The Hindus

by Wendy Doniger

  Drona: the Pandavas’ tutor in martial arts in the Mahabharata

  Drupada: father of Draupadi in the Mahabharata dualism: the philosophical view that god and the universe, including the worshiper, are of two different substances

  Durga: “Hard to Get [to],” a goddess

  Dvaita: dualism, a philosophical school, whose most famous proponent was Madhva

  Dvapara Yuga: “The Age of the Deuce,” the third of the degenerating ages

  Dyer, Major Reginald: British officer who gave the command for the massacre at Amritsar

  Ekalavya: tribal (Nishada) prince who cut off his thumb at the request of Arjuna and Drona, in the Mahabharata

  Ellamma: South Indian goddess with the body of a Brahmin woman and the head of a Dalit woman

  Fs, the five: elements of Tantric ritual (fish, flesh, fermented grapes, frumentum, and fornication), see also Ms, the five

  Faxian: Chinese visitor to India in 402 CE

  Gandhari: wife of Dhritarashtra, mother of Duryodhana and his brothers, the enemies of the Pandavas, in the Mahabharata

  Gandharvas : demigods, musicians, associated with fertility and horses; consorts of the Apsarases

  Ganga: the Ganges River

  Gargi: a feisty woman who interrogates sages in the Upanishads

  Garuda: a mythical eagle, the mount of the god Vishnu

  Gayatri: name of a meter; of a particularly holy verse in the Rig Veda; and of a goddess

  Ghasidas : a Chamar who founded a branch of the Satnamis

  Gita: short name of the Bhagavad Gita

  Gonds : a tribal people

  Gondwana: a mythical land thought to have been submerged long, long ago

  Gugga (also spelled Guga): a folk god, said to have been a historical figure; famous for his flying black mare

  guna: “quality,” term for the three strands of matter in Sankhya philosophy

  Guru Nanak: founder of Sikhism, 1469-1539 CE

  Hanuman: the monkey ally of Rama in the Ramayana

  Harappa: ancient city in the Indus Valley, c. 2500 BCE

  Harijan: “People of God” (Hari, Vishnu), Gandhi’s name for the Dalits

  Indra: Veda king of the gods, god of rain, fertility, and war

  Indrani: wife of the Vedic god Indra

  itihasa: “that’s what happened,” history

  Jabali: a Brahmin who argues for atheism in the Ramayana

  Jagannatha: “Lord of the Universe,” the name of a form of Vishnu, especially in a temple in Puri, Orissa

  Jainas : followers of the religion founded by the Jina, in the fifth century BCE

  Jambu-dvipa: “the plum tree continent,” the ancient name for the subcontinent of India

  Janaka: a king of Videha, father of Sita

  Janashruti: a king in the Upanishads

  Jara: “old age”; also the name of a hunter who kills the incarnate god Krishna

  jati: “birth,” caste

  Jina: Vardhamana Mahavira, founder of Jainism

  jizya: tax levied by Muslim rulers on subjects who did not perform military service

  Kabir: a poet, c. 1398-1448 CE, whose teachings bridged Hinduism and Islam

  Kaikeyi: mother of Bharata in the Ramayana, who insisted that Rama be exiled

  Kalamukhas : “Death Heads,” a sect of antinomian Shaivas

  Kali (goddess): “Time” or “Doomsday,” goddess of sex and violence and much more

  Kali Age (Yuga): the fourth and worst of the ages; the present age

  Kalidasa: a Gupta poet, author of Shakuntala

  Kalinga: the ancient name of Orissa

  Kalki: the final avatar of Vishnu, a horse-headed warrior who will kill the barbarians

  Kama-sutra: textbook of pleasure, composed by Vatsyayana, third century CE

  Kamsa: king who devoted his life to the attempt to kill Krishna

  Kannappar: Tamil saint who tore out his eyes for Shiva

  Kanphata: “Pierced-Ear,” name of a sect of yogis

  Kapala-mochana: “The Release of the Skull,” the shrine in Varanasi where the skull of Brahma fell from Shiva’s hand

  Kapalikas : “Skull Bearers,” a sect of Shaivas who imitate Shiva’s wandering with Brahma’s skull

  karma: action, or the fruits of action

  Karna: illegitimate son of Kunti, raised by low-caste Charioteers, in the Mahabharata

  kathenotheism: F. Max Müller’s term for the worship of one supreme god at a time

  Kaula: “belonging to the family [kula],” name of a Tantric sect

  Kausalya: mother of Rama, in the Ramayana

  Kautilya: author of the Artha-shastra

  kavya: poetry

  Khandoba: Maharashtrian god associated with dogs

  kliba: a sexually challenged man

  Krishna: an incarnation of Vishnu, a hero of the Mahabharata who grew up among cowherds

  Krita Yuga: the first, or Winning Age

  Kshatriyas : the class of warriors and kings

  Kshetrayya: a poet, 1622-1673 CE, who wrote poems to Krishna in Telugu

  Kula: “the family,” name for a Tantric sect

  Kumbhakarna: “Pot Ear,” a brother of Ravana, in the Ramayana

  Kundalini: “the encircling,” name of a coiled spinal power energized through Tantric yoga

  Kunti: a wife of Pandu, mother of the Pandavas and of Karna (all fathered by gods), in the Mahabharata

  Kutsa: a son of Indra, in the Brahmanas

  Lakshmana: brother of Rama, in the Ramayana

  Lakshmi: goddess of fortune, wife of Vishnu and of earthly kings

  Lakulisha: “Lord Holding a Club,” founder of the Pashupata sect of Shaivas

  Lanka: a mythical island ruled by the ogre Ravana

  Laukification: the process by which the Sanskritic tradition absorbs popular (laukika [“of the people,” loka]) traditions

  left-hand: sinister or unclean, said by Hindus who think they are the right hand, about other Hindus, particularly certain Tantrics

  Lemuria: mythical supercontinent said to have once connected India and Australia

  linga: “sign,” a sign of sex, particularly the male sexual organ, more particularly the sexual organ of the god Shiva; also regarded as an abstract symbol of Shiva

  Lingayat: a South Indian sect of Shaivas, also known as Virashaivas and Charanas

  Lokayatas : Materialists, also called Charvakas

  Ms, the five: the five elements of Tantric ritual (mansa, matsya, madya, mudra, maithuna). See also Fs, the five

  Madhva: a philosopher, c. 1238-1317 CE, in Karnataka, exponent of the Dvaita (dualist) school

  Madri: a wife of Pandu in the Mahabharata; mother of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva

  Mahabharata: the longer of the two great Sanskrit epics, attributed to the sage Vyasa

  Mahadevi: “the great goddess”

  Mahadevyyakka: twelfth-century CE woman, Virashaiva saint and poet

  Mahisha: “the buffalo,” a buffalo antigod killed by Durga

  Mahisha-mardini: “buffalo crushing,” an epithet of Durga

  maithuna: “pairing,” sexual coupling

  Mallanna: a Maharashtrian god who often takes the form of a dog

  Mandavya: a sage, unjustly impaled on a stake, in the Mahabharata

  Manikkavacakar: nineth-century CE Shaiva poet, author of the Tiruvacakam

  Mankanaka: a sage who danced too much

  mamsa: flesh

  Manu: a mythical sage, author of a dharma text

  Marathas : a people of Maharashtra

  Marathi: language of Maharashtra

  mare Fire (Vadava-agni): submarine fire in the mouth of a mare

  Mariamma: South Indian goddess with the head of a Brahmin woman and the body of a Dalit woman

  Maricha: ogre ally of Ravana, who takes the form of a deer to delude Sita

  Maruts : wind gods

  matt: a Hindu theological school

  Mauryas : a great dynasty, from 324 to 185 BCE

&nb
sp; Meru: the great mountain at the center of the world

  Mimamsa: the philosophy of logic

  Mirabai: Hindi poet and woman saint, devotee of Krishna, 1498-1597 CE

  Mitra: “Friend,” a Vedic god closely linked with Varuna

  mlecchas: barbarians

  Mohenjo-Daro: a great city in the Indus Valley, c. 2500 BCE

  moksha: Release, from the circle of transmigration

  monism: doctrine that the universe is made of one divine substance

  mrigas : wild beasts, in contrast with pashus, domesticated or sacrificial beasts; also a word for deer

  Mrityu: death

  Murukan: South Indian god identified with Skanda

  Muttal Ravuttan: a Muslim horseman, a South Indian Hindu folk hero

  nabob: name given to British rulers of India

  Nachiketas : a boy who goes to the underworld and learns about death, in the Upanishads

  Nakula: one of the twin sons of Madri, fathered by the Ashvins, in the Mahabharata

  Nammalvar (“Our Alvar”): the last of the great Alvars, in the ninth century

  Nanda: name of the cowherd who adopts Krishna, in the Puranas

  Nandas : dynasty that preceded the Mauryas

  Nandin: the bull of the god Shiva, sometimes his doorkeeper or son

  Nantanar: in Tamil myth, a Pariah who went through fire to purify himself because he was not allowed to enter a temple

  Nara-simha: “Man-Lion,” an avatar of Vishnu, savior of Prahlada

  Nasatyas : a name of the Ashvins

  Nastikas : “people who say, ‘It does not exist,’ ” atheists

  nawab : name given to Muslim rulers under the British Raj

  Nayakas : dynasty that ruled much of South India, from Mysore, through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

  Nayanmars : Tamil Shaiva saints (singular is “Nayanar”)

  nir-guna: “without qualities,” the undifferentiated, abstract of the godhead

  nirvana: “the blowing out of a flame,” release from the circle of transmigration

  Nishadas : tribal peoples of ancient India

  nondualism: the philosophical view, expounded by Shankara, that god and the universe are made of one substance

  Nyaya: logic, a philosophical school

  Orientalism: term coined by Edward Said to describe the attitude of Europeans toward “Orientals”

  orthopraxy: an emphasis on “straight behavior” rather than “straight thinking” (orthodoxy)

  Pahlavas : Sanskrit term for Parthians, the people whose empire occupied all of what is now Iran, Iraq, and Armenia

  Pallavas : South Indian dynasty that ruled from Kanchipuram, north of the Cholas, Pandyas, and Cheras, from the fourth through the ninth century CE

  Pandavas : the five sons of Pandu, in the Mahabharata , in order of birth: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva

  pandit: a learned man

  Pandu: father of the Pandavas, born pale, cursed to die if he begot legal sons

  Pandyas : a South Indian dynasty that ruled the eastern part of the southernmost tip of India from the time of Ashoka to well into the sixteenth century

  Panis : enemies of the Vedic people, accused of cattle theft

  papa: evil

  Parashurama: “Rama with an Ax,” an avatar of Vishnu

  Pariah: Tamil word for a particular low caste of drummers, then extended to all the Dalit castes

  Parsis : “Persians,” Zoroastrians

  Parvati: “Daughter of the Mountain,” wife of Shiva

  pasha: the “bond” that ties the individual soul (the pashu [“beast”]) to the god ( pati [“protector”]) in the Shaiva Siddhanta philosophy

  pashu: domesticated or sacrificial beast

  Pashupatas: followers of Shiva Pashupati, “Lord of Beasts,” antinomian and cynical

  Pataliputra: city on the Ganges, the modern Patna

  Periya Purana: a collection of stories about the Tamil Shaiva saints, by Cekkiyar, dated to the reign of the Chola king Kulottunka II, 1133-1150 CE

  pitha: plinth or base of statue, particularly of a deity

  Prahlada: a virtuous demon, saved from his wicked father by Vishnu in the form of the Man-Lion (Nara-simha)

  Prajapati: “Lord of Creatures,” the creator in the Vedas

  Prakrit: “natural,” the actual spoken languages of ancient India, in contrast with Sanskrit

  prakriti: “nature,” more particularly matter in contrast with spirit (in Sankhya philosophy)

  pralaya: dissolution or doomsday

  pratiloma: “against the grain”; more literally, “against the hair,” said in particular of marriages in which the woman is of a higher caste than the man

  Prithivi: “broad,” the earth

  Prithu: the first king, who tamed the earth

  puja: worship, particularly with flowers and fruits, also sometimes with incense and other offerings pukka: “ripe” or “cooked,” perfected

  Pulkasa: name of one of the ancient Dalit castes

  puram: in Sanskrit, a city or citadel; in Tamil, the public emotion, in contrast with akam

  Puranas: compendiums of myth, ritual, and history, originally only in Sanskrit, later also in vernacular languages

  purdah: the seclusion of women, particularly behind screens in a house or palace

  Purohita: a family priest or royal chaplain

  purusha: “male,” the Primeval Man in the Vedas; later, any male animal; in Sankhya philosophy, spirit, self, or person

  purusha-arthas: the three (later four) goals of life for a man

  purva paksha: “first wing,” statement of the opponent’s position at the start of an argument

  Pushyamitra: founder of the Shunga dynasty in 185 BCE

  Putana: a demoness who tried to kill Krishna

  Qualified Nondualism: philosophy taught by Ramanuja, moderating the view that god and the worshiper are of the same substance

  Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli: philosopher, the first president of India, 1888-1975

  Raikva: the first homeless person, in the Upanishads

  Raj: short for rajyam [“kingdom”]; in particular, the British Raj, the British colonization of India

  raja: king

  rajas: emotion or passion, one of the three gunas, or qualities of matter

  rajyam: kingdom

  Rakshasas: ogres, demonic creatures on earth

  Rama: a prince, an avatar of Vishnu, hero of the Ramayana

  Ramanuja: a philosopher, exponent of Qualified Nondualism, from Tamil Nadu, c. 1056-1137 CE

  Ramanujan, Attipat Krishnaswami: poet, linguist, scholar of Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada, 1929-1993

  Ramayana: one of the two great ancient Sanskrit epics, the story of Rama, attributed to the poet Valmiki

  Ram-raj (Hindi), Rama-rajya (Sanskrit): perfect reign of Rama

  Ranke, Leopold von: a positivist German historian, 1795-1886

  Ravana: an ogre (Rakshasa), ruler of the island of Lanka, enemy of Rama in the Ramayana

  Rig Veda: the most ancient sacred text in India, composed c. 1500 BCE

  rishi: a sage

  Rishyashringa: a sage with a horn on his head, son of a sage and a female antelope

  Rudra: “Howler,” a wild Vedic god, later a name of the Hindu god Shiva

  sadharana dharma: religious law that applies to everyone in common. See also dharma

  Sagara: a king whose sons dug out the ocean, which is also called sagara

  sa-guna: “with qualities,” the differentiated, visualized aspect of the godhead

  Sahadeva: one of the twin sons of Madri, fathered by the Ashvins, in the Mahabharata

  sahib: “master,” honorific title given to British rulers in India during the Raj

  Sama Veda: the Veda of hymns arranged for chanting

  samkara: mixture, in particular the mixing together of classes and/or castes

  samnyasa: renunciation

  samsara: the circle of transmigration

>   sanatana dharma: the eternal religious law. See also dharma

  Sankhya: a dualistic philosophy, dating from the time of the Upanishads, that divides the universe into a male purusha (spirit, self, or person) and a female prakriti (matter, nature)

  Sanskrit: the perfected or artificial language called the language of the gods; the language of the texts of ancient India

  Sanskritization: process by which lower castes, imitating Brahmin ways of eating and dressing, raise their status

  Santoshi Ma: goddess first worshiped in the 1960s, now extremely popular, largely as the result of a mythological film, Jai Santoshi Ma

  Sarama: bitch of the god Indra in the Rig Veda, who found stolen cows and brought them back

  Sarasvati River: once a river in the Punjab, dried up long ago

  sati: a good woman, particularly a devoted wife. See also suttee

  Sati: wife of the god Shiva, daughter of Daksha, who committed suicide

  Satnamis: “Path of the True Name,” a sect, founded in the eastern Punjab in 1657, that worships gurus rather than gods

  sattva: “truth, goodness,” one of the three gunas or qualities of matter in Sankhya philosophy

  Satyavati: daughter of a fisherman, mother of Vyasa and other key figures in the Mahabharata

  sepoy (from Turkish sipahi [“soldier”]): native troop serving the British in India

  Shachi: the wife of the god Indra

  Shaiva: pertaining to Shiva; a worshiper of Shiva

  Shakas: Scythians

  shakti: power, particularly female power, more particularly a goddess or the wife of a god

  Shankara: a nondualist philosopher from Kerala, c. 788-820 CE

  Shantanu: husband of Satyavati and of the Ganges River, father of Bhishma, in the Mahabharata

  shastras: texts or textbooks, sciences

  Shatrughna: one of Rama’s three brothers, in the Ramayana

  Shattaris: Sufi sect

  Shiva: the Great God (Mahadeva)

  Shivaji: founder of the kingdom of Maharashtra, leader of resistance against the Mughals, 1630-1680 CE

  Shrirangam: Vaishnava temple, also known as Tiruvarangam, in Trichi (Tiruchirappalli), on the Kaveri River, in Tamil Nadu; the seat of Ramanuja

  Shudras: “servants,” the lowest of the four classes (varnas) of ancient Indian society

  Shunahshepha: boy, in the Brahmanas, whose father tried to sell him to be sacrificed

  Shungas: dynasty that ruled North India from 185 to 73 BCE

  Shurapanakha: ogress (Rakshasi), sister of Ravana, mutilated by Lakshmana, in the Ramayana