Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism

by Rajendra Prasad, president of India,

in 1951.

son

A son was considered essential to the

continuation a family line, and his birth

was an occasion of joy. A married

woman without a son was considered

unlucky and only a son was entitled to

light the funeral pyres of his parents,

ensuring a good afterlife. In recent years

it has often happened that pregnant

women, after learning about the sex of

the future child, would abort female

foetuses. FEMALE INFANTICIDE – by

drowning, poisoning, starvation, expo-

sure – was quite frequent.

Sontheimer, Günther-Dietz

(1934–92)

Scholar of Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and

Hindu law. He was professor of the

history of Indian religion and philoso-

phy at the Süd-Asien Institut Heidelberg

(Germany), author of The Concept of

Daya and The Joint Hindu Family,

studies of tribal deities (Khandobha) of

Mahärä•flra, and producer of several

films on tribal religions.

soul

See ÄTMAN; SELF.

Spaæõaÿästra

One of the two branches of KASHMIR

ŸAIVISM.

sphofla (‘boil’)

A term used by grammarians and

philosophers of language, such as

BHARTØHARI, to illustrate the sudden

appearance of the meaning of a WORD

after the individual letters have been

enunciated. Also identified with the

cause of the world, BRAHMAN. (See also

ŸABDA.)

spirit

SeeSELF.

ÿraddhä

SeeFAITH.

ÿräddha, also antye•fli,

møtyu-sa™skära

The last rites, the whole complex ritual

(sometimes lasting a full year) required

after the death especially of a brahmin.

ÿrauta (1)

Belonging to ŸRUTI.

ÿrauta (2)

One of the VEDÄ¢GAS, dealing with

ceremonial occasions: the Kalpasütras

orŸrautasütrascontain the ritual for

(public) SACRIFICES.

ÿravaæa (‘listening’)

The first of the three steps in MEDITATION.

Ÿrï (‘good luck’, ‘fortune’, ‘prosperity’)

A name for Vi•æu’s consort (LAKÆMÏ).

The Sanskrit sign ÿrïis used as an aus-

picious emblem on the covers of books,

the front of houses, and added as a hon-

orific to names of eminent persons or

books. In ordinary life today used as the

equivalent to ‘Mister’.

Ÿrï-bhä•ya

The title of RÄMÄNUJA’s commentary on

the BRAHMASÜTRA.

Ÿrïkaæflha (13th century)

An exponent of Ÿiva-viÿi•flädvaita,

author of the Ÿrïkaæflhabhä•ya, com-

mented upon by Appaya Dïk•ita, a

16th-century Advaitin who belonged to

the so-called Bhämatï-school. (See also

VIŸIÆfiÄDVAITA.)

175 Ÿrïkaæflha

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