Women In Hindu Culture
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Women In Hindu Culture
Hindu texts present diverse views on the position of women, ranging from feminine leadership as the highest goddess, to limiting gender roles. The Devi Sukta hymn of Rigveda, a scripture of Hinduism, declares the feminine energy as the essence of the universe, the one who creates all matter and consciousness, the eternal and infinite, the metaphysical and empirical reality ( Brahman), the soul, (supreme self) of everything. The woman is celebrated as the most powerful and the empowering force in some Hindu Upanishads, Sastras and Puranas, particularly the Devi Upanishad, Devi Mahatmya and Devi-Bhagavata Purana.C. Mackenzie Brown (1990), The Triumph of the Goddess, State University of New York Press, ISBN , page 77Thomas Coburn (2002), Devī Māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 138, 303-309 Ancient and medieval era Hindu texts present a diverse picture of duties and rights of women in Hinduism. The texts recognize eight k ...
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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 to ...
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Devi
Devī (; Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The concept and reverence for goddesses appears in the Vedas, which were composed around the 2nd millennium BCE. However, they do not play a vital role in that era. Goddesses such as Lakshmi, Parvati, Durga, Saraswati, Sita, Radha and Kali have continued to be revered in the modern era. The medieval era Puranas witness a major expansion in mythology and literature associated with Devi, with texts such as the Devi Mahatmya, wherein she manifests as the ultimate truth and supreme power. She has inspired the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Further, Devi and her primary form Parvati is viewed as central in the Hindu traditions of Shaktism and Shaivism. Etymology ''Devi'' and ''deva'' are Sanskrit terms found in Vedic literature around the 3rd millenni ...
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Bhavabhuti
Bhavabhūti (Devanagari: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha, in Gondia district, on Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh border. He is described as an 'Udumbara Brahmin'. His real name was ''Srikantha Nilakantha'', and he was the son of Nilakantha and Jatukarni. He received his education at 'Padmapawaya', a place some 42 km South-West of Gwalior. Dayananidhi Paramahansa is known to be his guru. He composed his historical plays at 'Kalpi', a place on banks of river Yamuna. He is believed to have been the court poet of king Yashovarman of Kannauj. Kalhana, the 12th-century historian, places him in the entourage of the king, who was defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida, king of Kashmir, in 736 AD. Malatimadhava The play is set in the city of Padmavati. The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry ...
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Gurus
Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential figure to the disciple (or '' shisya'' in Sanskrit, literally ''seeker f knowledge or truth'' or student, with the guru serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student". Whatever language it is written in, Judith Simmer-Brown explains that a tantric spiritual text is often codified in an obscure twilight language so that it cannot be understood by anyone without the verbal explanation of a qualified teacher, the guru. A guru is also one's spiritual guide, who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the ''guru'' has already realized. The oldest references to the concept ...
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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 Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, a colle ...
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Max Muller
Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1971–2004), a western lowland gorilla at the Johannesburg Zoo who was shot by a criminal in 1997 Brands and enterprises * Australian Max Beer * Max Hamburgers, a fast-food corporation * MAX Index, a Hungarian domestic government bond index * Max Fashion, an Indian clothing brand Computing * MAX (operating system), a Spanish-language Linux version * Max (software), a music programming language * Commodore MAX Machine * Multimedia Acceleration eXtensions, extensions for HP PA-RISC Films * ''Max'' (1994 film), a Canadian film by Charles Wilkinson * ''Max'' (2002 film), a film about Adolf Hitler * ''Max'' (2015 film), an American war drama film Games * '' Dancing Stage Max'', a 2005 game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series * ''DDRM ...
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Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' ( sa, बृहदारण्यक उपनिषद्, ) is one of the Principal Upanishads and one of the first Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. A key scripture to various schools of Hinduism, the ''Brihadaranyaka Upanisad'' is tenth in the Muktikā or "canon of 108 Upanishads". The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' is estimated to have been composed about 7th-6th century BCE, excluding some parts estimated to have been composed after the ''Chandogya Upanishad''. The Sanskrit language text is contained within the ''Shatapatha Brahmana'', which is itself a part of the Shukla Yajur Veda. The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' is a treatise on Ātman (Self), includes passages on metaphysics, ethics and a yearning for knowledge that influenced various Indian religions, ancient and medieval scholars, and attracted secondary works such as those by Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya. Chronology The chronology of ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'', like other Upa ...
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Atman (Hinduism)
Atman or Ātman may refer to: Film * ''Ātman'' (1975 film), a Japanese experimental short film directed by Toshio Matsumoto * ''Atman'' (1997 film), a documentary film directed by Pirjo Honkasalo People * Pavel Atman (born 1987), Russian handball player Religion * ''Ātman'' (Jainism), or ''Jīva'', a philosophical term used within Jainism to identify the soul * ''Ātman'' (Hinduism), meaning "Self", a philosophical concept common to all schools of Hindu philosophy * ''Ātman'' (Buddhism), ''attā'' or ''attan'', a reference to the essential self ** '' Anattā'' or ''anātman'' — "not-self", central concept in Buddhism * '' Atman jnana'' — "knowledge" in the context of Indian philosophy and religions See also * Ataman, a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds * World Soul (other) World Soul may refer to: * Anima mundi, the "world-soul" in Plato and derived traditions in Western philosophy ** ''Weltseele'' "world-soul" in German philosophy, ...
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Bahvricha Upanishad
The ''Bahvricha Upanishad'' ( sa, बह्वृच उपनिषद्, IAST: Bahvṛca Upaniṣad) is a medieval era Sanskrit text and one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. It is classified as one of the eight Shakta Upanishads and attached to the Rigveda. The Upanishad is notable for asserting that the Self (soul, Atman) is a Goddess who alone existed before the creation of the universe. She is the supreme power, asserts the text, she is the ultimate reality (Brahman), from her being and because of her the universe was born, she is the knowledge, the consciousness and the soul ( Atman) of every being. The philosophical premises of ''Bahvricha Upanishad'' assert the feminine as non-different, non-dual (''Advaita'') from transcendent reality, she being the primary and the material cause of all existence, and the text belongs to the ''Shaktadavaitavada'' tradition (literally, the path of nondualistic Shakti). History Neither the author nor the composition date of ''Bahvri ...
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