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Marutas
In Hinduism, the Maruts (; sa, मरुत), also known as the Marutagana and sometimes identified with Rudras, are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Prisni. The number of Maruts varies from 27 to sixty (three times sixty in RV 8.96.8). They are very violent and aggressive, described as armed with golden weapons i.e. lightning and thunderbolts, as having iron teeth and roaring like lions, as residing in the northwest, as riding in golden chariots drawn by ruddy horses. In the Vedic mythology, the Maruts act as Indra's companions as a troop of young warriors. According to French comparative mythologist Georges Dumézil, they are cognate to the Einherjar and the Wild hunt. In mythology Hymn 66 of Mandala VI of the Rig Veda, the ancient collection of sacred hymns, is an eloquent account of how a natural phenomenon of a rain-storm metamorphoses into storm deities. According to the Rig Veda they wore golden helmets and breastplates, and used their axes to split the cloud ...
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Diti
Diti ( sa, दिति) is a daughter of the ''Prajapati'' Daksha in Hinduism. She is a wife of the sage Kashyapa and the mother of the demonic race Daityas and the divine group of Marutas. Legend According to the ''Puranic'' scriptures, Diti is one of the sixty daughters of ''Prajapati'' Daksha and his wife Asikni. She and her twelve sisters were married to the sage Kashyapa. Diti is described as the mother of two groups of beings—the Daityas and the Maruts. The most prominent of her sons were Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyaksha, Vajranaka, Arunasura, Raktabija and Surapadman. Diti also had a daughter named Simhika (also known as Holika). Birth of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu The Bhagavata Purana describes the circumstances of the birth of the two powerful daityas: Birth of the maruts After the death of her sons in the Samudra Manthana, Diti grew inconsolable. She begged her husband to grant her a child who would be capable of defeating Indra. In due course, Diti becam ...
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Lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of windows, the bottom span is instead referred to as a sill, but, unlike a lintel, does not serve to bear a load to ensure the integrity of the wall. Modern day lintels are made using prestressed concrete and are also referred to as beams in beam and block slabs or ribs in rib and block slabs. These prestressed concrete lintels and blocks are components that are packed together and propped to form a suspended floor concrete slab. Structural uses In worldwide architecture of different eras and many cultures, a lintel has been an element of post and lintel construction. Many different building materials have been used for lintels. In classical Western architecture and construction methods, by ''Merriam-Webster'' definition, a lintel is a l ...
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Georges Dumézil
Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique des hautes études and the Collège de France, and a member of the Académie Française. Dumézil is well known for his formulation of the trifunctional hypothesis on Proto-Indo-European mythology and society. His research has had a major influence on the fields of comparative mythology and Indo-European studies. Early life and education Georges Dumézil was born in Paris, France, on 4 March 1898, the son of Jean Anatole Jean Dumézil and Marguerite Dutier. His father was a highly educated general in the French Army. Dumézil received an elite education in Paris at the Collège de Neufchâteau, Lycée de Troyes, Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée de Tarbes. He came to master Ancient Greek and Latin at an early age. Through the influence of ...
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Rigvedic Deities
Rigvedic deities are deities mentioned in the sacred texts of Rigveda, the principal text of the historical Vedic religion of the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE). There are 1,028 hymns (sūkta) in the Rigveda. Most of these hymns are dedicated to specific deities. The most prominent deity is Indra, slayer of Vritra and destroyer of the Vala, liberator of the cows and the rivers; Agni the sacrificial fire and messenger of the gods; and Soma, the ritual drink dedicated to Indra, are additional principal deities. Deities by prominence List of Rigvedic deities by a number of dedicated hymns, after Griffith. Some dedications are to paired deities, such as Indra-Agni, Mitra-Varuna, Soma-Rudra, here counted double. Vishvadevas (all gods together) have been invoked 70 times. *Indra 250 *Agni 200 *Soma 123 *Aśvins 56 *Varuna 46 *Maruts 38 * Mitra 28 *Ushas 21 *Vayu (Wind) 12 *Savitr 11 *the Rbhus 11 *Pushan 10 *the Apris 9 *Brhaspati 8 *Surya (Sun) 8 * Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ and Pṛthvī Mā ...
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Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif (Motif E501 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) that occurs in the folklore of various northern European cultures. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king , the Welsh psychopomp , biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul or spirit either male or female. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, valkyries, or elves. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some instances, ...
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Kóryos
The ''kóryos'' (Proto-Indo-European: "army, people under arms" or "detachment, war party") refers to the theoretical Proto-Indo-European brotherhood of warriors in which unmarried young males served for several years, as a rite of passage into manhood, before their full integration into society. Scholars have theorized the existence of the ''kóryos'' based on later Indo-European traditions and myths that feature links between landless young males, perceived as an age-class not yet fully integrated into the community of the married men; their service in a "police-army" sent away for part of the year in the wild (where they hunted animals and raided foreign communities), then defending the host society for the rest of the year; their mystical self-identification with wolves and dogs as symbols of death, lawlessness, and warrior fury; and the idea of a liminality between invulnerability and death on one side, and youth and adulthood on the other side. Etymology and name The Proto ...
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Ashvins
The Ashvins ( sa, अश्विन्, Aśvin, horse possessors), also known as Ashwini Kumara and Asvinau,, §1.42. are Hindu deities, Hindu twin gods associated with medicine, health, dawn and sciences. In the ''Rigveda'', they are described as youthful divine twin horsemen, travelling in a chariot drawn by horses that are never weary, and portrayed as guardian deities that safeguard and rescue people by aiding them in various situations. There are varying accounts, but Ashvins are generally mentioned as the sons of the sun god Surya and his wife Sanjna. In the epic ''Mahabharata,'' the Pandava twins Nakula and Sahadeva were the children of the Ashvins. Etymology and epithets The Sanskrit name ' (अश्विन्) derives from the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, Indo-Iranian stem ''*Haćwa-'' (cf. Avestan ''aspā''), itself from the Proto-Indo-European language, Indo-European word for the horse, ''*H1éḱwos'', from which also descends the Lithuanian name ''Ašvieniai'' ...
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Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts and ...
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Purana
Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends and other traditional lore. The Puranas are known for the intricate layers of symbolism depicted within their stories. Composed originally in Sanskrit and in Languages of India, other Indian languages,John Cort (1993), Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts (Editor: Wendy Doniger), State University of New York Press, , pages 185-204 several of these texts are named after major Hindu gods such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, and Adi Shakti. The Puranic genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism. The Puranic literature is encyclopedic, and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medic ...
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Agastya
Agastya ( kn, ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ, ta, அகத்தியர், sa, अगस्त्य, te, అగస్త్యుడు, ml, അഗസ്ത്യൻ, hi, अगस्त्य) was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He and his wife Lopamudra are the celebrated authors of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 in the Sanskrit text ''Rigveda'' and other Vedic literature. Agastya is considered to be the father of Siddha medicine. Agastya appears in numerous itihasas and Puranas including the major ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata''. He is one of the seven most revered rishis (the Saptarishi) in the Vedic texts, and is revered as one of the Tamil Siddhar in the Shaivism tradition, who invented an early grammar of the Old Tamil language, Agattiyam, playing a pioneering role in the development of Tampraparniyan medicine and spirituality at Saiva centres in pro ...
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Vritra
Vritra () is a danava in Hinduism. He serves as the personification of drought, and is an adversary of the king of the devas, Indra. As a danava, he belongs to the race of the asuras. Vritra is also known in the Vedas as Ahi (Sanskrit: ', lit. "snake"). He appears as a human-like serpent blocking the course of the Rigvedic rivers, and is slain by Indra with his newly-forged vajra. Name ''Vritra'' literally means "cover, obstacle", in reference of him holding back the waters. It stems from Proto-Indo-Iranian ''*wr̥trás'', from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*wer-'' "to cover, to obstruct". The Indo-Iranian word is also found in Avestan as '' vərəθraγna'' (Vedic ''vṛtraghná''), literally "(one who) slays obstacles". Functionally, he is related to Jörmungandr of Norse myth, Typhon of Greek myth, and Veles of Slavic myth. Literature Vedas According to the Rig Veda, Vritra kept the waters of the world captive until he was killed by Indra, who destroyed all th ...
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Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian studies and religious studies ('science of religion', German: ''Religionswissenschaft'').Sara Abraham and Brannon Hancock, doctoral students of theology in University of Glasgo''Friedrich Max Müller'' Gifford Lectures. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. The ''Sacred Books of the East'', a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction. He also promoted the idea of a Turanian family of languages. Early life and education Max Müller was born into a cultured family on 6 December 1823 in Dessau, the son of Wilhelm Müller, a lyric poet whose verse Franz Schubert had set to music in his song-cycles ''Die schöne Müllerin'', and ''Winterreise''. His mother, Adelheid Müller ( ...
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