Classical
c. 200 BCE – 600 CE
Sātavāhanas, Kuṣāṇas and Guptas — Sanskrit letters, temple form and long-distance trade.
485 entries
- AbhijnanashakuntalamA Sanskrit play in seven acts by the poet Kalidasa, dramatizing the courtship, separation, an…
- Ābhīra dynastyThe Ābhīras were a people of the northern Deccan who established a dynasty in the third centu…
- Adi ParashaktiThe primordial supreme power;
- Adi ShaktiIn Shakta Hindu theology, the primordial feminine power held to be the source, sustaining for…
- AgastyaAgastya is a rishi credited with authorship of Vedic hymns, with bringing Vedic and Tamil lea…
- AgniFire;
- The agni-parīkṣāThe agni-parīkṣā is the passage in the Rāmāyaṇa in which Rāma, after winning the war, repudia…
- ĀgreyaĀgreya was a people of what is now Haryana, attested by coins found at the mound of Agroha, a…
- AhalyāAhalyā is the wife of the sage Gautama in the Rāmāyaṇa, seduced by Indra in her husband's for…
- AhimsaAhimsa is the principle of non-harm to living beings, central to Jain ethics and important in…
- AiravataAiravata is the divine white elephant that carries Indra, king of the Vedic gods, and ranks a…
- AiravataThe white four-tusked elephant;
- AkampanaAkampana is the rākṣasa in the Rāmāyaṇa who escaped the destruction of Janasthāna and first p…
- AlakāAlakā is the city of Kubera, lord of wealth, in the Rāmāyaṇa — the seat he withdrew to on Mou…
- Alchon HunsThe Alchon Huns were a Central Asian people who invaded northwestern India from the late four…
- AlupasThe Alupas ruled the Tulu-speaking coast of Karnataka for a thousand years as feudatories of…
- AmbikaThe Mother;
- Ānanda Gotrika dynastyThe Ānanda Gotrikas were a dynasty of the Guntur country in the fourth and fifth centuries CE…
- AnantaGuardian of the nadir;
- Ancient universities of IndiaAncient India's centers of higher learning ranged from large residential monastic universitie…
- Andhra Ikṣvāku dynastyThe Andhra Ikṣvākus were the dynasty that succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the lower Krishna vall…
- AṅgadaAṅgada is the son of Vālī and Tārā in the Rāmāyaṇa, made crown prince of Kiṣkindhā at his fat…
- AnnapurnaGoddess of food and nourishment, who fed even Shiva.
- The anuṣṭubh and the first verseThe anuṣṭubh or śloka is the thirty-two-syllable verse in which the Rāmāyaṇa is composed, and…
- ApsarasApsaras are celestial female beings of Hindu and Buddhist mythology, renowned as divine dance…
- Araṇya KāṇḍaThe Araṇya Kāṇḍa is the third book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering the years in the Daṇḍaka forest,…
- ArdhanarishvaraHalf Shiva, half Parvati;
- ĀrjunāyanaThe Ārjunāyanas were a corporate people of eastern Rajasthan, known from copper coins bearing…
- ArundhatiWife of Vasiṣṭha;
- AryabhataAryabhata (476 CE – c.
- The ascetic's sonThe ascetic's son is the youth in the Rāmāyaṇa whom the young Daśaratha killed by shooting at…
- AshokasundariDaughter of Shiva and Parvati in Purāṇic lore.
- AshvinsTwin horsemen;
- The aśoka groveThe aśoka grove is the garden in Laṅkā where Sītā was held for a year in the Rāmāyaṇa, guarde…
- Astika and nastikaAstika and nastika are the terms by which Indian philosophical schools were sorted into ortho…
- The astrasThe astras of the Rāmāyaṇa are weapons belonging to particular gods, invoked and recalled by…
- The aśvamedha and the singing of the poemAt Rāma's horse sacrifice in the Rāmāyaṇa's last book, two boys raised at Vālmīki's hermitage…
- AtikāyaAtikāya is the colossal son of Rāvaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa, armoured by Brahmā and schooled in the…
- Atri and AnasūyāAtri and Anasūyā are the aged sage and his wife in the Rāmāyaṇa who received the exiles at th…
- AudumbaraThe Audumbaras were a people of the Punjab hill country between the Ravi and the Beas, known…
- Aulikara dynastyThe Aulikaras ruled western Malwa from Daśapura and produced Yaśodharman, the king whose vict…
- Āy dynastyThe Āys were a dynasty of the far south of Kerala, beginning as Sangam-age hill chieftains an…
- AyodhyāAyodhyā is the capital of Kosala and the city of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, on the river Sarayū, d…
- Ayodhyā KāṇḍaThe Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa is the second book of the Rāmāyaṇa, in which Kaikeyī's two boons send Rāma…
- AyyappaBorn of Shiva and Mohini;
- Bāla KāṇḍaThe Bāla Kāṇḍa is the first book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering Rāma's birth, his first expedition…
- BalaramaKrishna’s elder brother;
- Bāṇa kingdomThe Bāṇas were a long-lived feudatory dynasty of the country where Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and…
- BanasuraThe thousand-armed demon-devotee of Shiva.
- The banishment of SītāThe banishment of Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa's seventh book is Rāma's decision, on hearing that his…
- Bhagavad GitaThe Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse Sanskrit dialogue between the warrior prince Arjuna and the…
- BhairavaThe terrifying guardian of sacred sites;
- BhandasuraThe demon born of ashes, destroyed by Lalitā.
- BharadvājaBharadvāja is the sage of Prayāga in the Rāmāyaṇa, who received the exiles at the confluence…
- BharataBharata is Rāma's younger brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, whose mother Kaikeyī won him the throne an…
- Bharata and the sandalsBharata's taking of Rāma's sandals in the Rāmāyaṇa, after failing to bring his brother home f…
- BhavaniThe life-giving goddess;
- BhikshatanaThe naked wandering mendicant form.
- BhudeviThe Earth goddess;
- BhuvaneshwariQueen and mother of the manifest universe.
- Boons and curses in the RāmāyaṇaBoons and curses are the machinery of the Rāmāyaṇa's plot: a promise that cannot be revoked,…
- BrahmaBrahma is the creator deity of the Hindu Trimurti, traditionally depicted with four heads rep…
- BrahmachariniBrahmacharini is the second of the Navadurga, the nine forms of the goddess Durga worshipped…
- BrahmaniPower of Brahma;
- The breaking of Śiva's bowThe breaking of Śiva's bow at Mithilā is the episode in the Rāmāyaṇa by which Rāma wins Sītā,…
- Bṛhatphalāyana dynastyThe Bṛhatphalāyanas were a short-lived dynasty of the Andhra coast in the late third century…
- BrihaspatiPreceptor of the gods;
- BuddhaCounted as an avatar in many lists (Balarāma replaces him in others).
- Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of AfghanistanThe Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Afghanistan were a succession of polities in Gandhara, Bac…
- BudhaMercury;
- The building of the bridgeThe building of the causeway to Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa follows Rāma's three-day appeal to the…
- The burning of LaṅkāThe burning of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa is Hanumān's exit from the city — allowing himself to be…
- ChamundaChamunda is a fierce form of the Hindu goddess Durga, described in the Devi Mahatmya as emerg…
- ChandiThe fierce goddess of the Devī Māhātmya.
- ChandraThe Moon;
- ChandraghantaChandraghanta is the third of the Navadurga, the nine forms of the goddess Durga invoked on s…
- Chandragupta IIChandragupta II, also known by the epithet Vikramaditya, was a Gupta emperor who ruled north…
- ChhayaChhaya (Chāyā, "shadow") is a goddess in Hindu mythology, the shadow-substitute wife of the s…
- ChitraguptaThe scribe of Yama who records every deed of every soul.
- CitrakūṭaCitrakūṭa is the hill in the Rāmāyaṇa where the exiles settled first, where Daśaratha's death…
- Cuṭu dynastyThe Cuṭus were a dynasty of northern Karnataka centred on Banavāsi who ruled the southwestern…
- DadhimukhaDadhimukha is the keeper of Sugrīva's honey grove in the Rāmāyaṇa, whose complaint that the r…
- DakshinamurtiThe silent guru facing south;
- The Daṇḍaka forestThe Daṇḍaka is the great forest south of the Vindhyas in the Rāmāyaṇa, where the exiles spent…
- DaśarathaDaśaratha is the king of Ayodhyā and father of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, destroyed by two boons h…
- DashavataraDashavatara ("ten avatars") is the standard Vaishnava list of Vishnu's ten principal incarnat…
- Dating the RāmāyaṇaThe Rāmāyaṇa has no securely fixed date;
- DattatreyaCombined avatar of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva;
- The death of DaśarathaDaśaratha dies of grief in the Rāmāyaṇa on the sixth night after Rāma's departure, understand…
- DevasThe shining gods as a class;
- Devi, devata, Brahman and yajnaDevi, deva/devata, Bhagavan, Ishvara, Brahman, and Atman are core Sanskrit terms in Hindu the…
- Devi MahatmyaThe Devi Mahatmya is a Sanskrit text of roughly 700 verses embedded in the Markandeya Purana,…
- DhanvantariPhysician of the gods;
- Dharma-saṅkaṭa in the RāmāyaṇaDharma-saṅkaṭa is a conflict of obligations with no clean exit, and the Rāmāyaṇa is largely b…
- DhūmrākṣaDhūmrākṣa is the rākṣasa general in the Rāmāyaṇa sent out through the western gate of Laṅkā u…
- DraupadiQueen of the Pāṇḍavas;
- DurgaThe invincible warrior-goddess, lion-riding, wielder of every divine weapon.
- DūṣaṇaDūṣaṇa is the marshal of Khara's forces at Janasthāna in the Rāmāyaṇa, killed with the whole…
- DwarkadhishKrishna as king of Dwārka.
- Early CherasThe early Cheras ruled the Malabar coast and the western Tamil country in the Sangam age, and…
- Early CholasThe early Cholas were one of the three crowned dynasties of the Tamil country in the Sangam a…
- Eastern Ganga dynastyThe Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga for nearly a thousand years, and under them the Jagannātha t…
- The exile of RāmaThe exile of Rāma is the departure of the prince, his wife and his brother from Ayodhyā for f…
- The fall of IndraThe fall of Indra is a Puranic myth, told most fully in the Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Puran…
- The fourteen yearsThe fourteen years of Rāma's exile in the Rāmāyaṇa are counted exactly by everyone in the poe…
- GanasThe dwarfish, motley attendants of Shiva, led by Gaṇeśa.
- GandharaGandhara was an ancient region centred on the Peshawar Valley, Swat Valley, and Taxila in pre…
- GandharvasGandharvas are a class of male celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist tradition associated ch…
- GaneshaElephant-headed remover of obstacles;
- GangaThe Ganges;
- GangadharaBearer of the river Gaṅgā in his matted locks.
- GarudaThe divine eagle;
- GauriThe radiant, golden form of Parvati.
- Gautama MaharṣiGautama is the sage of the Rāmāyaṇa whose curse condemned his wife Ahalyā to live unseen and…
- The geography of the RāmāyaṇaThe Rāmāyaṇa's landscape is precise in the north and schematic in the south, and the pattern…
- GodavariThe “Ganges of the South”;
- The golden deer and the abductionThe golden deer is the disguise in the Rāmāyaṇa by which the rākṣasa Mārīca drew Rāma away fr…
- GopalaKrishna the cowherd;
- GuhaGuha is the Niṣāda chief of Śṛṅgaverapura in the Rāmāyaṇa, a hunter-fisher king who was alrea…
- Gupta EmpireThe Gupta Empire was a dynasty that ruled much of northern and central India from the early f…
- GuruvayurappaThe child-Krishna form enshrined at Guruvayur.
- HamsaThe swan avatar who imparted supreme knowledge to the sages.
- HanumānHanumān is the vānara minister of Sugrīva in the Rāmāyaṇa who leaps the ocean to find Sītā in…
- Hanumān and the invention of bhaktiHanumān's service to Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa became the model on which North Indian devotion bui…
- Hanumān's leap to LaṅkāHanumān's leap across a hundred yojanas of ocean to Laṅkā opens the fifth book of the Rāmāyaṇ…
- HayagrivaHorse-headed restorer of the stolen Vedas;
- Hindu civilization in IndonesiaThe Hindu–Buddhist civilization that shaped the Indonesian archipelago from roughly the 4th t…
- Hindu temple architectureThe architectural tradition of Hindu temple building on the Indian subcontinent, spanning the…
- HinduismHinduism is the world's oldest continuously practiced major religious tradition and the domin…
- HiranyakashipuThe invincible tyrant slain by Narasiṃha.
- HiranyakshaWho dragged the earth into the sea;
- The Ikṣvāku lineThe Ikṣvākus are the solar dynasty of the Rāmāyaṇa, ruling Kosala from Ayodhyā, whose genealo…
- IndosphereThe Indosphere is the vast zone of cultural, religious, linguistic, and artistic influence ra…
- IndrajitIndrajit is Rāvaṇa's eldest son in the Rāmāyaṇa, who defeated Indra and took his name from it…
- IndraniPower of Indra;
- IshanaGuardian of the Northeast;
- Jagannath“Lord of the Universe”;
- JalandharaThe mighty asura born of Shiva’s wrath.
- JāmbavānJāmbavān is the ancient king of the bears in the Rāmāyaṇa, the oldest of Rāma's allies, who r…
- JanakaJanaka is the king of Videha and the father of Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, who found her as an infa…
- JanasthānaJanasthāna is the district of the Daṇḍaka forest in the Rāmāyaṇa held by the rākṣasa commande…
- JaṭāyuJaṭāyu is the aged vulture king in the Rāmāyaṇa, an old friend of Daśaratha, who attacked Rāv…
- JyotishaJyotisha is the traditional Indian science of astronomy and astrology, one of the six Vedanga…
- KabandhaKabandha is the headless, one-eyed, long-armed creature of the Rāmāyaṇa who seizes both broth…
- Kadamba dynastyThe Kadambas of Banavāsi were the first indigenous dynasty of Karnataka, founded in the fourt…
- KaikasīKaikasī is the rākṣasī mother of Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa, Śūrpaṇakhā and Vibhīṣaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇ…
- KaikeyīKaikeyī is the second queen of Daśaratha in the Rāmāyaṇa, the wife he loved best, who called…
- Kaikeyī's two boonsKaikeyī's two boons are the demand in the Rāmāyaṇa that sets the whole story in motion — that…
- Kalachuris of MāhiṣmatīThe early Kalachuris ruled the Narmada valley and the northern Deccan in the sixth and early…
- KalaratriKalaratri is the seventh of the nine forms of Durga worshipped during Navaratri, a fierce asp…
- KaliThe dark, fierce goddess of time;
- KalidasaKalidasa was a classical Sanskrit poet and dramatist, traditionally placed in the 4th–5th cen…
- KalkiThe future avatar on a white horse, to end the Kali age.
- KamadevaThe god of love, who looses flower-arrows of desire.
- KamadhenuThe wish-fulfilling cow, mother of all cattle.
- KamakshiThe goddess of Kanchipuram, eyes full of desire and grace.
- Kāṇva dynastyThe Kāṇvas were a short-lived brahmin dynasty that displaced the Śuṅgas in Magadha in the fir…
- KanyakumariThe virgin goddess at India’s southern tip.
- KapilaSage-avatar;
- KartikeyaKartikeya, also known as Skanda, Murugan, and Subrahmanya, is the Hindu god of war and comman…
- KashmirKashmir is a Himalayan valley in the northwestern subcontinent whose early history encompasse…
- KatyayaniKatyayani is a warrior form of the Hindu goddess Durga, worshipped on the sixth day (Shashthi…
- KaumariPower of Kārttikeya;
- KausalyāKausalyā is the senior queen of Daśaratha and the mother of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, whose posit…
- KaveriLife-giving river-goddess of the Tamil country.
- KekayaKekaya is the north-western kingdom of the Rāmāyaṇa from which Kaikeyī came, and where Bharat…
- Kesarī and AñjanāKesarī and Añjanā are the parents of Hanumān in the Rāmāyaṇa — a vānara chieftain and an apsa…
- KetuThe severed tail;
- KharaKhara is the rākṣasa commander of Janasthāna in the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāvaṇa's kinsman, whose army of…
- The killing of VālīRāma's killing of the vānara king Vālī from behind cover, during a wrestling match with his b…
- KinnarasHalf-human, half-bird celestial musicians.
- Kirāta dynastyThe Kirātas are the dynasty Nepali tradition places before the Licchavis in the Kathmandu val…
- KiṣkindhāKiṣkindhā is the vānara kingdom of the Rāmāyaṇa, ruled by Vālī and then by Sugrīva, where Rām…
- Kiṣkindhā KāṇḍaThe Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍa is the fourth book of the Rāmāyaṇa, in which Rāma allies with the exiled…
- KosalaKosala is the kingdom of the Ikṣvāku line in the Rāmāyaṇa, ruled from Ayodhyā on the Sarayū,…
- KrishnaKrishna is a central deity of Hinduism, worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and, in man…
- Krishna JanmabhoomiKrishna Janmabhoomi is a temple complex in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, venerated as Krishna's bir…
- KuberaGuardian of the North;
- KulluKullu was a kingdom of the upper Beas valley whose rajas ceded sovereignty to the god Raghuna…
- KulūtaKulūta was a small hill state of the upper Beas valley, attested by a coinage naming its rule…
- Kumaragupta IKumaragupta I (r.
- KumbhakarṇaKumbhakarṇa is Rāvaṇa's giant brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, cursed to sleep for half the year, who…
- KuṇindaThe Kuṇindas were a hill people of the Himalayan foothills between the Yamuna and the Sutlej,…
- KurmaThe tortoise;
- KuśadhvajaKuśadhvaja is Janaka's younger brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, ruler of Sāṅkāśyā, whose two daughter…
- Kuśāvatī and ŚrāvastīKuśāvatī and Śrāvastī are the cities in the Rāmāyaṇa's last book where Rāma installed his son…
- KushmandaKushmanda is the fourth of the Navadurga, the nine forms of the goddess Durga worshipped acro…
- LakshmiGoddess of fortune, wealth and beauty;
- LakṣmaṇaLakṣmaṇa is Rāma's younger brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, who follows him into exile and serves fou…
- Lalita TripurasundariThe beautiful supreme goddess of Śrī Vidyā and the Śrī Yantra.
- LaṅkāLaṅkā is Rāvaṇa's island city in the Rāmāyaṇa, taken from his half-brother Kubera, burned by…
- Later GuptasThe Later Guptas were a dynasty that ruled Magadha and at times Malwa from the late fifth to…
- Lava and KuśaLava and Kuśa are the twin sons of Rāma and Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, born at Vālmīki's hermitage…
- Licchavi dynasty of NepalThe Licchavis ruled the Kathmandu valley from about 400 to 750 CE, the first historically doc…
- LingamThe aniconic pillar;
- LingodbhavaThe infinite pillar of fire whose ends the gods could not find.
- MahabaliThe virtuous demon-king sent to the underworld;
- MahabharataThe Mahabharata is a Sanskrit epic of ancient India, traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa…
- MahadevaThe Great God;
- MahagauriMahagauri is the eighth of the Navadurga, the nine forms of the goddess Durga worshipped on s…
- MahakalaGreat Time and Death;
- MahasthangarhMahasthangarh is the earliest known city in Bengal, a fortified site on the Karatoya in north…
- MaheshvariPower of Shiva;
- MahishasuraThe buffalo-demon slain by Durga.
- MahishasuramardiniDurga as slayer of the buffalo-demon Mahiṣāsura.
- MahodaraMahodara is the courtier-general of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa who answered Kumbhakarṇa's blunt wa…
- Mainda and DvividaMainda and Dvivida are the vānara brothers of the Rāmāyaṇa, sons of the Aśvins, counted among…
- Maitraka dynastyThe Maitrakas ruled Saurashtra and Gujarat for three centuries from Vallabhī, a city whose Bu…
- MālavaThe Mālavas were a people who fought Alexander in the Punjab, migrated southeast into Rajasth…
- Māṇḍavī and ŚrutakīrtiMāṇḍavī and Śrutakīrti are the daughters of Kuśadhvaja in the Rāmāyaṇa, cousins of Sītā, marr…
- MandodarīMandodarī is the chief queen of Rāvaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa and the mother of Indrajit, whose lame…
- MangalaMars;
- ManipurManipur was ruled by the Ningthouja dynasty from the Kangla at Imphal, and its court chronicl…
- MantharāMantharā is the hunchbacked maidservant of Kaikeyī in the Rāmāyaṇa who persuades her mistress…
- MārīcaMārīca is the rākṣasa in the Rāmāyaṇa who took the form of the golden deer that drew Rāma awa…
- Maryāda-puruṣottamaMaryāda-puruṣottama — the supreme person who keeps within limits — is the epithet by which Rā…
- MātaliMātali is Indra's charioteer in the Rāmāyaṇa, sent down with the god's own chariot so that Rā…
- Māṭhara dynastyThe Māṭharas ruled Kalinga in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the first dynasty after the…
- MathuraMathura is an ancient city on the Yamuna River in western Uttar Pradesh, revered in Hindu tra…
- MatsyaThe fish;
- Maukhari dynastyThe Maukharis ruled from Kannauj in the sixth century CE, made it the leading city of norther…
- MeenakshiThe fish-eyed warrior-queen goddess of Madurai.
- MenakaApsara sent to break the penance of Viśvāmitra.
- The Mitra dynastiesThe Mitra dynasties were local ruling houses of the Ganga–Yamuna country between the Mauryas…
- MohiniVishnu’s female form;
- Mount MahendraMount Mahendra is the peak in the Rāmāyaṇa from which Hanumān launched himself across the oce…
- MrikanduMrikandu (Mṛkaṇḍu) is a sage of Puranic Hindu tradition, known principally as the father of t…
- Mūṣika dynastyThe Mūṣikas ruled north Malabar from Ezhimala from the Sangam age onward, and are the subject…
- The mutilation of ŚūrpaṇakhāThe mutilation of Śūrpaṇakhā at Pañcavaṭī in the Rāmāyaṇa — her nose and ears cut off by Lakṣ…
- NagasNagas are serpent deities and semi-divine beings in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, wors…
- Nāgas of PadmāvatīThe Nāgas of Padmāvatī were a dynasty of central India in the third and fourth centuries CE,…
- NalaNala is the vānara engineer in the Rāmāyaṇa, a son of the divine architect Viśvakarman, who b…
- Nala dynastyThe Nalas ruled the forested country of Bastar and Koraput in the fifth and sixth centuries C…
- NandiThe bull;
- NandigrāmaNandigrāma is the village outside Ayodhyā in the Rāmāyaṇa from which Bharata governed Kosala…
- NarakasuraThe demon of Prāgjyotiṣa slain by Krishna.
- Nara-NarayanaThe twin sages;
- Narāntaka and DevāntakaNarāntaka and Devāntaka are sons of Rāvaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa who fought in the great sortie aft…
- NarasimhaThe man-lion;
- NarayanaThe cosmic Vishnu reclining on the causal waters, source of all.
- NarmadaThe self-born river of central India, holy to Shiva.
- NatarajaLord of the cosmic dance (tāṇḍava), dancing creation and destruction.
- NatyashastraThe Natyashastra is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on dramaturgy, dance, and music attributed t…
- NavadurgaNavadurga are the nine forms of the goddess Durga worshipped across the nine nights of Navara…
- NīlaNīla is the commander-in-chief of the vānara army in the Rāmāyaṇa, a son of the fire god, who…
- NilakanthaThe blue-throated one, who held the world-poison in his throat.
- NirritiGuardian of the Southwest;
- The Northern SatrapsThe Northern Satraps were Śaka governors who ruled at Mathurā in the first centuries BCE and…
- PadmanabhaThe lotus-naveled reclining Vishnu of Thiruvananthapuram.
- Pallava dynastyThe Pallavas ruled the northern Tamil country from Kāñcīpuram for six centuries, fought the C…
- PañcavaṭīPañcavaṭī is the place on the Godāvarī in the Rāmāyaṇa where the exiles built their hut on Ag…
- Pancha BhutaThe Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, are the fou…
- ParashuramaThe axe-wielding warrior-sage who humbled the unrighteous kings.
- Parivrājaka and Uccakalpa mahārājasThe Parivrājakas and the mahārājas of Uccakalpa were two feudatory houses of central India in…
- Partha-sarathiKrishna as Arjuna’s charioteer at Kurukṣetra.
- ParvatiGoddess of power and devotion;
- PashupatiLord of animals and all souls;
- PinākaPināka is the bow of Śiva in the Rāmāyaṇa, kept by the kings of Videha, which no suitor could…
- PitrsThe deified ancestors, honoured in the śrāddha rites.
- PrāgjyotiṣaPrāgjyotiṣa is the name the epics give to the kingdom of the Brahmaputra valley, ruled by Nar…
- PrahastaPrahasta is Rāvaṇa's chief minister and commander-in-chief in the Rāmāyaṇa, held back until t…
- PrahladaThe demon-prince and supreme devotee of Vishnu.
- PrayāgaPrayāga is the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā in the Rāmāyaṇa, where the sage Bharadv…
- PrithuThe first sovereign king, who “milked” the earth to abundance.
- PuranasThe Puranas are a body of Sanskrit smriti literature — eighteen major texts and numerous mino…
- PushkalavatiPushkalavati, at modern Charsadda in Pakistan, was the earliest capital of the Gandhara regio…
- The Puṣpaka vimānaThe Puṣpaka is the flying chariot of the Rāmāyaṇa, made for Kubera and seized by Rāvaṇa, whic…
- RadhaKrishna’s beloved;
- Radha-KrishnaThe united divine couple;
- RahuThe severed head;
- RājanyaRājanya was a people attested by copper coins bearing the legend of the Rājanya janapada, one…
- The rākṣasasThe rākṣasas are the people of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa — night-ranging, shape-shifting, flesh-e…
- RaktabijaWhose every drop of blood spawned a clone;
- RāmaRāma is the prince of Ayodhyā at the centre of the Rāmāyaṇa, exiled for fourteen years by his…
- Rāma SetuRāma Setu is the causeway built across the sea to Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa, identified in tradit…
- Rāma-rājyaRāma-rājya is the reign of Rāma described at the end of the Rāmāyaṇa — a kingdom without want…
- Rāma's departureRāma's departure at the end of the Rāmāyaṇa is his walk into the river Sarayū, with the popul…
- RāmāyaṇaThe Rāmāyaṇa is the Sanskrit epic attributed to Vālmīki, in seven books, telling how Rāma of…
- The Rāmāyaṇa in culture and religionThe Rāmāyaṇa has shaped Indian religion, literature, art and performance more thoroughly than…
- The Rāmāyaṇa in temple reliefThe Rāmāyaṇa is carved on temple walls from the Gupta period onward, and the great relief cyc…
- RambhaCelebrated apsara of Indra’s court.
- RanganathaThe reclining Vishnu of Srirangam;
- RatiGoddess of desire and pleasure;
- RāvaṇaRāvaṇa is the ten-headed rākṣasa king of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa, a brahmin's son, a scholar an…
- Recensions of the RāmāyaṇaThe Rāmāyaṇa survives in three broad regional recensions whose manuscripts differ substantial…
- Renāṭi CholasThe Renāṭi Cholas ruled the Cuddapah country from the sixth to the eighth century, and their…
- RishabhaAscetic king-avatar;
- Ṛṣyamūka and Lake PampāṚṣyamūka is the hill in the Rāmāyaṇa where the exiled Sugrīva sheltered from his brother, abo…
- ṚśyaśṛṅgaṚśyaśṛṅga is the antelope-horned ascetic of the Rāmāyaṇa, raised without ever seeing a woman,…
- RudraThe fierce, howling Vedic storm-god from whom Shiva emerges.
- RukminiKrishna’s chief queen at Dwārka;
- RumāRumā is the wife of Sugrīva in the Rāmāyaṇa, taken by his brother Vālī after he drove him out…
- ŚabarīŚabarī is the forest ascetic of the Rāmāyaṇa who waited at Lake Pampā on her teachers' word t…
- SachiQueen of heaven;
- SadashivaThe five-faced supreme Shiva of the Āgamas.
- Sagara and the descent of the GaṅgāSagara and his sixty thousand sons are the ancestors of Rāma in a story told within the Rāmāy…
- Śālaṅkāyana dynastyThe Śālaṅkāyanas ruled the Vengī country of coastal Andhra in the fourth and fifth centuries…
- ŚambūkaŚambūka is the śūdra ascetic in the Rāmāyaṇa's seventh book whom Rāma beheads for performing…
- SampātiSampāti is the elder vulture brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, wingless since he shielded Jaṭāyu from…
- Samudra ManthanaSamudra Manthana, the churning of the cosmic ocean of milk, is a Puranic myth in which devas…
- Sanatana DharmaSanātana Dharma ("eternal law" or "eternal duty") is a Sanskrit term used, especially since t…
- SandhyaGoddess of the ritual twilight junctures.
- The sañjīvanī and the mountainThe sañjīvanī episode in the Rāmāyaṇa is Hanumān's flight to a mountain in the north for four…
- SāṅkāśyāSāṅkāśyā is the city of Kuśadhvaja in the Rāmāyaṇa, a satellite kingdom of Videha, whose two…
- ŚāntāŚāntā is the princess of Aṅga in the Rāmāyaṇa, given in marriage to the ascetic Ṛśyaśṛṅga whe…
- ŚarabhaṅgaŚarabhaṅga is the sage of the Daṇḍaka forest in the Rāmāyaṇa who kept Brahmā's world waiting…
- Śarabhapurīya dynastyThe Śarabhapurīyas ruled Dakṣiṇa Kosala, the upper Mahanadi basin of modern Chhattisgarh, in…
- SaramāSaramā is the rākṣasī of the Rāmāyaṇa who befriended Sītā in captivity, exposed Rāvaṇa's illu…
- SaraswatiSaraswati is the Hindu goddess of wisdom, learning, speech, music and the arts, worshipped si…
- The SarayūThe Sarayū is the river of Ayodhyā in the Rāmāyaṇa, on which the city stands, where Daśaratha…
- Sātavāhana EmpireThe Sātavāhanas were the first great power of the Deccan, ruling from the Konkan to the Andhr…
- SatiSati is the Hindu goddess who, as the first wife of Shiva, immolated herself in protest at he…
- SatiShiva’s first consort, who immolated herself at Dakṣa’s sacrifice.
- ŚatrughnaŚatrughna is the youngest of the four brothers of the Rāmāyaṇa, Lakṣmaṇa's twin and Bharata's…
- SatyabhamaKrishna’s warrior-queen;
- SatyanarayanaThe “true lord”;
- SavitriWho won her husband back from Yama through devotion.
- Schools of Hindu philosophyThe six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and…
- Science in ancient IndiaA survey of scientific and technical achievement in ancient and early medieval India, across…
- SendrakasThe Sendrakas were a feudatory family of the Deccan in the sixth to eighth centuries, holding…
- ShailaputriShailaputri is the first of the nine forms of Durga (Navadurga) worshipped on the opening nig…
- ShaniShani is the Hindu deity of the planet Saturn and one of the Navagrahas, revered as an impart…
- SharabhaThe part-lion, part-bird form that subdued Narasiṃha’s fury.
- ShivaShiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the destroyer within the Tri…
- ShukraVenus;
- Shumbha and NishumbhaShumbha and Nishumbha are two asura brothers whose conquest of the heavens and defeat by the…
- SiddhasPerfected beings possessing spiritual powers.
- SiddhidatriSiddhidatri is the ninth and final form of Durga in the Navadurga sequence, worshipped on the…
- SītāSītā is the wife of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, found by King Janaka in a furrow, carried off by Rā…
- SkandamataSkandamātā, mother of Skanda, is the fifth of the Navadurga — the nine forms of the goddess D…
- SrinathjiKrishna lifting Govardhana;
- ŚṛṅgaverapuraŚṛṅgaverapura is the town of the Niṣāda chief Guha on the Gaṅgā in the Rāmāyaṇa, where the ex…
- SubāhuSubāhu is the rākṣasa in the Rāmāyaṇa who with Mārīca defiled Viśvāmitra's sacrifices, and wh…
- SugrīvaSugrīva is the vānara king of Kiṣkindhā in the Rāmāyaṇa, driven out by his brother Vālī over…
- Śuka and SāraṇaŚuka and Sāraṇa are Rāvaṇa's spies in the Rāmāyaṇa, caught counting the besieging army, relea…
- SumantraSumantra is Daśaratha's charioteer and chief counsellor in the Rāmāyaṇa, who drove Rāma out o…
- SumitrāSumitrā is the middle queen of Daśaratha in the Rāmāyaṇa, mother of Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna, w…
- Sun templesSun temples (sūrya mandirs) are Hindu shrines dedicated to the solar deity Sūrya, built acros…
- Sundara KāṇḍaThe Sundara Kāṇḍa is the fifth book of the Rāmāyaṇa, in which Hanumān leaps the ocean, finds…
- Śuṅga dynastyThe Śuṅgas were the dynasty that replaced the Mauryas in 185 BCE, ruling Magadha and central…
- ŚūrpaṇakhāŚūrpaṇakhā is Rāvaṇa's sister in the Rāmāyaṇa, who desired Rāma in the forest, was mocked and…
- SuryaSurya is the principal solar deity of Hinduism, worshipped in the Vedas as the source of ligh…
- SuṣeṇaSuṣeṇa is the vānara physician in the Rāmāyaṇa, father of Tārā, who identified the healing he…
- SutīkṣṇaSutīkṣṇa is the forest ascetic of the Rāmāyaṇa who offered Rāma the heaven he had earned by a…
- SvahaThe oblation-cry personified;
- SvayamprabhāSvayamprabhā is the ascetic woman of the Rāmāyaṇa who guards an enchanted underground palace,…
- TandavaTandava is the cosmic dance of the Hindu god Shiva, performed in both fierce, destructive for…
- Tārā of KiṣkindhāTārā is the queen of Vālī in the Rāmāyaṇa, the shrewdest counsellor in Kiṣkindhā, who warned…
- TarakasuraThe demon slain by Kārttikeya, born for that purpose.
- TāṭakāTāṭakā is the yakṣī turned rākṣasī in the Rāmāyaṇa whose killing is the first act of violence…
- TaxilaTaxila, or Takshashila, was an ancient city in the Gandhara region of the northwestern subcon…
- TilottamaApsara fashioned from the finest particle of every beautiful thing.
- Traikūṭaka dynastyThe Traikūṭakas ruled the northern Konkan and the Gujarat coast in the third to fifth centuri…
- TrigartaTrigarta was a polity of the Jalandhar Doab and the Kangra hills, named as a corporation in P…
- TrijaṭāTrijaṭā is the rākṣasī in the Rāmāyaṇa who guards Sītā in the aśoka grove and protects her, r…
- TripurantakaDestroyer of the three demon-cities with a single arrow.
- TriśirasTriśiras is the three-headed rākṣasa of Khara's command in the Rāmāyaṇa who asked to face Rām…
- TulsiThe sacred basil deified;
- UchchaihshravasThe seven-headed white horse of the gods.
- UddehikaUddehika was a people of central India, in the country around Vidiśā, attested by a copper co…
- UjjainUjjain is a city on the Shipra River in Madhya Pradesh, continuously inhabited since at least…
- ŪrmilāŪrmilā is Sītā's sister and the wife of Lakṣmaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa, left in Ayodhyā for fourtee…
- UrvashiThe most beautiful of the apsaras.
- Uttara KāṇḍaThe Uttara Kāṇḍa is the seventh book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering Rāvaṇa's ancestry, the banishm…
- VaishnaviPower of Vishnu;
- Vaishno DeviThe mountain goddess of the Trikūṭa hills, worshipped as three piṇḍis.
- VajradaṃṣṭraVajradaṃṣṭra is the rākṣasa general in the Rāmāyaṇa sent against the southern gate of Laṅkā a…
- Vākāṭaka dynastyThe Vākāṭakas ruled the northern Deccan from the third to the fifth century CE, were bound to…
- VālīVālī is the vānara king of Kiṣkindhā in the Rāmāyaṇa, the strongest of his kind, who drove ou…
- VālmīkiVālmīki is the sage to whom the Rāmāyaṇa is attributed, called the ādi-kavi or first poet, an…
- VamanaThe dwarf brahmin;
- The vānarasThe vānaras are the forest people of the Rāmāyaṇa who supply Rāma's army — described as monke…
- VarahaThe boar;
- VarahiPower of Varāha;
- Varman dynasty of KāmarūpaThe Varmans were the first historically documented dynasty of Assam, ruling Kāmarūpa from abo…
- VarunaGuardian of cosmic order (ṛta) and the waters;
- VasiṣṭhaVasiṣṭha is one of the seven great sages (saptarṣi) of Hindu tradition and, in the Rāmāyaṇa,…
- VasudevaThe supreme indwelling Vishnu;
- VasukiKing of the nāgas;
- VayuThe wind;
- Vēḷir chieftainciesThe Vēḷir were the chieftains of the Tamil country who ruled the hill and forest tracts betwe…
- VemakaVemaka was a people of the eastern Punjab attested only by a small series of copper coins bea…
- VenkateshwaraLord of the Seven Hills at Tirupati;
- VibhīṣaṇaVibhīṣaṇa is Rāvaṇa's youngest brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, who told him in open council to retur…
- Videha and MithilāVideha is the kingdom of Janaka in the Rāmāyaṇa, north of the Ganges, ruled from Mithilā — th…
- VidyadharasSky-dwelling magicians and keepers of esoteric knowledge.
- VirabhadraThe towering warrior born of Shiva’s wrath at Dakṣa’s sacrifice.
- VishnuViṣṇu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the Preserver of the Trimūrt…
- VishvadevasThe “all-gods”;
- VishvakarmaThe divine architect and craftsman of the gods.
- VishvaksenaCommander of Vishnu’s forces;
- Viṣṇukuṇḍin dynastyThe Viṣṇukuṇḍins ruled coastal Andhra and Telangana for two centuries from about 420 CE, the…
- ViśravasViśravas is the brahmin sage of the Rāmāyaṇa's seventh book who fathered both Kubera, the lor…
- ViśvāmitraViśvāmitra is the sage in the Rāmāyaṇa who took the boy Rāma from his father's house to guard…
- VithobaThe arms-akimbo Krishna of Pandharpur;
- VritraThe primordial serpent of drought, slain by Indra.
- Vṛṣṇi corporationThe Vṛṣṇi corporation was a clan body of the Mathurā country attested by a coin issued in the…
- VyasaCompiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahābhārata.
- The waking of KumbhakarṇaThe waking of Kumbhakarṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa is the set piece in which Rāvaṇa's giant brother is…
- Western Ganga dynastyThe Western Gangas ruled southern Karnataka for some six centuries from about 350 CE, and the…
- YakshasNature-spirits of forests and wealth;
- YamaFirst mortal and lord of the dead;
- YamunaThe dark river of Vṛndāvana;
- YaudheyaThe Yaudheyas were a martial corporation of the country between the Sutlej and the Yamuna, th…
- YogaYoga is a body of Indian spiritual and physical disciplines, rooted in Vedic ritual and Upani…
- Yuddha KāṇḍaThe Yuddha Kāṇḍa is the sixth and longest book of the Rāmāyaṇa, covering the bridging of the…
- AgniFire;
- AiravataAiravata is the divine white elephant that carries Indra, king of the Vedic gods, and ranks a…
- AnantaGuardian of the nadir;
- AshvinsTwin horsemen;
- BrahmaBrahma is the creator deity of the Hindu Trimurti, traditionally depicted with four heads rep…
- BrihaspatiPreceptor of the gods;
- ChitraguptaThe scribe of Yama who records every deed of every soul.
- Devi, devata, Brahman and yajnaDevi, deva/devata, Bhagavan, Ishvara, Brahman, and Atman are core Sanskrit terms in Hindu the…
- DhanvantariPhysician of the gods;
- IshanaGuardian of the Northeast;
- JyotishaJyotisha is the traditional Indian science of astronomy and astrology, one of the six Vedanga…
- KamadevaThe god of love, who looses flower-arrows of desire.
- KuberaGuardian of the North;
- NirritiGuardian of the Southwest;
- Pancha BhutaThe Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, are the fou…
- SaraswatiSaraswati is the Hindu goddess of wisdom, learning, speech, music and the arts, worshipped si…
- Schools of Hindu philosophyThe six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and…
- ShivaShiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the destroyer within the Tri…
- ShukraVenus;
- SuryaSurya is the principal solar deity of Hinduism, worshipped in the Vedas as the source of ligh…
- Uśīnara and the ŚibiUśīnara and Śibi were related peoples of the Punjab, remembered in Vedic and Buddhist literat…
- VarunaGuardian of cosmic order (ṛta) and the waters;
- VayuThe wind;
- VishnuViṣṇu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the Preserver of the Trimūrt…
- VishvakarmaThe divine architect and craftsman of the gods.
- VyasaCompiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahābhārata.
- YamaFirst mortal and lord of the dead;
- YogaYoga is a body of Indian spiritual and physical disciplines, rooted in Vedic ritual and Upani…
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- Ābhīra dynastyThe Ābhīras were a people of the northern Deccan who established a dynasty in the third centu…
- AhimsaAhimsa is the principle of non-harm to living beings, central to Jain ethics and important in…
- Ajanta CavesThe Ajanta Caves are a complex of some thirty Buddhist rock-cut monasteries and prayer halls…
- Alchon HunsThe Alchon Huns were a Central Asian people who invaded northwestern India from the late four…
- AmaravatiAmaravati in Andhra Pradesh was a great Buddhist stupa on the Krishna river, whose limestone…
- Ānanda Gotrika dynastyThe Ānanda Gotrikas were a dynasty of the Guntur country in the fourth and fifth centuries CE…
- AnattaAnatta is the Buddhist doctrine that no permanent, independent self is to be found in or behi…
- Ancient universities of IndiaAncient India's centers of higher learning ranged from large residential monastic universitie…
- Andhra Ikṣvāku dynastyThe Andhra Ikṣvākus were the dynasty that succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the lower Krishna vall…
- AnuradhapuraAnuradhapura was the capital and namesake of Sri Lanka's first major kingdom, a Buddhist stat…
- Apracharājas and PāratarājasThe Apracharājas and Pāratarājas were two minor dynasties of the northwestern frontier, the f…
- ApsarasApsaras are celestial female beings of Hindu and Buddhist mythology, renowned as divine dance…
- AsangaAsanga was a Buddhist philosopher of the fourth century CE, the founder of the Yogacara schoo…
- Bodh GayaBodh Gaya in Bihar is where the Buddha is held to have attained awakening beneath the bodhi t…
- BodhisattvaA bodhisattva is a being on the path to full buddhahood, and in Mahayana Buddhism one who vow…
- BuddhaghosaBuddhaghosa was a fifth-century commentator who compiled the Pali commentarial literature and…
- BuddhismBuddhism is a religious and philosophical tradition founded in northern India in the 5th cent…
- Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of AfghanistanThe Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Afghanistan were a succession of polities in Gandhara, Bac…
- Buddhist councilsThe Buddhist councils were assemblies of the monastic community held to recite and settle the…
- Buddhist rock-cut architectureBuddhist rock-cut architecture comprises the chaitya halls and viharas excavated into the bas…
- ChaityaA chaitya is a Buddhist shrine hall containing a stupa, most familiar in the rock-cut halls o…
- Cuṭu dynastyThe Cuṭus were a dynasty of northern Karnataka centred on Banavāsi who ruled the southwestern…
- Dasaratha JātakaThe Dasaratha Jātaka is the Pāli birth-story in which the Bodhisatta is born as Rāma-paṇḍita,…
- Dependent originationDependent origination is the Buddhist doctrine that phenomena arise in dependence on conditio…
- DevasThe shining gods as a class;
- Early CherasThe early Cheras ruled the Malabar coast and the western Tamil country in the Sangam age, and…
- Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths are the framework of the Buddha's teaching — that there is suffering, t…
- GanasThe dwarfish, motley attendants of Shiva, led by Gaṇeśa.
- GandharaGandhara was an ancient region centred on the Peshawar Valley, Swat Valley, and Taxila in pre…
- GandharvasGandharvas are a class of male celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist tradition associated ch…
- Greco-Bactrian KingdomThe Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Hellenistic state in northern Afghanistan and Central Asia,…
- Gupta EmpireThe Gupta Empire was a dynasty that ruled much of northern and central India from the early f…
- Hindu civilization in IndonesiaThe Hindu–Buddhist civilization that shaped the Indonesian archipelago from roughly the 4th t…
- Indo-Greek KingdomThe Indo-Greek kingdoms were the states ruled by Greek dynasties in Gandhāra and the Punjab f…
- Indo-Parthian KingdomThe Indo-Parthian Kingdom was a state founded by Gondophares in the first century CE across S…
- Indo-Scythian KingdomThe Indo-Scythians were Śaka rulers from Central Asia who took the Indus country and the Punj…
- IndosphereThe Indosphere is the vast zone of cultural, religious, linguistic, and artistic influence ra…
- Jataka talesThe Jatakas are stories of the Buddha's previous births, numbering some 547 in the Pali colle…
- KaḷabhrasThe Kaḷabhras were a power that displaced the Tamil kingdoms for some three centuries after t…
- KanishkaKanishka I was a Kushan emperor of the 2nd century CE whose empire spanned Central Asia and n…
- KashmirKashmir is a Himalayan valley in the northwestern subcontinent whose early history encompasse…
- KidaritesThe Kidarites were a Central Asian dynasty that took the former Kushan territories of Bactria…
- KinnarasHalf-human, half-bird celestial musicians.
- Kirāta dynastyThe Kirātas are the dynasty Nepali tradition places before the Licchavis in the Kathmandu val…
- KuchaKucha was an Indianized Buddhist city-state in the Tarim Basin, in present-day Xinjiang, Chin…
- KumarajivaKumarajiva (344-413 CE) was a Buddhist monk and translator from Kucha whose Chinese rendering…
- Kushan EmpireThe Kushan Empire (c.
- Later GuptasThe Later Guptas were a dynasty that ruled Magadha and at times Malwa from the late fifth to…
- Licchavi dynasty of NepalThe Licchavis ruled the Kathmandu valley from about 400 to 750 CE, the first historically doc…
- MahābhojasThe Mahābhojas were chiefs of the Konkan coast under Sātavāhana overlordship, attested by don…
- MahārathisThe Mahārathis were a class of chiefs of the western Deccan who served the Sātavāhanas as feu…
- MahasthangarhMahasthangarh is the earliest known city in Bengal, a fortified site on the Karatoya in north…
- MahayanaMahayana is the branch of Buddhism that took the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings as…
- MainamatiMainamati is the ridge in south-eastern Bangladesh, ancient India, carrying more than fifty B…
- Maitraka dynastyThe Maitrakas ruled Saurashtra and Gujarat for three centuries from Vallabhī, a city whose Bu…
- MathuraMathura is an ancient city on the Yamuna River in western Uttar Pradesh, revered in Hindu tra…
- MenakaApsara sent to break the penance of Viśvāmitra.
- Milinda PanhaThe Milinda Panha is a Pali dialogue between the Greek king Menander and the monk Nagasena, i…
- NagarjunaNagarjuna was the Buddhist philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school, arguing that all ph…
- NagasNagas are serpent deities and semi-divine beings in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, wors…
- NalandaNalanda was a major Buddhist monastic university in ancient Magadha, in present-day Bihar, ac…
- NirvanaNirvana is the goal of Buddhist practice, the extinction of craving, aversion and delusion an…
- Noble Eightfold PathThe Noble Eightfold Path is the fourth of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, setting out eight f…
- The Northern SatrapsThe Northern Satraps were Śaka governors who ruled at Mathurā in the first centuries BCE and…
- Pali CanonThe Pali Canon is the scriptural collection of Theravada Buddhism, the only early Buddhist ca…
- Pallava dynastyThe Pallavas ruled the northern Tamil country from Kāñcīpuram for six centuries, fought the C…
- Pancha BhutaThe Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, are the fou…
- PataliputraPataliputra was the capital of the Magadha kingdom and later of the Mauryan and, intermittent…
- PitrsThe deified ancestors, honoured in the śrāddha rites.
- PurushapuraPurushapura, present-day Peshawar, was the imperial capital of the Kushan Empire under Kanish…
- PushkalavatiPushkalavati, at modern Charsadda in Pakistan, was the earliest capital of the Gandhara regio…
- RambhaCelebrated apsara of Indra’s court.
- SanchiSanchi in Madhya Pradesh is a hilltop complex of Buddhist stupas and monasteries, whose Great…
- SanghaThe sangha is the Buddhist monastic community, the third of the three refuges, and the instit…
- SarnathSarnath, near Varanasi, is where the Buddha is said to have given his first discourse, and th…
- Sātavāhana EmpireThe Sātavāhanas were the first great power of the Deccan, ruling from the Konkan to the Andhr…
- SiddhasPerfected beings possessing spiritual powers.
- StupaA stupa is a solid domed monument raised over relics, the earliest form of Buddhist architect…
- Śuṅga dynastyThe Śuṅgas were the dynasty that replaced the Mauryas in 185 BCE, ruling Magadha and central…
- TaxilaTaxila, or Takshashila, was an ancient city in the Gandhara region of the northwestern subcon…
- TheravadaTheravada is the Buddhist school dominant in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, the only…
- TilottamaApsara fashioned from the finest particle of every beautiful thing.
- Traikūṭaka dynastyThe Traikūṭakas ruled the northern Konkan and the Gujarat coast in the third to fifth centuri…
- TripitakaThe Tripitaka is the threefold division of the Buddhist canon into discipline, discourses and…
- UrvashiThe most beautiful of the apsaras.
- Uśīnara and the ŚibiUśīnara and Śibi were related peoples of the Punjab, remembered in Vedic and Buddhist literat…
- Vākāṭaka dynastyThe Vākāṭakas ruled the northern Deccan from the third to the fifth century CE, were bound to…
- VasubandhuVasubandhu was a Buddhist philosopher of the fourth or fifth century CE who wrote the standar…
- VidyadharasSky-dwelling magicians and keepers of esoteric knowledge.
- ViharaA vihara is a Buddhist monastery, originating as shelter for the rainy-season retreat and dev…
- VinayaThe Vinaya is the body of monastic discipline in Buddhism, one of the three divisions of the…
- VishvadevasThe “all-gods”;
- Viṣṇukuṇḍin dynastyThe Viṣṇukuṇḍins ruled coastal Andhra and Telangana for two centuries from about 420 CE, the…
- Western SatrapsThe Western Satraps, or Kṣatrapas, were a series of Indo-Scythian (Śaka) ruling houses that g…
- YakshasNature-spirits of forests and wealth;
- YogaYoga is a body of Indian spiritual and physical disciplines, rooted in Vedic ritual and Upani…
- AhimsaAhimsa is the principle of non-harm to living beings, central to Jain ethics and important in…
- AlupasThe Alupas ruled the Tulu-speaking coast of Karnataka for a thousand years as feudatories of…
- AnekantavadaAnekantavada is the Jain doctrine that reality has many aspects, that any single statement ab…
- Āy dynastyThe Āys were a dynasty of the far south of Kerala, beginning as Sangam-age hill chieftains an…
- Bāṇa kingdomThe Bāṇas were a long-lived feudatory dynasty of the country where Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and…
- DigambaraThe Digambara are one of the two principal Jain orders, holding that a fully advanced mendica…
- Early CherasThe early Cheras ruled the Malabar coast and the western Tamil country in the Sangam age, and…
- The five vowsThe five vows of Jainism — non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity and non-possession — a…
- Jain AgamasThe Jain Agamas are the scriptural canon of the Svetambara order, held to derive from the tea…
- Jain cosmologyJain cosmology describes an uncreated, eternal universe of fixed shape, occupied by graded wo…
- Jain karmaIn Jain doctrine karma is not a moral principle but a subtle physical substance that adheres…
- The Jain schismThe Jain schism is the division of the tradition into the Digambara and Svetambara orders, a…
- JainismJainism is an Indian religion holding that every living thing possesses an eternal soul bound…
- Jiva and ajivaJiva and ajiva are the two fundamental categories of Jain ontology, the sentient and the inse…
- Kadamba dynastyThe Kadambas of Banavāsi were the first indigenous dynasty of Karnataka, founded in the fourt…
- KaḷabhrasThe Kaḷabhras were a power that displaced the Tamil kingdoms for some three centuries after t…
- Kalpa SutraThe Kalpa Sutra is a Svetambara Jain text giving the lives of the tirthankaras and the rules…
- Kevala jnanaKevala jnana is the state of complete and unobstructed knowledge in Jain doctrine, attained w…
- KundakundaKundakunda was a Digambara Jain philosopher whose Prakrit works on the soul, and their distin…
- Mahāmeghavāhana dynastyThe Mahāmeghavāhanas were the dynasty that restored Kalinga after its devastation by Aśoka, a…
- Maitraka dynastyThe Maitrakas ruled Saurashtra and Gujarat for three centuries from Vallabhī, a city whose Bu…
- MathuraMathura is an ancient city on the Yamuna River in western Uttar Pradesh, revered in Hindu tra…
- Mūṣika dynastyThe Mūṣikas ruled north Malabar from Ezhimala from the Sangam age onward, and are the subject…
- Namokar MantraThe Namokar Mantra is the central Jain invocation, offering salutation to five classes of spi…
- The Northern SatrapsThe Northern Satraps were Śaka governors who ruled at Mathurā in the first centuries BCE and…
- Pallava dynastyThe Pallavas ruled the northern Tamil country from Kāñcīpuram for six centuries, fought the C…
- ParyushanaParyushana is the principal Jain festival, an annual period of fasting, study, confession and…
- PaumacariyaThe Paumacariya is Vimalasūri's Prakrit retelling of the Rāmāyaṇa from a Jain standpoint, in…
- SallekhanaSallekhana is the Jain practice of voluntarily fasting to death when death is otherwise near,…
- SvetambaraThe Svetambara are one of the two principal Jain orders, whose mendicants wear white cloth, w…
- SyadvadaSyadvada is the Jain method of qualifying every assertion with the particle syat, "in some re…
- Tattvartha SutraThe Tattvartha Sutra is a concise Sanskrit summary of Jain doctrine composed by Umasvati, and…
- TirthankaraA tirthankara is, in Jain belief, a liberated teacher who establishes the ford across the oce…
- UmasvatiUmasvati was the Jain philosopher who composed the Tattvartha Sutra, the systematic summary o…
- Vēḷir chieftainciesThe Vēḷir were the chieftains of the Tamil country who ruled the hill and forest tracts betwe…
- Western Ganga dynastyThe Western Gangas ruled southern Karnataka for some six centuries from about 350 CE, and the…
- YogaYoga is a body of Indian spiritual and physical disciplines, rooted in Vedic ritual and Upani…
Islamic2 here · all Islamic →
Heterodox4 here · all Heterodox →
- AjivikaThe Ajivikas were an ascetic order of ancient India holding that everything is determined by…
- Astika and nastikaAstika and nastika are the terms by which Indian philosophical schools were sorted into ortho…
- CharvakaCharvaka is the materialist school of Indian philosophy, which accepted only perception as a…
- LokayataLokayata is the older name for Indian materialism, later used interchangeably with Charvaka,…
Folk & Regional18 here · all Folk & Regional →
- AshokasundariDaughter of Shiva and Parvati in Purāṇic lore.
- AyyappaBorn of Shiva and Mohini;
- BhavaniThe life-giving goddess;
- BhudeviThe Earth goddess;
- GaneshaElephant-headed remover of obstacles;
- GangaThe Ganges;
- GodavariThe “Ganges of the South”;
- KaveriLife-giving river-goddess of the Tamil country.
- Kirāta dynastyThe Kirātas are the dynasty Nepali tradition places before the Licchavis in the Kathmandu val…
- KulluKullu was a kingdom of the upper Beas valley whose rajas ceded sovereignty to the god Raghuna…
- ManipurManipur was ruled by the Ningthouja dynasty from the Kangla at Imphal, and its court chronicl…
- NagasNagas are serpent deities and semi-divine beings in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, wors…
- NandiThe bull;
- NarmadaThe self-born river of central India, holy to Shiva.
- PrāgjyotiṣaPrāgjyotiṣa is the name the epics give to the kingdom of the Brahmaputra valley, ruled by Nar…
- SandhyaGoddess of the ritual twilight junctures.
- TulsiThe sacred basil deified;
- YamunaThe dark river of Vṛndāvana;
Other Faiths3 here · all Other Faiths →
- Greco-Bactrian KingdomThe Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Hellenistic state in northern Afghanistan and Central Asia,…
- Indo-Greek KingdomThe Indo-Greek kingdoms were the states ruled by Greek dynasties in Gandhāra and the Punjab f…
- Indo-Parthian KingdomThe Indo-Parthian Kingdom was a state founded by Gondophares in the first century CE across S…
Political & Secular83 here · all Political & Secular →
- Ābhīra dynastyThe Ābhīras were a people of the northern Deccan who established a dynasty in the third centu…
- ĀgreyaĀgreya was a people of what is now Haryana, attested by coins found at the mound of Agroha, a…
- Alchon HunsThe Alchon Huns were a Central Asian people who invaded northwestern India from the late four…
- AlupasThe Alupas ruled the Tulu-speaking coast of Karnataka for a thousand years as feudatories of…
- Ānanda Gotrika dynastyThe Ānanda Gotrikas were a dynasty of the Guntur country in the fourth and fifth centuries CE…
- Andhra Ikṣvāku dynastyThe Andhra Ikṣvākus were the dynasty that succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the lower Krishna vall…
- Apracharājas and PāratarājasThe Apracharājas and Pāratarājas were two minor dynasties of the northwestern frontier, the f…
- ĀrjunāyanaThe Ārjunāyanas were a corporate people of eastern Rajasthan, known from copper coins bearing…
- AryabhataAryabhata (476 CE – c.
- AudumbaraThe Audumbaras were a people of the Punjab hill country between the Ravi and the Beas, known…
- Aulikara dynastyThe Aulikaras ruled western Malwa from Daśapura and produced Yaśodharman, the king whose vict…
- Āy dynastyThe Āys were a dynasty of the far south of Kerala, beginning as Sangam-age hill chieftains an…
- Bāṇa kingdomThe Bāṇas were a long-lived feudatory dynasty of the country where Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and…
- Bṛhatphalāyana dynastyThe Bṛhatphalāyanas were a short-lived dynasty of the Andhra coast in the late third century…
- Chandragupta IIChandragupta II, also known by the epithet Vikramaditya, was a Gupta emperor who ruled north…
- Cuṭu dynastyThe Cuṭus were a dynasty of northern Karnataka centred on Banavāsi who ruled the southwestern…
- Early CherasThe early Cheras ruled the Malabar coast and the western Tamil country in the Sangam age, and…
- Early CholasThe early Cholas were one of the three crowned dynasties of the Tamil country in the Sangam a…
- Eastern Ganga dynastyThe Eastern Gangas ruled Kalinga for nearly a thousand years, and under them the Jagannātha t…
- GandharaGandhara was an ancient region centred on the Peshawar Valley, Swat Valley, and Taxila in pre…
- Greco-Bactrian KingdomThe Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was a Hellenistic state in northern Afghanistan and Central Asia,…
- Gupta EmpireThe Gupta Empire was a dynasty that ruled much of northern and central India from the early f…
- India and Rome comparedA comparative framework used by historians of the ancient world to pair successive Indian emp…
- Indian martial artsIndian martial arts are a family of combat systems native to the Indian subcontinent, ranging…
- Indo-Greek KingdomThe Indo-Greek kingdoms were the states ruled by Greek dynasties in Gandhāra and the Punjab f…
- Indo-Parthian KingdomThe Indo-Parthian Kingdom was a state founded by Gondophares in the first century CE across S…
- Indo-Scythian KingdomThe Indo-Scythians were Śaka rulers from Central Asia who took the Indus country and the Punj…
- Kadamba dynastyThe Kadambas of Banavāsi were the first indigenous dynasty of Karnataka, founded in the fourt…
- KaḷabhrasThe Kaḷabhras were a power that displaced the Tamil kingdoms for some three centuries after t…
- Kalachuris of MāhiṣmatīThe early Kalachuris ruled the Narmada valley and the northern Deccan in the sixth and early…
- KanishkaKanishka I was a Kushan emperor of the 2nd century CE whose empire spanned Central Asia and n…
- Kāṇva dynastyThe Kāṇvas were a short-lived brahmin dynasty that displaced the Śuṅgas in Magadha in the fir…
- KidaritesThe Kidarites were a Central Asian dynasty that took the former Kushan territories of Bactria…
- Kirāta dynastyThe Kirātas are the dynasty Nepali tradition places before the Licchavis in the Kathmandu val…
- KulluKullu was a kingdom of the upper Beas valley whose rajas ceded sovereignty to the god Raghuna…
- KulūtaKulūta was a small hill state of the upper Beas valley, attested by a coinage naming its rule…
- Kumaragupta IKumaragupta I (r.
- KuṇindaThe Kuṇindas were a hill people of the Himalayan foothills between the Yamuna and the Sutlej,…
- Kushan EmpireThe Kushan Empire (c.
- Later GuptasThe Later Guptas were a dynasty that ruled Magadha and at times Malwa from the late fifth to…
- Licchavi dynasty of NepalThe Licchavis ruled the Kathmandu valley from about 400 to 750 CE, the first historically doc…
- MahābhojasThe Mahābhojas were chiefs of the Konkan coast under Sātavāhana overlordship, attested by don…
- Mahāmeghavāhana dynastyThe Mahāmeghavāhanas were the dynasty that restored Kalinga after its devastation by Aśoka, a…
- MahārathisThe Mahārathis were a class of chiefs of the western Deccan who served the Sātavāhanas as feu…
- Maitraka dynastyThe Maitrakas ruled Saurashtra and Gujarat for three centuries from Vallabhī, a city whose Bu…
- MālavaThe Mālavas were a people who fought Alexander in the Punjab, migrated southeast into Rajasth…
- ManipurManipur was ruled by the Ningthouja dynasty from the Kangla at Imphal, and its court chronicl…
- Māṭhara dynastyThe Māṭharas ruled Kalinga in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the first dynasty after the…
- Maukhari dynastyThe Maukharis ruled from Kannauj in the sixth century CE, made it the leading city of norther…
- The Mitra dynastiesThe Mitra dynasties were local ruling houses of the Ganga–Yamuna country between the Mauryas…
- Mūṣika dynastyThe Mūṣikas ruled north Malabar from Ezhimala from the Sangam age onward, and are the subject…
- Nāgas of PadmāvatīThe Nāgas of Padmāvatī were a dynasty of central India in the third and fourth centuries CE,…
- Nala dynastyThe Nalas ruled the forested country of Bastar and Koraput in the fifth and sixth centuries C…
- The Northern SatrapsThe Northern Satraps were Śaka governors who ruled at Mathurā in the first centuries BCE and…
- Pallava dynastyThe Pallavas ruled the northern Tamil country from Kāñcīpuram for six centuries, fought the C…
- Parivrājaka and Uccakalpa mahārājasThe Parivrājakas and the mahārājas of Uccakalpa were two feudatory houses of central India in…
- PataliputraPataliputra was the capital of the Magadha kingdom and later of the Mauryan and, intermittent…
- PrāgjyotiṣaPrāgjyotiṣa is the name the epics give to the kingdom of the Brahmaputra valley, ruled by Nar…
- PurushapuraPurushapura, present-day Peshawar, was the imperial capital of the Kushan Empire under Kanish…
- RājanyaRājanya was a people attested by copper coins bearing the legend of the Rājanya janapada, one…
- Renāṭi CholasThe Renāṭi Cholas ruled the Cuddapah country from the sixth to the eighth century, and their…
- Śālaṅkāyana dynastyThe Śālaṅkāyanas ruled the Vengī country of coastal Andhra in the fourth and fifth centuries…
- Śarabhapurīya dynastyThe Śarabhapurīyas ruled Dakṣiṇa Kosala, the upper Mahanadi basin of modern Chhattisgarh, in…
- Sātavāhana EmpireThe Sātavāhanas were the first great power of the Deccan, ruling from the Konkan to the Andhr…
- Science in ancient IndiaA survey of scientific and technical achievement in ancient and early medieval India, across…
- SendrakasThe Sendrakas were a feudatory family of the Deccan in the sixth to eighth centuries, holding…
- Śuṅga dynastyThe Śuṅgas were the dynasty that replaced the Mauryas in 185 BCE, ruling Magadha and central…
- TaxilaTaxila, or Takshashila, was an ancient city in the Gandhara region of the northwestern subcon…
- Traikūṭaka dynastyThe Traikūṭakas ruled the northern Konkan and the Gujarat coast in the third to fifth centuri…
- TrigartaTrigarta was a polity of the Jalandhar Doab and the Kangra hills, named as a corporation in P…
- UddehikaUddehika was a people of central India, in the country around Vidiśā, attested by a copper co…
- Uśīnara and the ŚibiUśīnara and Śibi were related peoples of the Punjab, remembered in Vedic and Buddhist literat…
- Vākāṭaka dynastyThe Vākāṭakas ruled the northern Deccan from the third to the fifth century CE, were bound to…
- Varman dynasty of KāmarūpaThe Varmans were the first historically documented dynasty of Assam, ruling Kāmarūpa from abo…
- Vēḷir chieftainciesThe Vēḷir were the chieftains of the Tamil country who ruled the hill and forest tracts betwe…
- VemakaVemaka was a people of the eastern Punjab attested only by a small series of copper coins bea…
- Viṣṇukuṇḍin dynastyThe Viṣṇukuṇḍins ruled coastal Andhra and Telangana for two centuries from about 420 CE, the…
- Vṛṣṇi corporationThe Vṛṣṇi corporation was a clan body of the Mathurā country attested by a coin issued in the…
- Warfare in ancient IndiaWarfare in ancient India spans the tribal conflicts described in the Rigveda and the epics th…
- Western Ganga dynastyThe Western Gangas ruled southern Karnataka for some six centuries from about 350 CE, and the…
- Western SatrapsThe Western Satraps, or Kṣatrapas, were a series of Indo-Scythian (Śaka) ruling houses that g…
- Wootz steelWootz steel is a high-carbon crucible steel developed in South India by the mid-first millenn…
- YaudheyaThe Yaudheyas were a martial corporation of the country between the Sutlej and the Yamuna, th…