Viramamunivar
Pseudonym of Father Constanzio Beschi
(1680–1747), an Italian Jesuit who lived
in Tamil Nadufor thirty-six years. Like
many of the other early Jesuits, Beschi
learned the local language and adopted
the local way of life. As part of his mis-
sionary work, he translated parts of the
Old and New Testament into literary
Tamil, and his facility with the language
and its poetic conventions make this
work a significant milestone in later
Tamil literature.
Viramitrodaya
One of the latest and the largest of the
nibandhas(“collections”), compiled in
the early seventeenth century by the
scholar Mitra Mishra. The nibandhas
were compendia of Hindu lore, in
which the compilers culled references
on a particular theme from the Vedas,
dharma literature, puranas, and other
authoritative religious texts, and then
compiled these excerpts into a single
volume. The Viramitrodayais a massive
compendium of Hindu lore, each of
whose twenty-two sections is devoted to
a particular aspect of Hindu life, such as
daily practice, worship, gift-giving
(dana), vows, pilgrimage, penances
(prayashchitta), purification, death
rites (antyeshthi samskara), law, and so
forth, finally ending with liberation
(moksha). Aside from citing the relevant
scriptural passages, Mitra Mishra also
provides extensive learned commen-
tary, and his work became an important
source for later legal interpretation, par-
ticularly in eastern India.
Virasana
One of the sitting postures (asana)
described in commentaries to the Yoga
Sutras; this is also one of the sitting pos-
tures in which deitiesare portrayed in
Hindu iconography. As described in the
commentaries to the Yoga Sutras, in this
position one foot rests on the ground,
under the opposite thigh, while the
other foot rests on top of the opposite
knee. In modern yoga manuals this pos-
ture is described quite differently, as a
sitting posture with the legs folded back
outside the body, with the feet pressed
against the thighs and buttocks.Virashaiva
(“Heroic Shaivas”) Another name for
the Lingayat religious community,
stemming from the Lingayat insistence
that the god Shivawas the only real god.
See Lingayat.Virata
In the Mahabharata, the later of the
two great Hindu epics, Virata is the king
who shelters the five Pandavabrothers,
the epic’s protagonists, during the year
they spend incognito, following their
twelve years of exile in the forest. This
year is critical because according to the
agreement that the Pandavas have
made with their adversary, Duryodhana,
if they are discovered during this year
the cycle of exile and living incognito
will begin again. Due to Virata’s care
and foresight the Pandavas are not
discovered, even though Duryodhana
has sent legions of spies to find them.
During the Mahabharata war he con-
tinues to support the Pandavas and is
eventually killed by the archery
master Drona.Visarjana
(“dismissing”) The sixteenth and last of
the traditional upacharas(“offerings”)
given to a deityas part of worship, on
the model of treating the deity as an
honored guest. In this offering, the
devotee (bhakta) gives the deity leave to
go, as the concluding rite in worship.
Although the word dismissal sounds
presumptuous in any interaction with a
deity, this term really refers to the words
of parting that one would say to any
departing guest. The underlying motive
here, as for all the upacharas, is to show
one’s love for the deity and minister to
the deity’s needs.Visarjana