Their unusual structure is noted in
chapter fifteen of the Bhagavad Gita, in
which the ashvattha is described as the
tree of life. The ashvattha is also believed
to be the type of tree under which the
Buddha attained enlightenment.
Ashvatthama
In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, Ashvatthama is the
sonof Drona. When Drona becomes the
archery teacher to the Pandavasand the
Kauravas, the epic’s two central royal
families, Ashvatthama also receives
instruction along with the young
princes. He absorbs his father’s teaching
well and masters the use of terrifying
magical weapons. During the
Mahabharata’s climactic civil war, he
fights on the side of the Kauravas and
kills many of the Pandava allies; this
includes Dhrshtadyumna, who has ear-
lier killed his father, Drona. After the war
is over, Ashvatthama retires to the forest
with the sage Vyasa.
Ashvin
According to the lunar calendar, by
which most Hindu religious festivals are
determined, Ashvin is the seventh
month in the lunar year, usually falling
within September and October. In
Ashvin the monsoon rains usually
taper off, and the weather becomes a
bit cooler.
The dark (waning) half of this month
is the Pitrpaksha, one of the most
inauspicious times of the year. The
bright (waxing) half contains one of
the most important festivals of the year,
the fall Navaratri, culminating in
Dussehra or Vijaya Dashami. Other
festivals during this month are Indira
Ekadashi, Papankusha Ekadashi, and
Valmiki Jayanti.
Ashvins
Twin deitiesnamed Satya and Dasya,
who are sonsof the god Surya(the Sun)
and the physicians to the gods. In the
Mahabharata, the later of the two great
Hindu epics, the Ashvins are the divine
fathers of the Pandavatwins, Nakula
and Sahadeva. Nakula and Sahadeva are
born when their mother, Madri, uses a
powerful mantraenabling a woman to
have a child by any one of the gods;
as the sons of the divine physicians,
the epic portrays these twins as having
their fathers’ ability to heal. In the
Hindu lunar calendar, the month of
Ashvin(October–November) is devoted
to them.Assam
Before Indian independence in 1947,
this name designated the entire territory
east of Bengal province in northeastern
India; in the time since independence, it
was divided into seven different admin-
istrative regions, one of which is the
contemporary state of Assam.
Like all other states in the northeast-
ern corner, much of modern Assam is
culturally distinct from the rest of India.
One marker of this cultural divide is lan-
guage: whereas most Indians speak lan-
guages from the Indo-Aryan or
Dravidian language families, many
tribal people in Assam speak Tibeto-
Burman languages. The bulk of modern
Assam is in the Brahmaputra River val-
ley, which is where most of the Hindus
in the northeast reside.
Despite its remoteness from the rest
of India, Assam does have one very
important sacred place, the temple of
the goddess Kamakhyajust outside the
capital of Gauhati. This is one of the
Shakti Pithas, a network of sites con-
nected with the worshipof the Mother
Goddessthat were established at places
where it is believed that body parts of the
dismembered goddess Satifell to earth.
Kamakhya is considered the most power-
ful of all the Shakti Pithas since it is
believed to be where Sati’s vulva (a highly
charged female body part) fell to earth.Assam