Religion
Entries on the beliefs, deities, texts and practices of the subcontinent’s traditions.
251 entries
A
- Adhyātma RāmāyaṇaThe Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa is a Sanskrit retelling of the epic embedded in the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, w…
- Adi ShaktiIn Shakta Hindu theology, the primordial feminine power held to be the source, sustaining for…
- Adi ShankaraAn early medieval philosopher-monk from Kerala who systematized Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu sc…
- AgastyaAgastya is a rishi credited with authorship of Vedic hymns, with bringing Vedic and Tamil lea…
- AgniAgni is the Vedic and Hindu god of fire, addressed in the opening hymn of the Rigveda as the…
- The agni-parīkṣāThe agni-parīkṣā is the passage in the Rāmāyaṇa in which Rāma, after winning the war, repudia…
- 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…
- AjivikaThe Ajivikas were an ascetic order of ancient India holding that everything is determined by…
- AjnanaAjnana was the sceptical current among the shramana movements, holding that knowledge of meta…
- Akal TakhtThe Akal Takht is the seat of temporal authority in Sikhism, built by Guru Hargobind at Amrit…
- 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…
- Amrit SancharAmrit Sanchar is the Sikh initiation rite, in which sweetened water stirred with a double-edg…
- Ānanda RāmāyaṇaThe Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa is a late Sanskrit retelling ascribed to Vālmīki, probably of the fifteen…
- AnattaAnatta is the Buddhist doctrine that no permanent, independent self is to be found in or behi…
- AnekantavadaAnekantavada is the Jain doctrine that reality has many aspects, that any single statement ab…
- AṅgadaAṅgada is the son of Vālī and Tārā in the Rāmāyaṇa, made crown prince of Kiṣkindhā at his fat…
- 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…
- The ascetic's sonThe ascetic's son is the youth in the Rāmāyaṇa whom the young Daśaratha killed by shooting at…
- 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…
B
- BahubaliBahubali is a figure of Jain tradition, a son of the first tirthankara, remembered for renoun…
- The banishment of SītāThe banishment of Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa's seventh book is Rāma's decision, on hearing that his…
- BAPS templesBAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) is a Hindu monastic and cultural…
- BhadrabahuBhadrabahu was a Jain teacher of the early period, remembered as the last to know the full ca…
- Bhagavad GitaThe Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse Sanskrit dialogue between the warrior prince Arjuna and the…
- Bhai GurdasBhai Gurdas was the scribe of the Adi Granth and the author of the vars, the earliest Sikh ex…
- 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…
- BodhisattvaA bodhisattva is a being on the path to full buddhahood, and in Mahayana Buddhism one who vow…
- 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…
- The breaking of Śiva's bowThe breaking of Śiva's bow at Mithilā is the episode in the Rāmāyaṇa by which Rāma wins Sītā,…
- Buddha PurnimaBuddha Purnima, also called Vesak or Buddha Jayanti, is the major Buddhist festival held on t…
- 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 councilsThe Buddhist councils were assemblies of the monastic community held to recite and settle the…
- 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…
C
- Chaitra and Sharad NavratriNavratri is a nine-night Hindu festival honouring the goddess Durga, observed twice a year in…
- ChamundaChamunda is a fierce form of the Hindu goddess Durga, described in the Devi Mahatmya as emerg…
- Char DhamChar Dham refers to a set of four major Hindu pilgrimage sites — Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri, and…
- CharvakaCharvaka is the materialist school of Indian philosophy, which accepted only perception as a…
- ChhayaChhaya (Chāyā, "shadow") is a goddess in Hindu mythology, the shadow-substitute wife of the s…
- Churches in IndiaChurches in India span more than nineteen centuries of Christian presence, from the Saint Tho…
D
- DadhimukhaDadhimukha is the keeper of Sugrīva's honey grove in the Rāmāyaṇa, whose complaint that the r…
- Dasam GranthThe Dasam Granth is a collection of compositions associated with Guru Gobind Singh, whose aut…
- DaśarathaDaśaratha is the king of Ayodhyā and father of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, destroyed by two boons h…
- Dasaratha JātakaThe Dasaratha Jātaka is the Pāli birth-story in which the Bodhisatta is born as Rāma-paṇḍita,…
- DashavataraDashavatara ("ten avatars") is the standard Vaishnava list of Vishnu's ten principal incarnat…
- The death of DaśarathaDaśaratha dies of grief in the Rāmāyaṇa on the sixth night after Rāma's departure, understand…
- Denominations of HinduismShaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, and Smartism are the four major devotional traditions (sampr…
- Dependent originationDependent origination is the Buddhist doctrine that phenomena arise in dependence on conditio…
- 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,…
- 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…
- DigambaraThe Digambara are one of the two principal Jain orders, holding that a fully advanced mendica…
- Dīvālī and Rāma's returnIn North Indian tradition the lamps of Dīvālī mark the night Ayodhyā lit itself for Rāma's re…
- DūṣaṇaDūṣaṇa is the marshal of Khara's forces at Janasthāna in the Rāmāyaṇa, killed with the whole…
F
- The fall of IndraThe fall of Indra is a Puranic myth, told most fully in the Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Puran…
- The Five KsThe Five Ks are the articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs — uncut hair, comb, steel brace…
- The five vowsThe five vows of Jainism — non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity and non-possession — a…
- Four Noble TruthsThe Four Noble Truths are the framework of the Buddha's teaching — that there is suffering, t…
- The fourteen yearsThe fourteen years of Rāma's exile in the Rāmāyaṇa are counted exactly by everyone in the poe…
G
- GandharvasGandharvas are a class of male celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist tradition associated ch…
- Gautama MaharṣiGautama is the sage of the Rāmāyaṇa whose curse condemned his wife Ahalyā to live unseen and…
- The golden deer and the abductionThe golden deer is the disguise in the Rāmāyaṇa by which the rākṣasa Mārīca drew Rāma away fr…
- GuhaGuha is the Niṣāda chief of Śṛṅgaverapura in the Rāmāyaṇa, a hunter-fisher king who was alrea…
- GurdwaraA gurdwara is a Sikh place of assembly, defined by the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, and…
- Guru Amar DasGuru Amar Das was the third Sikh Guru, who organised the community into administrative distri…
- Guru AngadGuru Angad was the second Sikh Guru, who standardised the Gurmukhi script, collected Nanak's…
- Guru ArjanGuru Arjan was the fifth Sikh Guru, who compiled the Adi Granth, built the Harmandir Sahib at…
- Guru Granth SahibThe Guru Granth Sahib is the scripture of Sikhism and, since 1708, its living Guru, a fixed c…
- Guru Har KrishanGuru Har Krishan was the eighth Sikh Guru, who succeeded at the age of five and died of small…
- Guru Har RaiGuru Har Rai was the seventh Sikh Guru, who maintained the armed retinue he inherited without…
- Guru HargobindGuru Hargobind was the sixth Sikh Guru, who took up arms after his father's execution, built…
- Guru NanakGuru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism, a teacher of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Punjab w…
- Guru Ram DasGuru Ram Das was the fourth Sikh Guru, the founder of Amritsar, and the composer of the Lavan…
- Guru Tegh BahadurGuru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth Sikh Guru, executed at Delhi in 1675 in a case Sikh tradition…
H
- 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 worship and the Hanumān CālīsāHanumān is among the most widely worshipped deities in India, approached for strength, courag…
- Hanumān's leap to LaṅkāHanumān's leap across a hundred yojanas of ocean to Laṅkā opens the fifth book of the Rāmāyaṇ…
- Hatkoti TempleHatkoti is a temple complex on the Pabbar River in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla district, center…
- HemachandraHemachandra was a Jain scholar-monk of twelfth-century Gujarat, adviser to the Chaulukya king…
- HinduismHinduism is the world's oldest continuously practiced major religious tradition and the domin…
- Hinduism: basic beliefsA survey of the beliefs shared, in varying form, across most Hindu traditions: the doctrines…
- Hinduism: frequently asked questionsA reference set of commonly asked questions about Hindu belief, deities, sacred texts, ritual…
I
- Ik OnkarIk Onkar is the opening phrase of Sikh scripture, asserting one indivisible divine reality, a…
- IndraIndra is the Vedic king of the gods and the deity of thunder, lightning, rain, and war, the m…
- IndrajitIndrajit is Rāvaṇa's eldest son in the Rāmāyaṇa, who defeated Indra and took his name from it…
J
- 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…
- 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…
- Japji SahibThe Japji Sahib is Guru Nanak's principal composition, placed at the opening of the Guru Gran…
- JaṭāyuJaṭāyu is the aged vulture king in the Rāmāyaṇa, an old friend of Daśaratha, who attacked Rāv…
- JhulelalJhulelal is the patron deity of the Sindhi community, worshipped by Sindhi Hindus as an incar…
- Jiva and ajivaJiva and ajiva are the two fundamental categories of Jain ontology, the sentient and the inse…
K
- KabandhaKabandha is the headless, one-eyed, long-armed creature of the Rāmāyaṇa who seizes both broth…
- 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…
- Kalpa SutraThe Kalpa Sutra is a Svetambara Jain text giving the lives of the tirthankaras and the rules…
- KartikeyaKartikeya, also known as Skanda, Murugan, and Subrahmanya, is the Hindu god of war and comman…
- KausalyāKausalyā is the senior queen of Daśaratha and the mother of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, whose posit…
- Kesarī and AñjanāKesarī and Añjanā are the parents of Hanumān in the Rāmāyaṇa — a vānara chieftain and an apsa…
- Kevala jnanaKevala jnana is the state of complete and unobstructed knowledge in Jain doctrine, attained w…
- KhalsaThe Khalsa is the order founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699, whose initiated members take vo…
- KharaKhara is the rākṣasa commander of Janasthāna in the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāvaṇa's kinsman, whose army of…
- Khatu ShyamKhatu Shyam is a Hindu deity worshipped chiefly in Rajasthan as a form of Barbarika, a Mahabh…
- The killing of VālīRāma's killing of the vānara king Vālī from behind cover, during a wrestling match with his b…
- KrishnaKrishna is a central deity of Hinduism, worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and, in man…
- KumbhakarṇaKumbhakarṇa is Rāvaṇa's giant brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, cursed to sleep for half the year, who…
- KundakundaKundakunda was a Digambara Jain philosopher whose Prakrit works on the soul, and their distin…
- KuśadhvajaKuśadhvaja is Janaka's younger brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, ruler of Sāṅkāśyā, whose two daughter…
L
- LakṣmaṇaLakṣmaṇa is Rāma's younger brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, who follows him into exile and serves fou…
- LangarThe langar is the free communal kitchen attached to every gurdwara, where anyone may eat, sea…
- Lava and KuśaLava and Kuśa are the twin sons of Rāma and Sītā in the Rāmāyaṇa, born at Vālmīki's hermitage…
- LokayataLokayata is the older name for Indian materialism, later used interchangeably with Charvaka,…
M
- MahamastakabhishekaThe Mahamastakabhisheka is the anointing of the colossal Jain image of Bahubali at Shravanabe…
- Mahasu DevtaMahasu Devta is a group of four brother deities worshipped as ruling gods (devtas) across the…
- MahaviraMahavira was the twenty-fourth and last tirthankara of the present cycle in Jain tradition, a…
- MahayanaMahayana is the branch of Buddhism that took the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings as…
- 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…
- Makkhali GosalaMakkhali Gosala was the teacher regarded as the founder of the Ajivika order, known only thro…
- 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…
- 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…
- Meenakshi TempleThe Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, is a major Hindu temple complex dedicated…
- Milinda PanhaThe Milinda Panha is a Pali dialogue between the Greek king Menander and the monk Nagasena, i…
- Miri-PiriMiri-Piri is the Sikh doctrine that temporal and spiritual authority belong together, express…
- MrikanduMrikandu (Mṛkaṇḍu) is a sage of Puranic Hindu tradition, known principally as the father of t…
- Mul MantarThe Mul Mantar is the opening statement of the Guru Granth Sahib, a short formula setting out…
- The mutilation of ŚūrpaṇakhāThe mutilation of Śūrpaṇakhā at Pañcavaṭī in the Rāmāyaṇa — her nose and ears cut off by Lakṣ…
N
- Naam SimranNaam Simran is the Sikh discipline of remembering and repeating the divine name, held by the…
- NagarjunaNagarjuna was the Buddhist philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school, arguing that all ph…
- Namokar MantraThe Namokar Mantra is the central Jain invocation, offering salutation to five classes of spi…
- Narāntaka and DevāntakaNarāntaka and Devāntaka are sons of Rāvaṇa in the Rāmāyaṇa who fought in the great sortie aft…
- NavadurgaNavadurga are the nine forms of the goddess Durga worshipped across the nine nights of Navara…
- Neem Karoli BabaNeem Karoli Baba (c.
- NeminathaNeminatha is the twenty-second tirthankara of Jain tradition, whose narrative connects the Ja…
- NīlaNīla is the commander-in-chief of the vānara army in the Rāmāyaṇa, a son of the fire god, who…
- NirvanaNirvana is the goal of Buddhist practice, the extinction of craving, aversion and delusion an…
- NiyatiNiyati is the principle of unalterable fate that governed Ajivika doctrine, holding that ever…
- Noble Eightfold PathThe Noble Eightfold Path is the fourth of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, setting out eight f…
P
- Pakudha KaccayanaPakudha Kaccayana was a teacher of the Buddha's period who held that reality consists of seve…
- Pali CanonThe Pali Canon is the scriptural collection of Theravada Buddhism, the only early Buddhist ca…
- Pancha BhutaThe Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, are the fou…
- Panj PyareThe Panj Pyare are the five men who answered Guru Gobind Singh's call at Anandpur in 1699 and…
- ParshvanathaParshvanatha was the twenty-third tirthankara of Jain tradition, and the earliest for whom hi…
- 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…
- PinākaPināka is the bow of Śiva in the Rāmāyaṇa, kept by the kings of Videha, which no suitor could…
- PrahastaPrahasta is Rāvaṇa's chief minister and commander-in-chief in the Rāmāyaṇa, held back until t…
- PrithviPrithvi is the Vedic and Hindu goddess personifying the earth, worshipped from the earliest S…
- Purana KassapaPurana Kassapa was a teacher contemporary with the Buddha, reported as holding that actions h…
R
- The rākṣasasThe rākṣasas are the people of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa — night-ranging, shape-shifting, flesh-e…
- Rām NavamīRām Navamī is the Hindu festival of Rāma's birth, kept on the ninth day of the bright half of…
- RāmaRāma is the prince of Ayodhyā at the centre of the Rāmāyaṇa, exiled for fourteen years by his…
- The Rāma pilgrimage circuitThe places of the Rāmāyaṇa form a pilgrimage geography running the length of India — Ayodhyā,…
- The Rāmānandī sampradāyaThe Rāmānandīs are the largest order of Vaiṣṇava ascetics in northern India, devoted to Rāma…
- 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…
- The Rāmnāmī SamājThe Rāmnāmīs are a community of the Chhattisgarh plains, founded in the late nineteenth centu…
- RāvaṇaRāvaṇa is the ten-headed rākṣasa king of Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa, a brahmin's son, a scholar an…
- RishabhanathaRishabhanatha is the first tirthankara of the present cycle in Jain tradition, credited with…
- ṚśyaśṛṅgaṚśyaśṛṅga is the antelope-horned ascetic of the Rāmāyaṇa, raised without ever seeing a woman,…
- RumāRumā is the wife of Sugrīva in the Rāmāyaṇa, taken by his brother Vālī after he drove him out…
S
- ŚabarīŚabarī is the forest ascetic of the Rāmāyaṇa who waited at Lake Pampā on her teachers' word t…
- Sacred animals in HinduismSacred animals in Hinduism are creatures accorded ritual reverence or mythological significan…
- Sagara and the descent of the GaṅgāSagara and his sixty thousand sons are the ancestors of Rāma in a story told within the Rāmāy…
- SallekhanaSallekhana is the Jain practice of voluntarily fasting to death when death is otherwise near,…
- 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…
- SanghaThe sangha is the Buddhist monastic community, the third of the three refuges, and the instit…
- Sanjaya BelatthiputtaSanjaya Belatthiputta was a sceptical teacher of the Buddha's time, characterised in the Pali…
- The sañjīvanī and the mountainThe sañjīvanī episode in the Rāmāyaṇa is Hanumān's flight to a mountain in the north for four…
- 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…
- SaramāSaramā is the rākṣasī of the Rāmāyaṇa who befriended Sītā in captivity, exposed Rāvaṇa's illu…
- SatiSati is the Hindu goddess who, as the first wife of Shiva, immolated herself in protest at he…
- ŚatrughnaŚatrughna is the youngest of the four brothers of the Rāmāyaṇa, Lakṣmaṇa's twin and Bharata's…
- Schools of Hindu philosophyThe six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and…
- SevaSeva is selfless service in Sikh teaching, treated not as charity offered from above but as a…
- Shakti PithasThe Shakti Pithas are a network of Hindu pilgrimage sites, numbered variously at 51 or 108, e…
- ShaniShani is the Hindu deity of the planet Saturn and one of the Navagrahas, revered as an impart…
- Sharad NavratriSharad Navratri is the principal autumn observance of Navratri, a nine-night Hindu festival h…
- ShivaShiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the destroyer within the Tri…
- ShramanaShramana was the general term for the wandering renouncers of early India who rejected Vedic…
- Shumbha and NishumbhaShumbha and Nishumbha are two asura brothers whose conquest of the heavens and defeat by the…
- SikhismSikhism is the monotheistic religion founded in fifteenth-century Punjab by Guru Nanak, devel…
- SītāSītā is the wife of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa, found by King Janaka in a furrow, carried off by Rā…
- Sītā's ordeal and the epic's own doubtsSītā's treatment after the war — the public repudiation, the fire, the banishment and her fin…
- The six teachersThe six teachers are the rival contemporaries of the Buddha whose doctrines are set out and d…
- SthulabhadraSthulabhadra was a Jain teacher who, tradition holds, convened the council at Pataliputra tha…
- 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…
- 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…
- SvayamprabhāSvayamprabhā is the ascetic woman of the Rāmāyaṇa who guards an enchanted underground palace,…
- 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…
- Syncretism in Indian religionsSyncretism in Indian religions refers to the historical blending of doctrines, deities, saint…
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- Tārā of KiṣkindhāTārā is the queen of Vālī in the Rāmāyaṇa, the shrewdest counsellor in Kiṣkindhā, who warned…
- TāṭakāTāṭakā is the yakṣī turned rākṣasī in the Rāmāyaṇa whose killing is the first act of violence…
- Tattvartha SutraThe Tattvartha Sutra is a concise Sanskrit summary of Jain doctrine composed by Umasvati, and…
- TheravadaTheravada is the Buddhist school dominant in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, the only…
- TirthankaraA tirthankara is, in Jain belief, a liberated teacher who establishes the ford across the oce…
- TrijaṭāTrijaṭā is the rākṣasī in the Rāmāyaṇa who guards Sītā in the aśoka grove and protects her, r…
- TripitakaThe Tripitaka is the threefold division of the Buddhist canon into discipline, discourses and…
- TriśirasTriśiras is the three-headed rākṣasa of Khara's command in the Rāmāyaṇa who asked to face Rām…
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- VajradaṃṣṭraVajradaṃṣṭra is the rākṣasa general in the Rāmāyaṇa sent against the southern gate of Laṅkā a…
- VajrayanaVajrayana is the tantric development of Mahayana Buddhism, using mantra, visualisation, ritua…
- VālīVālī is the vānara king of Kiṣkindhā in the Rāmāyaṇa, the strongest of his kind, who drove ou…
- VasiṣṭhaVasiṣṭha is one of the seven great sages (saptarṣi) of Hindu tradition and, in the Rāmāyaṇa,…
- VasubandhuVasubandhu was a Buddhist philosopher of the fourth or fifth century CE who wrote the standar…
- VayuVāyu is the Vedic and Hindu god of wind and breath, one of the Pañca Bhūta (five elements), i…
- VibhīṣaṇaVibhīṣaṇa is Rāvaṇa's youngest brother in the Rāmāyaṇa, who told him in open council to retur…
- VinayaThe Vinaya is the body of monastic discipline in Buddhism, one of the three divisions of the…
- VishnuViṣṇu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the Preserver of the Trimūrt…
- 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…