and sculpture, in which the line of the
body has three distinct breaks, or
changes in direction. In this pose, the
body’s weight is mainly supported on
one foot, with the corresponding
knee and shoulder inclined toward
one side and the hips inclined in the
opposite direction.
Tridosha
In ayurveda, the term for the set of three
bodily humours, vata (“air”), pitta
(“bile”), and kapha(“phlegm”). Each of
these humours is associated with cer-
tain physiological tendencies, particu-
larly with regard to digestion and
metabolism. Every person has all three
of these humours, although one of them
is generally dominant. In a healthy per-
son the three humours are in general
equilibrium, but an imbalance can lead
to illness or chronic health problems.
The solution to these lies in regaining
the proper balance between the doshas,
or humours, for which one of the major
solutions is eatinga proper diet.
Trika
Kashmiri religious community whose
members were devotees (bhakta) of
the god Shiva; the greatest figure in the
Trika school was the tenth-century
philosopher and aesthetic theorist
Abhinavagupta. Trika Shaivism is a
tantric tradition—that is, a secret, ritually
based religious practice—whose philo-
sophical underpinnings merge two
philosophical positions, theism and
monism. Theism is the notion that a
divinity is the Supreme Reality in the
universe, whereas monism conceives a
more abstract principle as the basis of
all reality. For Trika Shaivism, the sole
true reality is the god Shiva, who is both
Supreme God and the source for emana-
tions from which the material universe
is formed. Final liberation of the soul
(moksha) comes through a process of
“recognition” (pratyabhijna), in which
one realizes that the entire universe is
nothing but a manifestation of Shiva
alone. Here one “recognizes” something
that has always been true but until that
time had been obscured by a mistaken
understanding. For further information
see Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega, The
Triadic Heart of Siva, 1989. See also
tantra and Shaiva.Trilochan
(15th c.?) A santpoet who is generally
associated with the poet-saint Namdev.
The name santis an umbrella term for a
loose group of central and northern
Indian poet-saints who shared several
general tendencies: a stress on individu-
alized, interior religion leading to a per-
sonal experience of the divine; a
disdain for external ritual, particularly
image worship; a faith in the power of
the divine name; and a tendency to
ignore conventional castedistinctions.
Trilochan’s only existing poems are a few
verses in the Adigranth, the sacred
scripture of the Sikh community. These
verses describe his devotion to Vithoba,
the presiding deity of the temple at
Pandharpurin Maharashtra, who was
also Namdev’s chosen deity. Thus, the
poems seem consistent with Maha-
rashtrian origins. Trilochan is also men-
tioned as a devotee (bhakta) by other
bhaktipoets, most notably by the poet-
saint Ravidas.Trimbak
Sacred site (tirtha) at the headwaters of
the Godavari River, in the Nasikdistrict
of the state of Maharashtra. Trimbak is
famous as the site for Tryambakeshvar,
one of the twelve jyotirlingas, the most
sacred spot for devotees (bhakta) of the
god Shiva.Trimurti
(“three forms”) The three deities of
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, often repre-
sented as three faces on a single image, to
symbolize the ultimate identity of all three
forms of divinity and divine activity:
Brahma as creator, Vishnu as preserver
and sustainer, and Shiva as destroyer.Tridosha