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Lakulisa Mathura Pillar Inscription
The Lakulisa Mathura Pillar Inscription is a 4th-century CE Sanskrit inscription in early Gupta script related to the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism. Discovered near a Mathura well in north India, the damaged inscription is one of the earliest evidences of ''murti'' (statue) consecration in a temple made to celebrate gurus (preceptors, ''gurvayatane''). It is, according to the Indologist Michael Willis, crucial to understanding the "history of Pashupata Shaivism" and a floruit for the antiquity of its practices. The Lakulisha Mathura inscription is one of the earliest epigraphical evidence of a developed Shaiva initiation tradition. Description The inscription was found in 1928 on the central section of a pillar attached to a well in Chandul Mandul Bagichi, Mathura, not far from a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. After its discovery, an antique dealer removed it and put it in his house. The locals complained and the pillar was seized by the police, from where it arrived in the Mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Golden Age of India by historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by the king Sri Gupta; the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Skandagupta. The 5th-century CE Sanskrit poet Kalidasa credits the Guptas with having conquered about twenty-one kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms of Parasikas, the Hunas, the Kambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas, and others.Raghu Vamsa v 4.60–75 The high points of this period are the great cultural developments which took place primarily during the reigns of Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I. Many Hindu epics and literary sources, such as Mahabharata and Ramay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hindu Calendar
The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a similar underlying concept for timekeeping based on sidereal year for solar cycle and adjustment of lunar cycles in every three years, but differ in their relative emphasis to moon cycle or the sun cycle and the names of months and when they consider the New Year to start. Of the various regional calendars, the most studied and known Hindu calendars are the Shalivahana Shaka (Based on the King Shalivahana, also the Indian national calendar) found in the Deccan region of Southern India and the Vikram Samvat (Bikrami) found in Nepal and the North and Central regions of India – both of which emphasize the lunar cycle. Their new year starts in spring. In regions such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the solar cycle is emphasized and this is calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Inscriptions
The earliest undisputed deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script. If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems that may or may not contain linguistic information, there is substantially older epigraphy in the Indus script, which dates back to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Two other important archeological classes of symbols are found from the 1st millennium BCE, Megalithic graffiti symbols and symbols on punch-marked coins, though most scholars do not consider these to constitute fully linguistic scripts, and their semiotic functions are not well understood. Writing in Sanskrit (Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, EHS) appears in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. Indian epigraphy becomes more widespread over the 1st millennium, engraved on the faces of cliffs, on pillars, on tablets of stone, drawn in caves and on rocks, some gouged into the bedrock. Later th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patanjali
Patanjali ( sa, पतञ्जलि, Patañjali), also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it is estimated that it was between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE. He is believed to be an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these are the ''Yoga Sutras'', a classical yoga text. There is speculation as to whether the sage Patañjali is the author of all the works attributed to him, as there are a number of known historical authors of the same name. A great deal of scholarship has been devoted over the last century as to the issue of the historicity or identity of this author or these authors. lists ten separate authors by the name of "Patañjali." Amongst the more important authors called Patañjali are: * The author of the ''Mahābhāṣya'', an ancient treatise on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics, based on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexis Sanderson
Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson (born 1948) is an indologist and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. Early life After taking undergraduate degrees in Classics and Sanskrit at Balliol College from 1968 to 1971, Alexis Sanderson spent six years in Kashmir studying with the scholar and Śaiva guru Swami Lakshman Joo. From 1977 to 1992 he was University Lecturer in Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ... and a Fellow of Wolfson College. Career In 1992 he was appointed to the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics, Spalding Chair of Eastern Religions and Ethics and became a Fellow of All Souls. He retired in 2015. Sanderson is a scholar of Sanskrit and of Indian religions, especially of Shaivism and esoteric Śaiva Tantra, comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the sole Para Brahman, supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, i.e. ''Mahavishnu''. Its followers are called Vaishnavites or ''Vaishnava''s (), and it includes sub-sects like Krishnaism and Ramaism, which consider Krishna and Rama as the supreme beings respectively. According to a 2010 estimate by Johnson and Grim, Vaishnavism is the largest Hindu sect, constituting about 641 million or 67.6% of Hindus. The ancient emergence of Vaishnavism is unclear, and broadly hypothesized as a History of Hinduism, fusion of various regional non-Vedic religions with Vishnu. A merger of several popular non-Vedic theistic traditions, particularly the Bhagavata cults of Vāsudeva, Vāsudeva-krishna and ''Gopala-Krishna, Gopala-Krishna'', and Narayana, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moksha
''Moksha'' (; sa, मोक्ष, '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'' and ''mukti'', is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, enlightenment, liberation, and release. In its soteriology, soteriological and eschatology, eschatological senses, it refers to freedom from ''saṃsāra'', the cycle of death and Reincarnation, rebirth. In its epistemology, epistemological and psychological senses, ''moksha'' is freedom from ignorance: self-realization, self-actualization and self-knowledge. In Hindu traditions, ''moksha'' is a central concept and the utmost aim of human life; the other three aims being ''dharma'' (virtuous, proper, moral life), ''artha'' (material prosperity, income security, means of life), and ''kama'' (pleasure, sensuality, emotional fulfillment). Together, these four concepts are called Puruṣārtha in Hinduism. In some schools of Indian religions, ''moksha'' is considered equivalent to and used interchange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puja (Hinduism)
''Puja'' ( sa, पूजा, pūjā, translit-std=IAST) is a worship ritual performed by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honor a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honor or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their memories after they die. The word ''pūjā'' is Sanskrit, and means reverence, honor, homage, adoration, and worship.पूजा ''Sanskrit Dictionary'', Germany (2009) Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. For the worshipper, the divine is visible in the image, and the divinity sees the worshipper. The interaction between human and deity, between |
Inscribed Pillar - Recording Installation Of Two Shiva Lingas By Udita Acharya In The Reign Of Chandragupta Vikramaditya - 380 CE - Rangeshwar Temple - ACCN 29-1931 - Government Museum - Mathura (detail)
{{unreferenced, date=August 2012 An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figure G" means precisely the same thing as "figure G is circumscribed about figure F". A circle or ellipse inscribed in a convex polygon (or a sphere or ellipsoid inscribed in a convex polyhedron) is tangent to every side or face of the outer figure (but see Inscribed sphere for semantic variants). A polygon inscribed in a circle, ellipse, or polygon (or a polyhedron inscribed in a sphere, ellipsoid, or polyhedron) has each vertex on the outer figure; if the outer figure is a polygon or polyhedron, there must be a vertex of the inscribed polygon or polyhedron on each side of the outer figure. An inscribed figure is not necessarily unique in orientation; this can easily be seen, for example, when the given outer figure is a circle, in which case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism. Shiva is known as "The Destroyer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity which also includes Brahma and Vishnu. In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe. In the goddess-oriented Shakta tradition, the Supreme Goddess ( Devi) is regarded as the energy and creative power (Shakti) and the equal complementary partner of Shiva. Shiva is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism. Shiva has many aspects, benevolent as well as fearsome. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash as well as a householder with his wife Parvati and his three children, Ganesha, Kartikeya and A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samudragupta
Samudragupta (Gupta script: ''Sa-mu-dra-gu-pta'', (c. 335–375 CE) was the second emperor of the Gupta Empire of ancient India, and is regarded among the greatest rulers of the dynasty. As a son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta I and the Licchavi (tribe), Licchavi princess Kumaradevi, he greatly expanded his dynasty's political and military power. The Allahabad Pillar#Samudragupta inscription, Allahabad Pillar inscription, a ''prashasti'' (eulogy) composed by his courtier Harisena, Harishena, credits him with extensive military conquests. It suggests that he defeated several kings of northern India, and annexed their territories into his empire. He also marched along the south-eastern coast of India, advancing as far south as Kanchipuram in the Pallava dynasty, Pallava kingdom. In addition, he subjugated several frontier kingdoms and tribal oligarchies. At the height of his power, his empire extended from Ravi River in the west (present-day Punjab) to the Brahmaputra River i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II (r.c. 376-415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was the third ruler of the Gupta Empire in India, and was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta dynasty. Chandragupta continued the expansionist policy of his father Samudragupta, mainly through military conquest. Historical evidence suggests that he defeated the Western Kshatrapas, and extended the Gupta Empire from the Indus River in the west to the Bengal region in the east, and from the Himalayan foothills in the north to the Narmada River in the south. His daughter Prabhavatigupta was a queen of the southern Vakataka kingdom, and he may have had influence in the Vakataka territory during her regency. The Gupta Empire reached its zenith during the rule of Chandragupta. The Chinese pilgrim Faxian, who visited India during his reign, suggests that he ruled over a peaceful and prosperous kingdom. The legendary figure of Vikramaditya is probably based on Chandra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
