will marry the goddess Parvati, and thus
make it possible to bring about Taraka’s
death. Shiva, however, destroys Kama
before he can shoot, burning him to ash
with a stream of fire from his third eye.
Shiva later marries Parvati, and their
son, Skanda, kills Taraka in battle.
Tarakeshvar
City and sacred site (tirtha) thirty miles
northwest of Calcutta in the state of
West Bengal, which because of its prox-
imity to Calcutta, is the most widely vis-
ited pilgrimage place in the state.
Tarakeshvar is famous for the temple of
BabaTarakanath, who is the god Shiva
in his form as the “Lord of Liberation.”
Shiva is present at Tarakeshvar in the
form of a linga, the pillar-shaped object
that is Shiva’s symbolic form. The
Tarakeshvar linga is claimed to be a
“self-manifested” (svayambhu) image,
which was not made by human hands
but established through an act of divine
self-revelation. The site’s charter myth
describes how the linga of Shiva is
buried in the earthbut is discovered
when a cowhabitually lets down her
milk on the spot above it as an act of
worship. The charter myth also
describes how a man afflicted with ago-
nizing hemorrhoids finds relief by
drinking the waterthat has been poured
on the linga as an offeringand thus is
blessed by Shiva’s touch. With these two
stories, the charter conveys the image of
a deitywho is present and responsive to
his devotees (bhakta) as well as the
sense of a place where human beings
can go to find relief from their afflic-
tions. One of the most unusual manifes-
tations of this is the practice of dharna,
in which pilgrims lie on the temple’s
outer porch, fasting (upavasa) for as
long as it takes the deity to communi-
cate with them, usually in a dream. For
further information see E. Alan Morinis,
Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition, 1984.
Tarapith
(“Tara’s seat”) Town and sacred site
(tirtha) in the state of West Bengal,
about 130 miles northwest of Calcutta.
Tarapith is famous as one of the Shakti
Pithas, a network of sites sacred to the
Goddess that spreads throughout the
subcontinent. Each Shakti Pitha marks
the site where a body part of the dis-
membered goddess Satifell to earth,
taking form there as a different goddess;
in the case of Tarapith, the body part
was Sati’s cornea (tara). Tarapith’s pre-
siding goddess, Tara, is a fierce form of
the Goddess, who has strong associa-
tions with tantra, a secret ritually based
religious practice. In modern times
much of the shrine’s fame comes from
an unusual asceticnamed Vamakhepa
(1843–1911), whose apparent irrational-
ity and lack of respect for generally
accepted norms—he once urinated on
the temple’s image of Tara to show his
contempt for a deitymade of iron—was
a perfect match for Tara herself. Tarapith
is said to bestow supernormal powers
(siddhis) on those who worshipthere;
this makes Tarapith not only a very pow-
erful place but also a potentially danger-
ous one. For further information see
E. Alan Morinis, Pilgrimage in the Hindu
Tradition, 1984. See also pitha.Tarjini Hasta
In Indian dance, sculpture, and ritual,
tarjini hasta is the name for a particular
hand gesture(hasta) in which the hand
is closed except for the index finger,
which is pointing upward as if to
admonish or scold the viewer. The word
tarjiniis derived from a verb that can
mean either “to threaten” or “to cen-
sure”—both of which can be understood
from this gesture.Tarka
(“reasoning”) In Indian logic, tarka
denotes the mode of argument that
focuses on the identification and classi-
fication of fallacies. When it is used in
argumentation, tarka does not advance
one’s own point of view but is used to
discredit an opponent’s assertion, either
by reducing it to absurdity, by showing
that the argument does not fulfillTarakeshvar