Vedic
The Saṃhitās, Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads, the śrauta rites and the gods of the hymns.
Deities
- AditiThe boundless;
- AgniAgni is the Vedic and Hindu god of fire, addressed in the opening hymn of the Rigveda as the…
- AgniFire;
- AiravataAiravata is the divine white elephant that carries Indra, king of the Vedic gods, and ranks a…
- AmshaĀditya of the share due to gods and worshippers.
- AnalaVasu of fire.
- AnantaGuardian of the nadir;
- AnilaVasu of wind.
- AranyaniGoddess of the forest and its wild solitude.
- AryamanĀditya of customs, hospitality and marriage.
- AshvinsTwin horsemen;
- BhagaĀditya of fortune, wealth and just apportionment.
- 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.
- DhanvantariPhysician of the gods;
- DharaVasu of the earth.
- DhatriĀditya of health, domestic ritual and creation.
- DhruvaVasu of the pole star;
- DitiMother of the Daityas;
- DyausThe sky father;
- The Eight VasusThe elemental spheres — Dhara, Anala, Anila, Apa, Soma, Dhruva, Prabhāsa, Pratyūṣa.
- The Eleven RudrasThe vital forces / howlers;
- IndraIndra is the Vedic king of the gods and the deity of thunder, lightning, rain, and war, the m…
- IshanaGuardian of the Northeast;
- KamadevaThe god of love, who looses flower-arrows of desire.
- KuberaGuardian of the North;
- MarutsThe storm-troop;
- MitraGod of friendship, contracts and the light of day.
- NirritiGuardian of the Southwest;
- ParjanyaThe rain-cloud god;
- PrabhasaVasu of dawn-light and splendour.
- PrajapatiLord of creatures;
- PrithviPrithvi is the Vedic and Hindu goddess personifying the earth, worshipped from the earliest S…
- PushanNourisher and guardian of roads, herds and travellers.
- RatriThe goddess of night.
- SaraswatiSaraswati is the Hindu goddess of wisdom, learning, speech, music and the arts, worshipped si…
- SavitrThe solar impeller;
- ShivaShiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the destroyer within the Tri…
- SomaThe sacred draught and the moon;
- SuryaSurya is the principal solar deity of Hinduism, worshipped in the Vedas as the source of ligh…
- TvashtarThe heavenly artisan who forged Indra’s thunderbolt.
- The Twelve ĀdityasSolar sovereigns — Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Dhātṛ, Aṃśa, Vivasvān, Savitṛ, Tvaṣṭṛ, Pūṣa…
- UshasThe radiant goddess of dawn.
- VacThe goddess of sacred speech and the creative word.
- VarunaGuardian of cosmic order (ṛta) and the waters;
- VayuVāyu is the Vedic and Hindu god of wind and breath, one of the Pañca Bhūta (five elements), i…
- 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.
- YamaFirst mortal and lord of the dead;
People
- AtriOne of the seven seers;
- BhriguProgenitor-sage who tested and marked the three great gods.
- ChyavanaThe aged sage restored to youth by the Aśvins.
- DadhichiThe sage who gave his own bones to forge Indra’s thunderbolt.
- DurvasaThe short-tempered sage whose curses and boons drive many tales.
- KashyapaThe primal patriarch;
- MarkandeyaThe ever-youthful sage who survived the cosmic dissolution.
- NaradaThe wandering divine sage and musician;
- PaniniPanini was an ancient Sanskrit grammarian of Gandhara, active around the 4th century BCE, who…
- ParasharaSage-father of Vyāsa;
- PatanjaliCodifier of the Yoga Sūtras;
- SaptarishiThe seven great seers of the age: Kaśyapa, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bh…
- ShukraVenus;
- VishwamitraKing who became a brahmarṣi;
- VyasaCompiler of the Vedas and author of the Mahābhārata.
Dynasties & States
- AṅgaAṅga was a mahājanapada east of Magadha with its capital at Campā, and the first of the great…
- Anu, Druhyu and TurvaśaAnu, Druhyu and Turvaśa are three peoples named repeatedly in the Ṛgveda who, with the Yadu a…
- AssakaAssaka was the southernmost of the sixteen mahājanapadas, a kingdom of the Godāvarī valley an…
- AvantiAvanti was a mahājanapada of the Malwa plateau ruled from Ujjayinī, the strongest of Magadha'…
- Bharata dynastyThe Bharata dynasty is the legendary lunar-line (Chandravansha) royal lineage described in th…
- ChediChedi was a mahājanapada of the Bundelkhand country south of the Yamuna, known from the epics…
- KambojaKamboja was a people of the Kabul valley and the northwestern highlands, counted among the ma…
- KāśīKāśī was a mahājanapada of the middle Ganga around Vārāṇasī, an old and wealthy kingdom that…
- KīkaṭaKīkaṭa is a people named once in the Ṛgveda, in a hostile aside, and identified by later comm…
- Kuru KingdomThe Kuru Kingdom was both a historically attested late Vedic polity of the upper Ganga-Yamuna…
- MadraMadra was a kingdom of the central Punjab around Śākala, named in later Vedic literature and…
- MatsyaMatsya was a mahājanapada of eastern Rajasthan with its capital at Virāṭanagara, best known a…
- PanchalaPanchala was a later Vedic kingdom of the upper Ganga–Yamuna Doab that, with its neighbour Ku…
- PuruThe Puru were a Ṛgvedic tribe of the Punjab, remembered chiefly as the leading opponents of t…
- ŚālvaŚālva was a people of the country between Rajasthan and Haryana, named in the later Vedic lit…
- ŚūrasenaŚūrasena was a mahājanapada of the Mathurā country, the kingdom in whose territory the Kṛṣṇa…
- Uśīnara and the ŚibiUśīnara and Śibi were related peoples of the Punjab, remembered in Vedic and Buddhist literat…
- VatsaVatsa was a mahājanapada at the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna, ruled from Kauśāmbī,…
- Yadu and the Yādava lineageYadu was a Ṛgvedic people whose name became, in later tradition, the great Yādava lineage of…
Texts
Concepts
- Devi, devata, Brahman and yajnaDevi, deva/devata, Bhagavan, Ishvara, Brahman, and Atman are core Sanskrit terms in Hindu the…
- Jati, varna and gotraJati, varna, and gotra are three distinct traditional frameworks for social classification an…
- JyotishaJyotisha is the traditional Indian science of astronomy and astrology, one of the six Vedanga…
- Pancha BhutaThe Pancha Bhutas, the five great elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, are the fou…
- Schools of Hindu philosophyThe six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and…
- YogaYoga is a body of Indian spiritual and physical disciplines, rooted in Vedic ritual and Upani…