,
Saturn is depicted as a terrifying black
figure holding a sword and riding a buf-
falo; he is also considered easily affront-
ed and extremely thorough in avenging
any offenses. Any misfortune Saturn
brings will last for fourteen years—a fig-
ure doubtless drawn from the fourteen
years of Saturn’s orbit.
Hindus counter this danger by avoid-
ance and rites of protection, just as they
do on Tuesday, the other day consid-
ered to be generally inauspicious.
Movements and activities are often
widely restricted on Saturday, and cer-
tain activities, in particular buying
things made from iron (whose black
color is associated with Saturn), are
avoided except when absolutely neces-
sary. As on Tuesday, people worship
protective deitiesand give as charity
(dana) items associated with Saturn:
iron, mustard oil, black sesame seed,
black cloth, and black lentils. Giving
away such items associated with Saturn
is believed to transfer any potential
inauspiciousnessfrom Saturn to the
recipient, providing a way to get rid of
one’s bad luck.Saturn
In Hindu astrology (jyotisha), a
strongly malevolent planetassociated
with obstruction and death. Saturn’s
power and malevolent nature make
him extremely dangerous, particularlySattan