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| "What is heard" the sacred literature of the Vedic and Upanshadic periods, recited orally by the brahmin priests for many centuries before being written down. |
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| "What is remembered" a body of ancient Hindu literature, including the epics, Puranas, and law codes, formed after the shruti and passed down in written tradition |
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| A form of personification in which divinity is manifested |
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| An expression of one or more syllables, chanted repeatedly as a focus of concentration in devotion |
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| Bengali contemporary of Surdas. Views have an overtone of the faith-versus-works dialectic that Christians find in Saint Paul--that in the kali yuga, our present degenerate age, humans lack the capacity to fulfill all the requirements of religious action and duty, the only way to liberation is through trusting devotion to a loving and gracious deity. The ultimate goal is the active enjoyment of of his intense spiritual love of Krishna. Said to have led people through the streets singing |
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| One of the most important Sant poets, a Hindu weaver from Varanasi whose life is said to have spanned more than a hundred years. Had insistence that God is beyond the particularities of any religious community (much in common with Punjabi religious leader Nanak). Poems became part of Sikh scripture |
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| Divine consort of Shiva. Wedding to Shiva important part of his tradition |
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| "Birth groups"/"caste" 4 broad varnas, minutely divided jatis (class vs caste). Four principle castes are: brahmins (priests), kshatriyas (rulers/warriors), vaishyas (merchants), and shudras(servants) |
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| In the Puranas, becomes the Vedic goddess of learning. Consort of creator god Brahma (minor deity, NOT Brahman). Enjoys certain autonomy, usually depicted alone, radiant with wisdom, white sari, four hands holding vina, string of beads, manuscript. Term for library named after her. Sometimes source of the devanagari script used for writing sanskrit |
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| elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, most beloved. Seen as a remover of all obstacles and hindrances and no new project of venture begins without offering to him or at least a prayer |
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| Seeing and being seen by the deity in the temple or by a holy teacher; the experience of beholding with faith |
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1. Dharma: one’s own duty & righteousness
2. Artha wealth/power/position
3. Kama desire/passion
4. Moksa liberation from the cycle of samsara |
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| Mother of all creation, bestows wisdom and salvation, grace incarnate. serve as mediator between humans and God in the matter of salvation. Argument as to her equality with Vishnu |
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Creation and destruction-days and nights of Brahma
Manavantaras-secondary cycles of creation and desctruction
Maha yugas-71 great eons
yugs-four eons
Single eon-basic cycle
Gold age-Krta yuga- bull on four legs
Treta- dharma three legs
Dvapara- half of golden age two legs
Kali yuga- worst of all ages, world becomes progressively worse
World becomes progressively worse as moving through time cycles |
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is an archaeological site in Punjab, eastern Pakistan, about 24 km (15 mi) west of Sahiwal. The site of the ancient city contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization, centered in Sindh and the Punjab. The city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents and occupied over 100 hectares (250 acres) at its greatest extent during the Mature Harappan phase (2600–1900 BC), which is considered large for its time.Per archaeological convention of naming a previously unknown civilization by its first excavated site, the Indus Valley Civilization is also called the Harappan Civilization.
The ancient city of Harappa was heavily damaged under the British rule, when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast in the making of the Lahore-Multan Railroad. In 2005, a controversial amusement park scheme at the site was abandoned when builders unearthed many archaeological artifacts during the early stages of construction work. A plea from the prominent Pakistani archaeologist Ahmad Hasan Dani to the Ministry of Culture resulted in a restoration of the site. |
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| Mound of the Dead,an archeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2600 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world's earliest major urban settlements, contemporaneous with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE, and was not rediscovered until 1922. |
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no higher idea than marriage, wife helps husband pay moral and spiritual debts, horoscopes and family backgrounds studied
ceremony must include:
kanya dana-gift of the virgin by father
pani grahana- clasping of hands
sapta padi- taking 7 steps together around fire (eternal witness)
mangalya dharana- giving of auspiciousness to bride
large party, several hours,
ritural: arundhati darshana- the sighting of arundhati- companion to one of the 7 sages (stars) |
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| Ritual household worship of the deity, commonly involving oil lamps, incense, prayers, and food offerings |
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| a conical or cylindrical stone column, sometimes considered phallic, symbolic of the god Shiva |
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| "Nine nights" an autumn festival honouring the goddess |
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| Knowledge; along with action and devotion, one of the three avenues to liberation explained in the Bhagavad Gita |
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| Festival of light in October-November, when lamps are lit |
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| The initiation of a young brahmin boy into ritual responsibility, in which he is given a cord to wear over his left shoulder and a mantra to recite and is sent to beg for food for the day |
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| A member of the third or mercantile class in the ancient fourfold class structure |
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| A practice and discipline that may involve a philosophical system and mental concentration as well as physical postures and exercises |
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| A syllable chanted in meditation, interpreted as representing ultimate reality, or the universe or the relationship of the devotee to the deity |
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| A gift from the deity, especially food that has been presented to the god's temple image, blessed and returned to the devotee |
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| A "descent" or incarnation of a deity in earthly form |
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| A member of the warrior class in ancient Hindu society |
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| A member of the lowest of the four major classes, usually translated as "servant" though some groups within the shudra class could be quite prosperous |
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| Loving devotion to a deity seen as a gracious being who enters the world for the benefit of humans |
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| The self-sacrifice of a widow who throws herself onto her deceased husband's funeral pyre |
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| A religious ascetic; one who has reached the fourth of the classical stages of life for hindu males after student, householder, and forest-dweller. |
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| Twelve devotional poets in South India whose works are central to the bhakti tradition |
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| An esoteric school outside the Vedic and brahminical tradition, which emerged around the fifth century and centered on a number of controversial ritual practices, some of them sexual |
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