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Dvīpa
Dvipa () is a term in Hindu cosmography. The Puranas describe a dvipa to be one of the seven islands or continents that are present on earth, each of them surrounded by an ocean. The same terminology is also used to refer to the seven regions of the cosmos. In the geocentric model of Hinduism, the seven dvipas are present around Mount Meru, which is present at the centre of Jambudvipa, the term employed for the Indian subcontinent. Dvipa is also sometimes used to refer to the abodes of deities, such as Manidvipa. Etymology The word dvipa is a portmanteau of the Sanskrit words ''dvī'' (two) and ''apa'' (water), meaning "having water on two sides". It is cognate with the Young Avestan 'duuaēpa', which means the same. Description According to the Matsya Purana and the Bhagavata Purana, the world is divided into seven dvipas, termed as the ''sapta-dvīpa'' (the seven islands). The Mahabharata names the following as the seven islands of the world: The British author Benjam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jambudvīpa
Jambudvīpa ( sa, जम्बुद्वीप; Pali: Jambudīpa) is a name often used to describe the territory of Greater India in Ancient Indian sources. The term is based on the concept of ''dvīpa'', meaning "island" or "continent" in Ancient Indian cosmogony. The term ''Jambudvipa'' was used by Ashoka to represent his realm in the third century BCE. The same terminology was used in subsequent texts, for instance Kannada inscriptions from the tenth century CE which also described the region, presumably Ancient India, as ''Jambudvipa''. The word Jambudvīpa literally refers to "the land of Jambu trees" where jambu (''Syzygium cumini'') grows. Puranic description According to Puranic cosmography, the world is divided into seven concentric island continents (''sapta-dvipa vasumati'') separated by the seven encircling oceans, each double the size of the preceding one (going out from within). The seven continents of the Puranas are stated as Jambudvipa, Plaksadvipa, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Meru
Mount Meru ( Sanskrit/ Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. There is no clear identification of Mount Meru with a particular geophysical location. Many famous Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" 須彌座 xūmízuò style base is a common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru. Etymology Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru (Sanskrit: Meru), to which is added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru". ''Meru'' is also the name of the central bead in a mālā. In other languages In other languages, Mount Meru is pronounced: * Ass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manidvipa
Manidvipa ( sa, मणिद्वीप, lit=island of gems, translit=; ) is the celestial abode of Adi Shakti, the supreme goddess, according to the Shaktism tradition in Hinduism. It is an island situated in the middle of an ocean called the Sudha Samudra (the ocean of nectar). In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, Manidvipa is portrayed as the ''Sarvaloka'', the highest world, superior to Goloka, the realm of Krishna, Vaikuntha, the realm of Vishnu and Lakshmi, Kailasa, the realm of Shiva and Parvati, and Brahmaloka, the realm of Brahma and Saraswati. This is consistent with the scripture's portrayal of goddess Bhuvaneshvari being greater than any of the Trimurti. In her forms as Bhuvaneshvari and Tripura Sundari, Devi is the ruler of Manidvipa. This goddess is believed to have created this island according to her will. Description The descriptions of Manidvipa can be found in the ''Devi Bhagavata Purana'', ''Mahabhagavata Purana'', and ''Tripura Rahasya''. According to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. The word ''Hindu'' is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as '' Sanātana Dharma'' ( sa, सनातन धर्म, lit='the Eternal Dharma'), a modern usage, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Another endonym is ''Vaidika dharma'', the dharma related to the Vedas. Hinduism is a diverse system of thought marked by a range of philosophies and shared concepts, rituals, cosmological systems, pilgrimage sites, and shared textual sources that discuss theology, metaphysics, mythology, Vedic yajna, yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British People
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany, whose surviving members are the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, and Bretons. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality. Though early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity.. The notion of Britishness and a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curd
Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then allowing it to coagulate. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins ( casein) to tangle into solid masses, or ''curds''. Milk that has been left to sour ( raw milk alone or pasteurized milk with added lactic acid bacteria) will also naturally produce curds, and sour milk cheeses are produced this way. Producing cheese curds is one of the first steps in cheesemaking; the curds are pressed and drained to varying amounts for different styles of cheese and different secondary agents (molds for blue cheeses, etc.) are introduced before the desired aging finishes the cheese. The remaining liquid, which contains only whey proteins, is the whey. In cow's milk, 90 percent of the proteins are caseins. Curds ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicles) at the end of the branches. These flowers contain both types of reproductive organs (perfect flowers). The large, papery leaves of teak trees are often hairy on the lower surface. Teak wood has a leather-like smell when it is freshly milled and is particularly valued for its durability and water resistance. The wood is used for boat building, exterior construction, veneer, furniture, carving, turnings, and other small wood projects. ''Tectona grandis'' is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka, but is naturalised and cultivated in many countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Myanmar's teak forests account for nearly half of the world's naturally occurring t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresh Water
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include non- salty mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snowfields and icebergs, natural precipitations such as rainfall, snowfall, hail/ sleet and graupel, and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, as well as groundwater contained in aquifers, subterranean rivers and lakes. Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Water is critical to the survival of all living organisms. Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds need fresh water to surv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelumbo Nucifera
''Nelumbo nucifera'', also known as sacred lotus, Laxmi lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often refers to members of the family Nymphaeaceae. Lotus plants are adapted to grow in the flood plains of slow-moving rivers and delta areas. Stands of lotus drop hundreds of thousands of seeds every year to the bottom of the pond. While some sprout immediately, and most are eaten by wildlife, the remaining seeds can remain dormant for an extensive period of time as the pond silts in and dries out. During flood conditions, sediments containing these seeds are broken open, and the dormant seeds rehydrate and begin a new lotus colony. Under favorable circumstances, the seeds of this aquatic perennial may remain viable for many years, with the oldest recorded lotus germination being from seeds 1,300 years old recovered from a dry lakebed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Turtle
The World Turtle, also called the Cosmic Turtle or the World-bearing Turtle, is a mytheme of a giant turtle (or tortoise) supporting or containing the world. It occurs in Hindu mythology, Chinese mythology, and the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The comparative mythology of the World-Tortoise discussed by Edward Burnett Tylor (1878:341) includes the counterpart World Elephant. India The World Turtle in Hindu mythology is known as ''Akūpāra'' (Sanskrit: अकूपार), or sometimes ''Chukwa''. An example of a reference to the World Turtle in Hindu literature is found in Jñānarāja (the author of ''Siddhāntasundara'', writing c. 1500): "A vulture, whichever has only little strength, rests in the sky holding a snake in its beak for a prahara hree hours Why can he deityin the form of a tortoise, who possesses an inconceivable potency, not hold the Earth in the sky for a '' kalpa'' illions of years" The British philosopher John Locke made refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Walker (author)
Benjamin Walker (25 November 1913 – 30 July 2013) was the truncated pen name of George Benjamin Walker, who also wrote under the pseudonym Jivan Bhakar. He was a British citizen, an Indian-born author on religion and philosophy, and an authority on esoterica. He was born in Calcutta (Kolkata), the son of Dr. Simeon Benjamin Walker, M.D., and Mary Emily Fordyce, both of Pune (Poona), India. In some remote dialects, such as the one of the tribe who created Benjamin Walker, his name is spelt Bianjiamian Wiakiar.Source: CBBC Early influences Simeon Walker (1873–1928) carried out a great deal of humanitarian work, in India, establishing a centre of studies called The Hall of Literature, Science and Hygiene that was formally opened by the Gaekwar of Beroda (Vadodara) in 1900. The building was accidentally burned to the ground in 1902, along with thousands of books, manuscripts and official documents in Sanskrit, Marathi, Gujarati, Hebrew, and English, many of which had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shesha
Shesha (Sanskrit: शेष; ) , also known as Sheshanaga (Sanskrit: शेषनाग; ) or Adishesha (), is a serpentine demigod ( Naga) and Nagaraja (King of all serpents), as well as a primordial being of creation in Hinduism. In the Puranas, Shesha is said to hold all the planets of the universe on his hoods and to constantly sing the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. He is sometimes referred to as Ananta Shesha, "Endless-Shesha", or Adishesha, the "First Shesha". It is said that when Adishesa uncoils, time moves forward and creation takes place; when he coils back, the universe ceases to exist. The Narayana form of Vishnu is often depicted as resting on Shesha, accompanied by his consort Lakshmi. Adishesha is considered as one of the two mounts of Vishnu alongside Garuda. He is said to have descended upon Earth in the following human forms or incarnations: Lakshmana, brother of Vishnu's incarnation Rama during the Treta Yuga, and according to some traditions, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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