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Varuna (crab)
Varuna (; sa, वरुण, ) is a Hindu god, associated with the sky, oceans and water. In the '' Vedic scriptures'', he is paired with the god Mitra and is the lord of Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). Varuna is also mentioned as an Aditya, the sons of the goddess Aditi. In the later Hindu texts like the ''Puranas'', Varuna is also a Dikpala or guardian of the western direction. He is depicted as a youthful man, mounted on Makara (crocodile) and holding a Pasha (noose, rope loop) and a pitcher in his hands. He has multiple wives and fathered many children, including the Vedic sage Vasishtha. He is also mentioned in the Tamil grammar work ''Tolkāppiyam'', as Kadalon the god of sea and rain. He is found in Japanese Buddhist mythology as Suiten. He is also found in Jainism. Etymology In Hindu tradition, the theonym ''Váruṇa'' (Devanagari: वरुण) is described as a derivation from the verbal root ''vṛ'' ("to surround, to cover" or "to restrain, bind") by mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makara (Hindu Mythology)
''Makara'' ( sa, मकर, translit=Makara) is a legendary sea-creature in Hindu mythology. In Hindu astrology, Makara is equivalent to the Zodiac sign Capricorn (astrology), Capricorn. Makara appears as the vahana (vehicle) of the river goddess Ganga in Hinduism, Ganga, Narmada#Signifiance in Hinduism, Narmada, and of the god of the ocean, Varuna. Makara are considered guardians of gateways and thresholds, protecting throne rooms as well as entryways to temples; it is the most commonly recurring creature in Hindu and Buddhist Hindu temple architecture, temple iconography, and also frequently appears as a gargoyle or as a spout attached to a natural spring. Makara-shaped earrings called ''Makarakundalas'' are sometimes worn by Hindu deities, for example Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, and Chandi. Makara is also the insignia of the love god Kamadeva, who has no dedicated temples and is also known as ''Makaradhvaja'', "one whose flag depicts a makara". Etymology ''Makara'' is a Sanskrit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vasishtha
Vasishtha ( sa, वसिष्ठ, IAST: ') is one of the oldest and most revered Vedic rishis or sages, and one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis). Vashistha is credited as the chief author of Mandala 7 of the ''Rigveda''. Vashishtha and his family are mentioned in Rigvedic verse 10.167.4, other Rigvedic mandalas and in many Vedic texts. His ideas have been influential and he was called the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara. The '' Yoga Vasishtha'', ''Vasishtha Samhita'', as well as some versions of the ''Agni Purana'' and ''Vishnu Purana'' are attributed to him. He is the subject of many stories, such as him being in possession of the divine cow Kamadhenu and Nandini her child, who could grant anything to their owners. He is famous in Hindu stories for his legendary conflicts with sage Vishvamitra. In the Ramayana, he was the family priest of the Raghu dynasty and teacher of Rama and his brothers. Etymology Vasishtha is also spel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago, the twenty-third ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha, whom historians date to the 9th century BCE, and the twenty-fourth ''tirthankara'' Mahavira, around 600 BCE. Jainism is considered to be an eternal ''dharma'' with the ''tirthankaras'' guiding every time cycle of the cosmology. The three main pillars of Jainism are ''ahiṃsā'' (non-violence), ''anekāntavāda'' (non-absolutism), and ''aparigraha'' (asceticism). Jain monks, after positioning themselves in the sublime state of soul consciousness, take five main vows: ''ahiṃsā'' (non-violence), ''satya'' (truth), ''asteya'' (not stealing), ''brahmacharya'' (chastity), and ''aparigraha'' (non-possessiveness). These pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suijin
is the Shinto god of water in Japanese mythology. The term Suijin (literally: ''water people'' or ''water deity'') refers to the heavenly and earthly manifestations of the benevolent Shinto divinity of water. It also refers to a wide variety of mythological and magical creatures found in lakes, ponds, springs, and wells, including serpents (snakes, dragons, eels, fish, turtles), and the flesh-eating kappa. Mizu no kamisama, Mizugami, or Suijin, is popularly revered and worshipped in temples and continues to influence Japanese culture. Suijin is also known as the water god, and . Suijin is often conflated with Ryūjin, the Japanese dragon god associated with water. Fudō Myōō is sometimes called "Suijin" because of his believed association with waterfalls. Suijin appears as a stone plaque or even a small stone set upright near the emergence of a spring. Worship The Shinto water god is believed to be the guardian of fishermen and the patron saint of fertility, motherhood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tolkāppiyam
''Tolkāppiyam'', also romanised as ''Tholkaappiyam'' ( ta, தொல்காப்பியம், ''lit.'' "ancient poem"), is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. The surviving manuscripts of the ''Tolkappiyam'' consists of three books (''atikaram''), each with nine chapters (''iyal''), with a cumulative total of 1,610 (483+463+664) '' sutras'' in the ''nūṛpā'' meter. It is a comprehensive text on grammar, and includes ''sutras'' on orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody, sentence structure and the significance of context in language. The ''Tolkappiyam'' is difficult to date. Some in the Tamil tradition place the text in the mythical second sangam, variously in 1st millennium BCE or earlier. Scholars place the text much later and believe the text evolved and expanded over a period of time. According to Nadarajah Devapoopathy the earliest layer of the ''Tolkappiyam'' was likely composed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamil Language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also spoken by the Tamil diaspora found in many countries, including Malaysian Tamil, Malaysia, Myanmar Tamils, Myanmar, Tamil South Africans, South Africa, British Tamils, United Kingdom, Tamil Americans, United States, Tamil Canadians, Canada, Tamil Australians, Australia and Tamil Mauritians, Mauritius. Tamil is also natively spoken by Sri Lankan Moors. One of 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, Tamil was the first to be classified as a Languages of India, classical language of India ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pasha (Hinduism)
Pasha (), often translated as " noose" or "lasso", is a supernatural weapon depicted in Hindu iconography. Hindu deities such as Ganesha, Yama and Varuna are depicted with the pasha in their hands. Pasha is a common attribute of Ganesha, the Lord of removing obstacles; a pasha represents his power to bind and free obstacles. Yama, the god of death, uses the Pasha to extract a soul from a being's body at the time of death. In sculpture, it is depicted as two or three bound into one or a double loop. The Sanskrit word "pasha" originally meant "knot" or "loop". In general usage, the pasha is used to bind a foe's arms and legs or for hunting animals. Pasha represents worldly attachment as well as power of a deity to capture and bind evil and ignorance. Ananda Coomaraswamy explores the connection of pasha to worldly bonds. In the Shaiva Siddhanta school of Hinduism, pasha is part of the trinity Pati-pashu-pasha, meaning "Master, animal, tether", symbolizing God, man and world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satya
''Satya'' (Sanskrit: सत्य; IAST: ''satya)'' is a Sanskrit word loosely translated as truth, essence.A. A. Macdonell, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Asian Educational Services, , pp. 330–331 It also refers to a virtue in Indian religions, referring to being truthful in one's thought, speech and action. In Yoga, ''satya'' is one of five yamas, the virtuous restraint from falsehood and distortion of reality in one's expressions and actions.GR Garg, ''Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World'', Volume 3, , p. 733 Etymology and meaning In the Vedas and later sutras, the meaning of the word satya () evolves into an ethical concept about truthfulness and is considered an important virtue.KN Tiwari (1998), ''Classical Indian Ethical Thought'', Motilal Banarsidass, , p. 87 It means being true and consistent with reality in one's thought, speech, and action. Satya is said to have cognates in a number of diverse Indo-European languages, including the word "sooth" and "sin" in Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ṛta
In the Vedic religion, ''Ṛta'' (; Sanskrit ' "order, rule; truth") is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it. In the hymns of the Vedas, ''Ṛta'' is described as that which is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the natural, moral and sacrificial orders. Conceptually, it is closely allied to the injunctions and ordinances thought to uphold it, collectively referred to as ''Dharma'', and the action of the individual in relation to those ordinances, referred to as ''Karma'' – two terms which eventually eclipsed ''Ṛta'' in importance as signifying natural, religious and moral order in later Hinduism. Sanskrit scholar Maurice Bloomfield referred to ''Ṛta'' as "one of the most important religious conceptions of the "Rigveda", going on to note that, "from the point of view of the history of religious ideas we may, in fact we must, begin the history of Hindu religion at least with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitra (Hindu God)
Mitra (Sanskrit ') is a divinity of Indic culture, whose function changed with time. In the Mitanni inscription, Mitra is invoked as one of the protectors of treaties. In the Rigveda, Mitra appears primarily in the '' dvandva'' compound ''Mitra-Varuna'', which has essentially the same attributes as Varuna alone, e.g. as the principal guardian of "Truth, Order". In the late Vedic texts and the ''Brahmana''s, Mitra is increasingly associated with the light of dawn and the morning sun (while Varuna becomes associated with the evening, and ultimately the night). In the post-Vedic texts – in which Mitra practically disappears – Mitra evolved into the patron divinity of friendship, and because he is "friend", abhors all violence, even when sacred. Onomastics The Indo-Iranian common noun *''mitra'' means "(that which) causes trato bind i-, hence Sanskrit ''mitram'', "covenant, contract, oath", the protection of which is Mitra's role in both the Rigveda and in the Mita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vedic Scriptures
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), the Brahmanas (commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).Gavin Flood (1996), ''An Introduction to Hinduism'', Cambridge University Press, , pp. 35–39A Bhattacharya (2006), ''Hindu Dharma: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology'', , pp. 8–14; George M. Williams (2003), Handbook of Hindu Mythology, Oxford University Press, , p. 28 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
