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Vishnu Purana
The Vishnu Purana () is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manuscripts of ''Vishnu Purana'' have survived into the modern era in many versions. More than any other major Purana, the ''Vishnu Purana'' presents its contents in ''Pancalaksana'' format – ''Sarga'' (cosmogony), ''Pratisarga'' (cosmology), ''Vamsa'' (genealogy of the gods and goddesses, sages and kings and queens), ''Manvantara'' (cosmic cycles), and ''Vamsanucarita'' (legends during the times of various kings and queens). Some manuscripts of the text are notable for not including sections found in other major Puranas, such as those on ''Mahatmyas'' and tour guides on pilgrimage, but some versions include chapters on temples and travel guides to sacred pilgrimage sites. The text is also notable as the earliest Purana to have been translated and published in 1840 CE by HH Wilson, based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vyasa
Vyasa (; , ) or Veda Vyasa (, ), also known as Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa (, ''Vedavyāsa''), is a ''rishi'' (sage) with a prominent role in most Hindu traditions. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the epic Mahabharata, Mahābhārata, where he also plays a prominent role as a character. He is also regarded by the Hindu traditions to be the compiler of the mantras of the Vedas into four texts, as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas, Purāṇas and the Brahma Sutras. Vyasa is regarded by many Hindus as a Avatar, partial incarnation (, ) of Vishnu. He is one of the immortals called the Chiranjivis, held by adherents to still be alive in the current age known as the Kali Yuga. Name "Vyasa" (Vyāsa) means "compiler" or "arranger and also "separation" or "division."Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit''Vyasa''/ref> Other meanings include "split," "differentiate," or "describe." It is also a title, given to "a holy sage or a pious learned man," and is app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vedas
FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu texts, scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions), the Brahmanas (commentaries on and explanation of rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices – Yajñas), the Aranyakas (text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices), and the Upanishads (texts discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge).Gavin Flood (1996), ''An Introduction to Hinduism'', Cambridge University Press, , pp. 35–39A Bhattacharya (2006), ''Hindu Dharma: Introduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the world". In 1731, German philosopher Christian Wolff used the term cosmology in Latin (''cosmologia'') to denote a branch of metaphysics that deals with the general nature of the physical world. Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy, cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe. Physical cosmology is the study of the observable universe's origin, its large-scale structures and dynamics, and the ultimate fate of the universe, including the laws of science that govern these areas. It is investigated by scientists, including astronomers and physicists, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmogony
Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in reference to the origin of the universe, the Solar System, or the Earth–Moon system. The prevalent physical cosmology, cosmological scientific theory, model of the early development of the universe is the Big Bang theory. Sean M. Carroll, who specializes in Physical cosmology, theoretical cosmology and Field (physics), field theory, explains two competing explanations for the origins of the Gravitational singularity, singularity, which is the center of a space in which a characteristic is limitless (one example is the singularity of a black hole, where gravity is the characteristic that becomes infinite). It is generally accepted that the universe began at a point of singularity. When the universe started to expand, the Big Bang occurred, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludo Rocher
Ludo Rocher (1926–2016) was an eminent Sanskrit scholar, and the W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Biography Ludo Rocher was born in Hemiksem in the province of Antwerp, Belgium on 25 April 1926. He became a U.S. citizen in 1972. Rocher received his MA (summa cum laude) in Classics with a minor in Sanskrit in 1948 from the University of Ghent. Subsequently, he was awarded two doctorates by the same university – a JD ( Juris Doctor) in 1950 and a PhD (also summa cum laude) in 1952. His principal teacher at the university was Adriaan Scharpé. He also studied ''Veda'' with Jan Gonda at the University of Utrecht, as well as ''Mīmāṃsā'', ''Nyāya'', and ''Vyākaraṇa'' privately with Barend Faddegon, then Emeritus Professor of the University of Amsterdam. He spent a post-doctoral semester at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he studied Sanskrit with C.A. Rylands, Hindi with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palm-leaf Manuscript
Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and spread to other regions, as texts on dried and smoke-treated palm leaves of the Palmyra or talipot palm. Their use continued until the 19th century when printing presses replaced hand-written manuscripts. One of the oldest surviving palm leaf manuscripts of a complete treatise is a Sanskrit Shaivism text from the 9th century, discovered in Nepal, and now preserved at the Cambridge University Library.Pārameśvaratantra (MS Add.1049.1) with images , Puṣkarapārameśvaratantra, University of Cambridge (2015) The [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brihada Vishnu Purana
Brihada Vishnu Purana (Sanskrit: बृहद विष्णु पुराण) also known as ''Brihat Vishnu Purana'' ( Romanised: ''Bṛhat Viṣṇu Purāṇa'') or ''Vrihadda Vishnu Purana'' is a Sanskrit religious text in the tradition of Hinduism dedicated to the Lord Vishnu. Etymology The word "''Brihada''" or romanised form "''Bṛhat''" is an adjective which means large or great. Thus the literal meaning of the text "''Brihada Vishnu Purana''" or "''Bṛhat Viṣṇu Purāṇa''" is "''Larger Vishnu Purana''". Description In the text Brihada Vishnu Purana, the Vedic sage Parashara is the Guru as well as speaker of the text and the sage Maitreya is the disciple as well as the listener of the text. It is said that the original text of the ''Brihada Vishnu Purana'' has been lost. The information about the Brihada Vishnu Purana is found from the references of the other Hindu texts available. According to the author ''Dharmanath Sharma'' of the text ''Brihadvishnupuranie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include '' The Hindus: An Alternative History''; ''Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva''; ''Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook''; ''The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology''; ''Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts''; and ''The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit''. She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has taught there since 1978. In 1998 she served as president of the Association for Asian Studies . Biography Wendy Doniger was born in New York City to immigrant non-observant Jewish parents, and raised in Great Neck, New York, where her father, Lester L. Doniger (1909–1971), ran a publishing business. While in high school, she studied dance under George Balan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moriz Winternitz
Moriz Winternitz ( Horn, December 23, 1863 – Prague, January 9, 1937) was a scholar from Austria who began his Indology contributions working with Max Müller at the Oxford University. An eminent Sanskrit scholar, he worked as a professor in Prague in the German part of Charles-Ferdinand University after 1902, for nearly thirty years.Isidore Singer and Cyrus Adler, , Volume XIIArticle on Winternitz, Moriz/ref> His ''Geschichte der indischen Literatur'', published 1908–1922, offered a comprehensive literary history of Sanskrit texts. The contributions on a wide range of Sanskrit texts by Winternitz have been an influential resource for modern era studies on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Education An Austrian Orientalist, he received his earliest education in the gymnasium of his native town, and in 1880 entered the University of Vienna, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1886. In 1888 he went to Oxford, where until 1892 he assisted the preparation of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya
Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya (18 October 1861– 20 April 1938) was a Marathi-language historian and writer from Bombay Presidency, British India. He was Chief Justice of Gwalior State for a period. He was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. In 1908, Vaidya chaired the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Pune. Later, he became involved in the nationalist Congress Democratic Party, which was led by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Works The following is a list of the titles of his major works: * Samagra Awalonnati Lekhamālā (1906) * Mahābhārat — Samālochan (1914) * Mahābhārat — A Criticism * Nibandha Aṇi Bhāshaṇẽ (1915) * Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇ Parīkshaṇ (1920) * Madhyayugīn Bhārat, Athawā, Hindu Rājyāñchā Udbhav, Utkarsh, Aṇi Uchchhed (1920) * History of Mediaeval Hindu India, Being a History of India From 600 to 1200 A.D. (in three volumes) (Poona: Oriental Book Supplying Agency, 1921–1926) * Downfall of Hindu India * Shrī Kru̥shṇa Charitra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Arthur Smith
Vincent Arthur Smith (3 June 1843 – 6 February 1920) was an Irish Indologist, historian, member of the Indian Civil Service, and curator. He was one of the prominent figures in Indian historiography during the British Raj. In the 1890s, he was key to exposing the forgeries of Alois Anton Führer, then working for the Archaeological Survey of India, who Smith caught in the act of making fake inscriptions. Biography Smith was born in Dublin on 3 June 1843 which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. His father was Aquilla Smith, well known in medical and numismatic circles in Dublin and London. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, he passed the final examination for the Indian Civil Service in 1871, at "the head of the list", and served in what is now Uttar Pradesh until 1900, in the regular ICS roles, rising to the post of Chief Secretary to the government in 1898, becoming a Commissioner the same year. Throughout this period he was a proli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace Hayman Wilson
Horace Hayman Wilson (26 September 1786 – 8 May 1860) was an English orientalist who was elected the first Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University. Life He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, and went out to India in 1808 as assistant-surgeon on the Bengal establishment of the British East India Company. His knowledge of metallurgy caused him to be attached to the mint at Calcutta, where he was for a time associated with John Leyden. He acted for many years as secretary to the committee of public instruction, and superintended the studies of the Sanskrit College in Calcutta. He was one of the staunchest opponents of the proposal that English should be made the sole medium of instruction in native schools, and became for a time the object of bitter attacks. In 1832 Oxford University selected Wilson to be the first occupant of the newly founded Boden chair of Sanskrit: he had placed a column length advertisement in ''The Times'' on 6 March 1832 p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
