|
Nirṛti (goddess)
(निर्ऋति, sometimes spelled Nirruti or Nirriti) is a Hindu deity, personifying death, decay and sorrows. In early Hindu scriptures, Nirṛti is a goddess who is lives in the kingdom of the dead. In later Hinduism, Nirṛti and Nirṛta is also a male god, who is regarded as a dikapala ("guardian of the directions") of the southwest. Etymology The Sanskrit word ''Nirṛti'' means 'decay' and is derived from ''nirṛ'' (lit. 'to separate'). It can be interpreted as meaning "devoid of '' ṛta/i''", a state of disorder or chaos.Witzel, Michael. “Macrocosm, Mesocosm, and Microcosm: The Persistent Nature of 'Hindu' Beliefs and Symbolic Forms.” International Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 1, no. 3, 1997, pp. 501–539. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20106493. Accessed 10 Mar. 2020. The name ' has the meaning of "absence of ṛta", meaning 'disorder', or 'lawlessness', specifically the guardian to the absence of divine or cosmic disorder. This term was used in Vedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hindu Deity
Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. The terms and epithets for deities within the diverse traditions of Hinduism vary, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Ishvari, Bhagavān and Bhagavati. The deities of Hinduism have evolved from the Vedic era (2nd millennium BCE) through the medieval era (1st millennium CE), regionally within Nepal, Pakistan, India and in Southeast Asia, and across Hinduism's diverse traditions.Nicholas Gier (2000), Spiritual Titanism: Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives, State University of New York Press, , pp. 59-76Jeaneane D. Fowler (2012), The Bhagavad Gita, Sussex Academic Press, , pp. 253-262 The Hindu deity concept varies from a personal god as in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, to thirty-three major deities in the Vedas, to hundreds of deities mentioned in the Puranas of Hinduism. Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Parvati, Brahma and Saraswati. These deities have distinct and complex personalities, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alakshmi
Alakshmi ( Devanāgari: अलक्ष्मी; from the roots ''अ'' (''a''): "not" and ''लक्ष्मी'' (''Lakshmi''): "goddess of fortune", figurative meaning "goddess of misfortune") meaning "not Lakshmi". She is described as being “cow-repelling, antelope-footed, and bull-toothed."Pattanaik, Devdutt. ''Lakshmi: The Goddess of Wealth and Fortune-An Introduction''. Vakils Feffer & Simons Ltd, 2003 () Or she “has dry shriveled up body, sunken cheeks, thick lips, and beady eyes and that she rides a donkey." She is not mentioned by name in the Vedic, Upanishadic or early Puranic literature, but all aspects of Alakshmi match those of the Rig Vedic goddess Nirṛti. She is also said to be the shadow of Lakshmi. In ''Padma Purana'', the cosmology includes her where the Samudra Manthana The Samudra Manthana ( sa, समुद्रमन्थन; ) is a major episode in Hinduism that is elaborated in the Vishnu Purana, a major text of Hinduism. The Samudra Manthana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York, NY
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, and popular culture. Headquartered in London, it has a sister company in New York City, and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Paris it has a sister company, Éditions Thames & Hudson, and a subsidiary called Interart which distributes English-language books. The Thames & Hudson group currently employs approximately 150 staff in London and approximately 65 more around the world. The publishing company was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath, who aimed to make the world of art and the research of top scholars available to a wider public. The company's name reflects its international presence, particularly in London and New York. It remains an independent, family-owned company, and is one of the largest publish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yojanas
A yojana (Sanskrit: योजन; th, โยชน์; my, ယူဇနာ) is a measure of distance that was used in ancient India, Thailand and Myanmar. A yojana is about 12–15 km. Edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE) Ashoka, in his Major Rock Edict No.13, gives a distance of 600 yojanas between India, presumably Pataliputra, and "where the Yona king named Antiyoga (is ruling)", identified as King Antiochus II Theos, whose capital was in Babylon. Since Pataliputra and Babylon are at a distance of about 4000 km, this would give a yojana of about 7 km. Yojana as per ''Vishnu Purana'' Yojana is defined in Chapter 6 of Book 1 of the ''Vishnu Purana'' (one of the eighteen Mahapuranas) as follows: Units Variations on length The length of the yojana varies depending on the different standards adopted by different Indian astronomers. In the ''Surya Siddhanta'' (late 4th-century CE–early 5th-century CE), for example, a yojana was equivalent to , and the same was t ... [...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: * Assamese: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devi-Bhagavata Purana
The Devi Bhagavata Purana ( sa, देवी भागवतपुराणम्, '), also known as the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavata Purana or simply ''Devi Bhagavatam'', is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas of Hinduism. Composed in Sanskrit by Veda Vyasa. The text is considered as a major purana for Devi worshippers. It promotes '' bhakti'' (devotion) towards Mahadevi, integrating themes from the Shaktadvaitavada tradition (syncretism of Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta. literally, the path of nondualistic Shakti). The purana consists of twelve cantos (sections) with 318 chapters. Along with '' Devi Mahatmya'', it is one of the most important works in Shaktism, a tradition within Hinduism that reveres Devi or Shakti (Goddess) as the primordial creator of the universe and the Brahman (ultimate truth and reality). It celebrates the divine feminine as the origin of all existence, the creator, the preserver and the destroyer of everything, as well as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danda
In Indic scripts, the daṇḍa (Sanskrit: दण्ड ' "stick") is a punctuation mark. The glyph consists of a single vertical stroke. Use The daṇḍa marks the end of a sentence or line, comparable to a full stop (period) as commonly used in the Latin alphabet, and is used together with Western punctuation in most modern Indic languages. The daṇḍa and double daṇḍa are the only punctuation used in Sanskrit texts. No distinct punctuation is used to mark questions or exclamations, which must be inferred from other aspects of the sentence. In metrical texts, a double daṇḍa is used to delimit verses, and a single daṇḍa to delimit a pada, line, or semi-verse. In prose, the double daṇḍa is used to mark the end of a paragraph, a story, or section. Computer encoding The Devanagari character can be found at code point U+0964 () in Unicode. The "double daṇḍa" is at U+0965 (). The Unicode standard recommends using this character also in other Indic scr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vishnudharmottara Purana
The Vishnudharmottara Purana (or the ''Vishnudharmottara'') is a Hindu Sanskrit text in the ''Upapuranas'' genre. Like the ''Mahapuranas'', it is also encyclopedic covering a wide range of secular and religious topics in the traditions of Hinduism. It is included in the list of eighteen Upapuranas given in the Brihaddharma Purana (1.25.23-26). History It is most celebrated for '' Chitrasutras'' constituting chapters 35–43 of the third ''khanda'' (book). This much cited part of the text dates from the Gupta period of Indian history. The ''Chitrasutra'' section of the ''Vishnudharmottara Purana'' has been discovered in manuscripts all over India and Nepal in Devanagari, Sharada, Bengali, and Newari scripts. The compilation that has survived into the modern age was likely complete by the 5th or 6th-century CE according to David Pingree. It is one of the oldest known complete Sanskrit treatises on painting arts in India. Content The ''Vishnudharmottara Purana'' is a Vaishna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vahana
''Vahana'' ( sa, वाहन, or animal vehicle, literally "that which carries, that which pulls") denotes the being, typically an animal or mythical, a particular Hindus, Hindu God is said to use as a vehicle. In this capacity, the vahana is often called the deity's "mount". Upon the partnership between the deity and his vahana is woven much Hindu iconography, iconography and Hindu mythology, Hindu theology. Deities are often depicted riding (or simply mounted upon) the vahana. Other times, the vahana is depicted at the deity's side or symbolically represented as a divine attribute. The vahana may be considered an :wikt:accoutrement, accoutrement of the deity: though the vahana may act independently, they are still functionally emblematic or even :wikt:syntagmatic, syntagmatic of their "rider". The deity may be seen sitting or standing on the vahana. They may be sitting on a small platform, or riding on a saddle or bareback. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Āgama (Hinduism)
The Agamas (Devanagari: , IAST: ) are a collection of several Tantric literature and scriptures of Hindu schools.Julius Lipner (2004), Hinduism: the way of the banyan, in The Hindu World (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, , pages 27–28 The term literally means tradition or "that which has come down", and the Agama texts describe cosmology, epistemology, philosophical doctrines, precepts on meditation and practices, four kinds of yoga, mantras, temple construction, deity worship and ways to attain sixfold desires. These canonical texts are in Tamil and Sanskrit. Agamas were predominant in South India but Sanskritized later. The three main branches of Agama texts are Shaiva, Vaishnava, and Shakta. The Agamic traditions are sometimes called Tantrism, although the term "Tantra" is usually used specifically to refer to Shakta Agamas.Mariasusai Dhavamony (1999), Hindu Spirituality, Gregorian University and Biblical Press, , pages 31–34 with footnotes The Agama l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudras
Rudras refer to the forms of the god Rudra, whose traditions have since been associated with Shiva. They make up eleven of the thirty-three gods in the Vedic pantheon.Hopkins pp. 172-3 They are at times identified with the storm deities referred to as Maruts, while at other times considered distinct from them. While the ''Vamana Purana'' describes Rudras as the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi, Maruts are described distinct from the Rudras as the 49 sons of Diti, sister of Aditi, and the attendants of Indra, rather than Rudra. Birth and names The ''Ramayana'' tells they are eleven of the 33 children of the sage Kashyapa and his wife Aditi, along with the 12 Adityas, 8 Vasus and 2 Ashvins, constituting the Thirty-three gods.Mani pp. 654–5 The ''Vamana Purana'' describes the Rudras as the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi. The ''Matsya Purana'' notes that Surabhi – the mother of all cows and the "cow of plenty" – was the consort of Brahma and their union produced the eleven Rudras. Here ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
