Visvakarman (omnificent) may originally have been an epithet for any powerful god, but it was used in the Rigveda most often for Indra and Surya. There are two Rigvedic hymns to Visvakarman praising him as the all-seeing god, the one who names the gods, and that one beyond the comprehension…
Vishnu rose from a minor role as a solar deity in the Rigveda to one of the Hindu Triad with Brahma and Siva to the Absolute of the universe in Vaishnavism. Vishnu’s willingness to incarnate in time of need to restore righteousness (dharma) was the inspiring theme that made…
Veda means “knowledge,” but specifically refers to the eternal wisdom of the four collections of hymns, sacrificial rituals, andVayu, the wind, shown riding his vahana, the antelope other sacred texts that are called the Vedas. Along with the four collections (the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads), two…
Vayu was the Vedic wind god. He fought alongside Indra and the Maruts (gods of storm) in defeating Vritra, the storm demon who held back the celestial waters. He was a charioteer of enormous power. Vayu would be connected in the Upanishads with breath of life (prana). By the time…
Vasuki served as the churning rope when the wondrous objects, including the nectar of immortality (amrita), were brought up from the Milky Ocean.
Varuna was one of the oldest of the Vedic deities. Varuna may have been part of the first triad of gods known in the Vedic period—along with Mitra and Arya- man. A little later but still within the early Vedic period, they were replaced by Agni, Indra, and Surya….
Varna means “color”; it refers to a ideal system of four classes or groupings of society—the so-called caste system. Both these idealized classes and the current jati (birth) system of several thousand endogamous groups are translated by the word caste, which probably came into English from Portuguese. Surprisingly, the real…
Third of the ten incarnations of Vishnu, as Varaha, the wild boar In the Padma Purana the world order had again been disrupted. The fierce asura (demon) Hiranyaksha had gained a boon (vara) of invincibility. With his provisional immortality, he stormed around the three regions of the universe wanting to…
Vamana was the dwarf incarnation (avatara) of Vishnu. The myth utilized the device of deceit, or outwitting the opponent, even though the struggle was between the supreme god Vishnu and a demon (asura) named Bali. Although an avatara was required to restore the proper order and return righteousness to…
There are no authentic records about Valmiki’s parentage. The popular version considered him to be the tenth son of Varuna, god of the sea. Valmiki was considered to be the first poet. There is an interesting story about the earlier part of Valmiki’s life. He began this life…
Vaivasvata Manu is the “first man” of the current manvantara (age or era). In the Rigveda there were references to Father Manu, implying that he was either a creator or a progenitor of the human race, but this reference seemed to refer to the sun god Surya….
Vaikuntha was the celestial abode of Vishnu. Vaikuntha literally means the “place of no hindrance.” In the Puranas, it was located variously—in heaven (svarga), north of the heavenly mountains (Himalaya), even on Mount Meru (Mahameru), the axis of the earth. Most commonly Vaikuntha was located on the southern slopes of…
Princess Vadhrimati was married to a hermaphrodite. With the blessings of the Asivin brothers she received a son named Hiranya Hasta. The story came from a time when gods had sons with princesses. In a slightly different version Vadhrimati was married to a eunuch. Despondent that she could not have…
Vac means “word” and “song,” as well as being the name of an early Vedic goddess. Vac refers to both speech and speech-consciousness. Vac enters into the seers (rishis). A Rig Vedic hymn to Vac stated that all actions and powers were grounded in speech. It was the primordial energy…
In Vedic mythology Ushas was the goddess of dawn and the herald of all that was connected with the advent of the sun, Surya, supreme ruler of the heavens. She announced Surya, who brought along with her, light to make the pastures fertile, horses, chariots, wealth, and plenitude. The mighty…
Urvashi’s story is unusual. She was an apsara, but instead of being born or created in heaven she was born from the thigh of a mortal. She resulted from a conflict between Indra and her father, the sage Narayana. It happened in this way. Narayana and Nara, sons of Dharma…
Usha was a daitya (demon) princess, daughter of Bana and granddaughter of Bali, both great asura (demon) rulers. Usha dreamed of the man she would wish to marry. Citralekha, a woman with this special siddhi (power), drew a picture of Aniruddha, grandson of Krishna, according to Usha’s dream. Then, Citralekha…
Tilottama was an example of robotics, according to the modern Hindu idea that every form of knowledge, including modern science, can be found in the Vedas and Puranas. Tilottama had to be made from all the elements of beauty, animate and inanimate, to make a woman who would enchant two…
The story of Tara illustrates the Puranic mentality of defaming its heroes and heroines, since some accounts make her a willing participant in adultery and others exonerate her and present her as one of the pancakanaya, five perfect women. Tara was married to the great sage Brihaspati and was unusually…
Uma was a goddess whose name meant “light.” She was the wife of Siva and was also known by the name of Parvati in one of her births.
Tapa was a deva (god) who was born of the tapas (austerities) of five sages: Kasyapa, Vasishtha, Pranaka, Cyavana, and Trivarcas. Hence, he was also known by the name Panca-janya (one born of five). He can be said to be the personification of tapas. However, the Mahabharata added that Tapa…
Tantra has had many meanings: a class of literature (the Tantras), practices that are non-Vedic (tantrika), one of the religious sects of Hinduism. There is no single word in Sanskrit for Tantrism as a religious perspective, even though its additions to the Hindu tradition make it quite distinctive. Tantrism can…
Tapas, a central term in Hindu mythology, literally means “heat.” It served as a metaphor for the heat generated in ascetic and esoteric practices. Austerities that generated tapas, often themselves called tapas, were not always ascetic in spirit. Most myths link tapas with powers (siddhis): one practiced tapas in order…
Trita was a Vedic god whose name meant “the third.” His main importance comes from sharing the same achievements with Indra. Some scholars say that he was Indra’s double, but a more likely interpretation is that Trita was already fading from prominence by the time of the Vedic hymns. That…
Tvashthri, literally the shaper, was the son of Kasiyapa and Aditi. Alain Danielou called him the personification of one of the six minor principles of Vedic culture: craftsmanship. The hymns in the Rigveda made him function something like later concepts such as sakti (divine energy) and life force (prana), except…
A yatra was a pilgrimage, or visit, to a river crossing, or ford (tirtha). Thus the term tirtha-yatra came into usage. Over the centuries it came to mean a visit to any holy place, a pilgrimage to a sacred region (such as the plain where the Mahabharata battle was fought),…
The meaning of upanishad is “to sit near attentively.” They usually consisted of a metaphysical discussion between the sage and a disciple. There are 108 Upanishads traditionally, although only a dozen, the so-called major Upanishads, are in every list. Minor Upanishads are still being written. In the early Vedic period,…
The story of Taladhwaja was retold to solve a variety of problems—above all, how a sage could remain an ascetic when he had changed genders to marry a king. The solution in the Devi Purana was a kind of popular use of Advaita philosophy in a myth: using a popular…
The grandfather of this kalpa, Kasyapa-prajapati, founded the kingdom of serpents with his wife Kadru. Takshaka was one of her seven greatest children, the septa-nagas. Takshaka and her most righteous children were cursed to be reborn on earth and to be burned alive as their punishment for not obeying their…
Surya was a primary deity of the Aryans at the time of the earliest hymns of the Rigveda. The solar cult saw the sun as the most obvious symbol of life, consciousness, and divinity. For some time within each of the first three periods of Hindu mythology, Surya was…
In the Epics Sukra was the son or grandson of Bhrigu, the powerful magician who almost killed Agni. Sukra was also known as Kavya. Sukra became the greatest master of magic of his age, but he served the asuras. The devas (gods) sent sage Kaca to learn how he had…
The concept of purification (suddhi) is linked to pollution (mala) and the ways it is removed: ritually, physically, or even by divine grace. Central to the Vedic sacrifices was the notion that blood sacrifices would atone for wrong-doing and remove a form of purification called agnisuddhi. Siva was not invited…
Subrahmanya means literally “favorable to priests,” often used as an invocation to the devas (gods) in Vedic soma sacrifices. Subrahmanya was also the designation for one of three assistants to the Vedic Udgatri priest. However, this beautiful Sanskrit compound was simply appropriated in the Puranas to name Siva’s most frightening…
This entry will focus on Soma as the plant and Vedic drink. For more information about Soma as a deva and as the moon, see the entry on Candra. In the Vedic period Candra, the moon, and Soma, the entheogenic (religious experience-inducing) plant, were connected by associations (bandhus) in the…
Skanda was the six-headed son of Siva, god of war. Skanda can be seen as either sharing his function with Karttikeya, Guha, Kumara, and Subrahmanya or as absorbing them as epithets. Siva’s son had been the son of Agni, god of fire, in earlier mythology. In the Mahabharata there…
If the mention of the word Siva (auspicious) in the Vedas is considered to refer to Lord Siva, Siva spans all periods of Hindu mythology. No matter when he enters Hindu mythology, Siva is among the two or three most important gods— either as one of the later Hindu Triad,…
Sisupala was the third rebirth of Jaya for his failure to carry out his duty (dharma) as a doorkeeper (dwarapalaka) of Lord Vishnu at Vaikuntha. He was cursed because of that failure, and he played a role in three incarnations of Vishnu. His twin brother Vijaya shared in the original…
Siddhi is a central concept of Hindu mythology; the term means “power” or “supernatural ability.” The siddhis, often listed as eight, could be acquired by austerities (tapas). These supernatural abilities included the ability to obtain anything (prapti), having an irresistible will (prakamya), the ability to subdue anything to one’s own…
Sita was born from the earth when it was ploughed. Thus the earth, Bhu Devi, was her mother. Sita was brought up by King Janaka as his daughter. According to many Puranas, Sita was the incarnation of Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu. Rama wed Sita after winning the marriage contest—lifting and…
Sikhandi’s story had its beginning in another life. Wrongs done in that life carried into the next, with a vow to kill the warrior who had wronged her. In that previous birth she was Amba, the eldest daughter of the King of Kashi. She was engaged to marry King Salva,…
The Savitri is also called the Gayatri. It is recited each morning and evening by millions of Hindus. The Savitri is addressed to Savitri (the generator) who in the earliest Vedic lore may have been one of the attributes of the great sun god, Surya. The Savitri was also personified…
Satyavati was the mother of the great sage Vyasa. However, her story is quite interesting, as well as complicated because of all the nested elements. She was born of a fish who had been cursed, given to a king but returned because of her smell, named three times, and…
Sati literally meant “good one,” or, since it had a feminine ending, “good woman.” It was extended to mean “pure one,” especially a wife who had purified herself in the funeral pyre of their husband. By the modern era sati (suttee in nineteenth-century literature) came to mean “widow burning”…
The Sastras (precepts, rules) are a class of texts that cover religion as well as law, medicine, and the (pre-) science of that period. They were classified as tradition (smriti), ranking below the Vedas in sacredness. They have some mythological material, but it is their insight into the context of…
Sarasvati is a goddess of primary importance. She is accepted by Hindus as the goddess of learning, the arts, and scholarship. However, Sarasvati’s nature is far more complex and her mythology more interesting than is widely known. Sarasvati, whose name means “flowing” and “watery,” has been associated with an ancient…
The Sapta-Nagas were Ananta, Takshaka, Karka, Padma, Mahapadma, Sank- haka, and Gulika. Iconographically, they all wear the sacred thread of a brahmin, have an extended hood, and may have multiple heads.SAPTA-RISHIS The collective name of the seven most important sages There were seven Sages (sapta-rishis) at the beginning of the…
The collective name of the seven divine mothers—seven (saptan) mothers (matris or matrikas)—has been associated with Siva both in mythology and iconography. The Brahmanical view in the Mahabharata depicted them as destructive female energies responsible for ill fortune and disease and especially attracted to harming children. The mothers were assimilated…
In the Bhagavad Gita Sanjaya is one of its four characters—the other being Arjuna, Krishna, and King Dhritarashtra. The idea of boon-granting (vara) had become so common by the time of the late epic literature that a sage like Vyasa Sandstone figure of Camunda, the fierce, protective eight-armed mother, from…
Samsara has the essential meaning of the cycle of rebirths or simply rebirth. Samsara is one of the key concepts in understanding the reason Hindu mythology can be so complex—figures changing genders from one lifetime to the next, rebirths in lifetimes with different names but carrying from a previous lifetime…
The four life stages (asrama-dharma) are viewed by many scholars as joining the Vedic model of three life stages of the Aryas (“the noble ones,” who were twice- born) with a fourth stage, that of renunciation, which developed outside of the Aryan or Brahmanical tradition. The renunciation movement spanned such…