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…
Divine enchanting sound of Flute of Lord Krishna Sri Sukadeva says: “O king, most of the time of Lord Krishna’s boyhood passed in Vrindavana. There he grazed cattles and played flute. His flute had a divine, enchanting sound.The Gopis (girls) gathered around him under the influence of enchanting tunes.” They…
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),…
