India A Cultural Voyage

By Udai Narain Tewari

India is a land of eternal resurgence. Writing history might or might not have been a vocation with ancient Indians. Creating history through a ceaseless process of an on-looking culture has definitely been a divine pastime. Cultural strides in India through more than thirty centuries is the theme of this book. It provides an insight to survey linkages of those strides lauded and aspired for by the mankind. The book is an ocean encased in crystal bowl with inner appearances made to whisper in truer lights. The book traces the voyage of Indian Culture through its excellences in the realms of religion, philosophy, aesthetics. languages and sciences with a lively and unique system of deciphering unity in diversity.  The book is a reincarnation of an undying echo of the ageless joy, of a great surrender to the bliss. In conformity with the general design, the book contains READINGS from Kadambari, Mahabharata, Gandhi, secular saints, and from flora and festivals. They resurrect glimpses of authenticity in the inner landscape of India's presences-spiritual and material.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manjul Tewari
• Release date: Sep 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201564049

Udai Narain Tewari

Prof. Udai Narain Tewari taught Indology at the Humboldt University, Berlin in the early seventies. In mid the eighties, he was assigned by the Government of India to program teaching of Indian Culture at the University of Guyana, Georgetown. During the intervening period Prof. Tewari worked with the media both at home and abroad. A creative journalist, he wrote art reviews in regular columns of reputed Dailies and Weeklies. His encounter with the critical and appreciative discipline helped the developing him a unique acquaintance with the unforgeable ideals, the dreams, the wisdom, the buoyant energy and love of life and nature – the many splendor columns in the grand the mansion is known as Indian Culture. The same acquaintance, with his poetic vision, unfolds itself in the form of INDIA – A CULTURAL VOYAGE. OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR:- Resurgent Tibet: A cause for NAM; Bharatiya Sanskriti : Ek Ajasra Pravah; Germany : Desh Aur Niwasi; A Practical Hindi

Book preview

INDIA : A CULTURAL VOYAGE

India is a land of eternal resurgence. Writing history might or might not have been a vocation with ancient Indians.

Creating history through a ceaseless process of an onlooking culture has definitely been a divine pastime. Cultural strides in India through more than thirty centuries is the theme of this book. It provides an insight to survey linkages of those strides lauded and aspired for by the mankind. The book is an ocean encased in crystal bowl with inner appearances made to whisper in truer lights. The book traces the voyage of Indian culture through its excellences in the realms of religion, philosophy, aesthetics, languages and sciences with a lively and unique system of deciphering unity in diversity.

The book is a re-incarnation of undying echo of the ageless joy, of a great surrender to the bliss. In conformity with the general design, the book contains READINGS from Kadambari, Mahabharata, Gandhi, secular saints, and from flora and festivals. They resurrect glimpses of authenticity in the inner landscape of India's presences-spiritual and material.

1

1993

© Author

Published by

Prof. Udai Narain Tewari

L-5, Sector-XI, Noida, Ghaziabad, U.P., India, PIN-201301

2021

Published by

Shri Manjul Tewari

P-24, Engineer Park Apartment, Omega Sector-1

Greater Noida, UP, India 201308

2

INDIA : A CULTURAL VOYAGE

A Cultural Survey of the Land of Eternal Resurgence By

UDAI NARAIN TEWARI

Professor of Indology,

formerly at the Humboldt University, Berlin, and the University of Guyana, Georgetown;

Ex-Director, Indian Cultural Centre, Paramaribo, Suriname P-24 Engineer Park Apartment, Omega Sector-1

Greater Noida, UP, India 201308

3

to father who was also my teacher 4

PROLOGUE

The Indian culture shall live as long as the sun rises in the sky always making new paths more human. Creativity is the pivot of its longevity. Secular and cooperative is its nature. There is nothing fortuitous about its tread. An ordered energy, the six seasons assure its will by law of an all-pervading moral universe. It walks tenderly from peak to peak of excellence. Its gait resembles the rhythm of the milky way in optimism and liberation. The foundation of Indian culture is not religion but dharma. Man in his full and concrete reality is ever active. Here the man is stranger to disease, is free from misfortune, is happy in his children and comely to look upon. Here a surer sense of reality of the unseen is carved out holding key to the destiny of man.

The great periods in Indian culture are marked by a widespread access of spiritual vitality derived from a greater process of assimilation. Participating in the supreme adventure of the ages, the Indian culture played a creative role in shaping the soul of man. It takes a rationalist view of religion. It tries to fathom human life in a scientific spirit with all the obvious facts, the triumphs and defeats of men slumbering in spiritual unconsciousness. It is not so much a revelation to be attained in faith. Rather it is an effort to unveil the deepest layers of man’s being and get into an enduring contact with them. It is a transforming experience not a notion or condition.

The goal of Indian culture has been to reach the suggested sense which is the ultimate sense. It is not rationalistic self-reliance, a risk for the learned and the unlearned. None is deceived by the truth of naturalism. None is caught in the easy belief that the world he sees is all. The Katha Upanishad 5

says, As the self existent pierces the openings of the senses outward, one looks outward, not within himself. A certain thoughtful person, seeking immortality, turns the eye inwards and sees the self. This process of self discovery is the constant commitment of Indian culture to attain human integrity. It is life itself, and not mere argument about it.

Life which is full, where every aspect of being is raised to its highest meaning, where all the senses correlate, and the longings and love of soul are surcharged with deeper and higher spirits.

The Indian culture is not an attribute to sentiment. It is not a derivation of illumination from ignorance. It is a luminous entry into awareness of the real to sift human intuitions and not mistaking paradoxes for discoveries, metaphors for proofs. Never suspicious of the claims of intelligence, it has successfully avoided the pit of a self-satiated obscurantism.

From darkness to light has ever been its voyage, not rejecting reason and going beyond. Here thinking becomes knowing. Philosophy and religion have been two wings of total movement called Indian culture. With a ceaseless vigour it replenishes truth, love and karuna—the eternally contemporary sources on which human civilization subsists.

Great upheavals are embraced as great moments of contacts in wider susceptibilities and deeper understandings. Here the manifold universe is not an illusion. In its waxing and waning, growing and shrinking firmament, the Indian culture manifests itself as one which dwells in the earth, is other than the earth.

The Indian culture never collapses, as it is not built on the sands of speculative doubt and moral impressionism.

It is never disheartened in the face of fiercely confused enthusiasms of races and nations. It is not anti-social or anti-moral. It is directed to the good of mankind as a whole and not to a privileged few. Whatever is lasting and valuable in 6

it, enters into the new soul, the new world, ever struggling to be born. It is a continual dawning of a light with eager passions, a converging life-endeavour, a sovereign realization of the secret of oneness, an affirmation in the belief that humanity is the most glorious vehicle to establish the kingdom of love on earth.

The Indian culture, bathed in the thousand waters of incomprehensible tejas, is still as a flame in a windless place. Its exaltation reflects heaven on earth. It is a holy, calm and deep sea at rest. When, however, it lapses back from this state into ordinary consciousness, it becomes the self as another transcendent majesty. It quakes and shivers, bleeds and means with a longing gaze at eternity. In this mood it represents the supreme as the sovereign personality encompassing this whole world, working through the cosmos and itself for the realization of the universal kingdom. It adopts the mode of bhakti to set free from all and regain pure dignity. It is Vedic in content where rivers and valleys and mountains echo with noblest thoughts in subtlest nuances. Here new evenings and new mornings always loom large, and one learns that from action’s reward are born hell, purgatory and paradise. It is Upanishadic in temper to realise that man being born, is born as owing a debt to gods, to rishis, to fathers and to men. It moulds the fire of sacrifice in human personality through which all is obtained, all is conquered.

In its filigree of inner dynamism, the Indian culture is accompanied by all gods with human faith. It does not carry the log after crossing the river. Built on a vast concept of life gleaming through all aesthetics it extends liberal frontiers. It is an edifying relationship between man and nature to vary, to adjust, to shape and to reform. Euphoria is not allowed to set in and breed falsehood in life or letter. It is modicum of nimbus. Here common sense is called to become co-7

efficient in all branches of intellectual propositions. It is a co-pilgrimage where universes in man’s sensibility are propelled. Here golden caskets of resurrections emerge.

They are swifter than the idea, and they hold the mirror of good and beauty to God and to man.

An earnest urge in excellence, a love unique at each moment, a saga of mouldings along deeper freedoms, the Indian culture is ever ready for consummation of each perfect experience. Here the sorrow of transience stops poisoning life. Life becomes art in morality and inheres only karuna. A culmination of the inner and the outer. A psycho-physical and palpable identity. A profound wide recognition. A golden temple in the smile of man. From pure being to becoming on each crucial moment.

These, and similar flowerings in thought sail along the composition of INDIA: A (CULTURAL VOYAGE. The book is presented to the reader with deep humility and simple hope to share moments in Indian culture, which do not permit tears in sorrow and exultations in joy. The book is a possibility due to the seed sown in me by my good friend Mohan Silakoti. My sons’-—Gangesh’s and Manjul’s—

intelligent and painstaking exercises in preparing the manuscript for the Press have been invaluable. I offer my sincerest thanks to Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao, the Prime Minister of India, to Prof. Nurul Hasan, the renowned historian, and to Smt. Pupul Jayakar, a great connoisseur of art and culture, who have been gracious enough to write a few words of encouragement.

UDAI NARAIN TEWARI

8

CONTENTS

Sl. Chapter

Page No.

A. Prologue

05

B. Glossary

10

1. The Pivot of Indian Life : Rachana ki Archana 46

2. Exact Sciences : Rasa and Sura of Mind

67

3. The Tantra : Spiritual Ecology

84

4. Entertainments in India : An Aesthetic Art in Living 101

5. A Light from the Leap of a Flame

126

6. Indian Art: Process of Deciphering Unity

149

7. Dance and Music: Surrender to the Bliss

188

8. Language is Culture

217

9. Festivals: Accents on Truer Lights

242

10. The British Interlude: Dark and Clownish

260

11. The Bread and the Lotus

281

12. Rituraj : New India : The New Man

303

READINGS

13. An Admonition

321

14. The Enchanted Pool

332

15. Say it with Flowers

341

16. None is a Kafir, None is a Mlechcha

347

17. Hand Gestures : Alphabets of Dance

354

18. The Milky Way

361

19. A Selection of Festivals :

364

A Journey through Joys of Life

20. Example As Well As Precept

380

C. Bibliography

388

9

GLOSSARY

This GLOSSARY is an attempt to define concepts evolved during the last fifty centuries of Indian civilization through a cultural voyage which have been modulated by Indian languages, specially and most importantly by Sanskrit. The GLOSSARY may help readers to enjoy the grand mansion of Indian culture in its authentic and colourful context. For lovers of phonetic music a simple maxim is being presented here to pronounce the words with near accuracy. The maxim is : aa or ii are equal to the sign— viz., Ãchãr=Ãachaar; Annapúrnã=Annapuurnaa.

¯

Abhang

a technical name of a Tamil

devotional poem.

Abhaya non-fear.

Abhinayan

to act, acting.

Abhyudaya

rise in material and spiritual realms.

Achar conduct,

Ãdvãita

non-dualism, unity, a term applied

to the Vedanta philosophy.

Advaitism

the school of non-dualism.

Ãdyã-Shakti

original energy, one of goddess

Durga’s seven hundred names.

Ãgamic

related to Agam, meaning

knowledge, the Vedas; Shastras,

principle; future.

Agratah Chaturo

Vedan Pristhatah

Led by four Vedas, followed by bow

sa-sharam dhanuh

with arrows on, the one being

idam brahamam

knowledge or the Brahman, the

idam chatram

other valour, is protection from\

shapadapi

curse, from enemy’s arrows.

shar adapi

10

Ãchãrya

a spiritual master, teacher, guru,

Ãhimsã

non-violence.

Ain-e- Akbari

The Rule of Emperor Akbar, a

famous book on polity during

Akbar’s reign, authored by Abul

Fazal in Persian.

Aitareya Brahaman

the ritual commentary on the Veda

by sage Atri.

Akhand Pãth

uninterrupted recitation, especially

in the context of religious texts.

Akshara

word: one that does not die out, or

mitigate itself.

Akshat

rice grain used in Hindu worship,

virgin.

Alakha mandal

the unseen universe, the universe.

Alankãr decoration.

Alankdãr Shãstra

the authentic knowledge of

decoration—physical and aesthetic.

Ãlãp

seven voices of Indian music,

exercise in cultivating those voices.

Allãh

the Arabic name of God, used by

Islam.

Allãh-lã-makãn

God without abode.

Amarkosh

a learned Sanskrit commentary

on Panini’s immortal treatise on

Sanskrit Grammar.

Amãvãsya

the darkest night in Hindu calendar

when moon is totally invisible.

Amirit

ambrosia, the food of the gods,

which makes the partaker immortal,

the nectar believed to be found

during the mythological churning of

the ocean.

Anal Haqq

an Arabic term for abstract. God

11

used by Indian Sufis.

Ãnand

bliss, supreme pleasure.

Ananga

the god of sex, the bodiless.

Anantam

the endless.

Ãndhra-bhãsha

early name of Telugu, one of the

regional languages spoken in

Andhra Pradesh, South India.

Anishta

harmful, evil.

Annapùrnã

the goddess of food, that which is

never empty.

Antahpur

the inner sanctum.

Anugrah

godly mercy.

Annushtubu

a form of rhyme mostly used in

Sanskrit verse.

Apabhramsha

a distorted form of Sanskrit and the

mother of several modern Indian

languages.

Aparigrah non-acquisitiveness.

Apasara

an angel; a physical presence of love,

art and lust in the heaven.

Apourusheya

that which is not attainable by man.

Aql intelligence.

Arahat ãyatan

home of Jain mendicants.

Ardha half.

Ardhamãgadhi

a dialect spoken in some parts of

Bihar, India.

Artha

meaning; wealth.

Arthashãstra

the famous treatise on polity by

Kautilya, the guru and mentor

of Emperor Chandra Gupta, the

founder of Mauryan dynasty.

Ãrti

to welcome or worship man or

deity with lamp of butter circulating

12

round the front of the image.

Ãryasamaj

a reformative movement organised

by Swami Dayanand based on Vedic

tenets.

Ãryãvrat

an earlier name of India, the land

notable for Aryan descent.

Ãshdãdha

a month of the rainy season in

India, notable for dark clouds in

abundance, and supposed to be a

romantic time.

Ãshrama

home of a sage also catering for

disciples eager to acquire knowledge

with strict observance of a set code

of conduct; the state in life for

living in celibacy while learning;

in married life, in preparation

for renunciation; and finally

renunciation.

Ashtabhuji

eight handed goddess Durga.

Ãtman

soul; part and parcel of God.

Avadhi

one of the several and very rich

dialects in North India.

Avalõkiteshwar

the Buddha.

Avatãr incarnation

Ayam nijah paro

veti ganana laghu

This is mine, that is other’s : is the

chetasãm

calculation of the low mind.

uddãr chariténam

For the liberal soul entire world

tu vasudhaiva

is a family.

Kutumbakam

Ayodhya Mathura

Maya Kashi

names of seven ancient cities of

Kãnchi Avantikã,

India whose praises

Purì Dwãrãvati

are to be sung to attain deliverance

geya, saptayika

13

Mokshdayika

Ãyurveda

the Indian science of medicine;

literally, the knowledge of life and

its longevity.

Bãbã

respectful address for a saint, a guru,

also a grandfather.

Bãbarnama

the autobiography of Emperor

Babar, the founder of the Mughal

dynasty.

Bãbu

the class of clerks created by the

British in India. Also, a loving word

of address.

Bagalamukhi

a name of goddess Shakti.

Bahisht

heaven, the world beyond, reserved

for people of good deeds.

Baisakhi

a Hindu festival on full moon in

March-April in commemoration of

the descent of the Ganga; also a Sikh

religious festival.

Baitarani

a mythical river dividing the earth

from the heaven.

Bali

a sacrifice in ritual worship,

Barahmihir

a famous man of letters, the author

of Brihatsamhita, a scientific treatise

during the Gupta period, also a

contemporary of another Hindu

scientist named Arya Bhatta.

Barman Melã

a fair held during Sankranti on

Hoshangabad district.

Basauli

a style of miniature painting in

vogue during medieval India.

Bhadra

elite, civilized, cultured.

Bhadro

same as bhadra (in Bengali

language).

Bhãgi sharer.

14

Bhãgirath

the mythological king who

penanced for the descent of the

Ganga.

Bhãgwata

a religious school in Hinduism

deriving inspiration from Krishna as

the incarnation of Vishnu.

Bhãgwata Purãna

the mythico-literary history

concerning Krishna.

Bhai Bhai ek hain

all are brothers.

Bhairava

a name of Shiva.

Bhairavi

a note in classical Indian vocal music

sung in early morning.

Bhakti

devotion; a devotional movement

embracing cultural spiritual and

literary stirrings during medieval

period.

Bhandãrak

store keeper.

Bhãngra

a folk dance popular in Punjab.

Bhãrata

the original Sanskrit name of India,

derived from the name of the

mythical founder of the country; the

name of the author of Natya Shastra,

the famous Sanskrit treatise on

dramatics and poetics.

Bhãratmãtã

mother India.

Bharat Natyam

a form of classical dance.

Bhdaratavarsha

the original Sanskrit name of India.

Bhardwaj

a rishi.

Bhartrihari

the famous poet-philosopher-

king; author of immortal hundred

verses each on beauty, polity and

renunciation.

Bhãva

feeling in literature, gesture in dance

or acting.

15

Bhiãg

offering to God, enjoyment.

Brahmchãrin

a religious student; unmarried,

who lives with his spiritual guide;

devoted to study and service.

Brahma Vidyã

knowledge of the Brahman.

Bhuta

The element.

Bhuvaneshwarí

the goddess of the universe; one

of the many names of Shakti, the

Universe beyond.

Bhuvarlõka

a point, zero, centre point between

the eye brows.

Bindu

a school of meditation by

concentration on the centre point

Bindu sãdhana

between the eye brows, taking it as

the centre of the universe,

Boli

dialect, slang.

Brahmã

the creator, one of the Hindu Trinity.

Brahman

the ultimate reality.

Brahmãnand

the supreme bliss.

Brahmin

the priestly caste in Hinduism;

literally, knower of the Brahman.

Brahmi

an old Indian script.

Brahamrandhra

a hole in the middle of the head,

the tantrik yogis are supposed

to awaken it as their supreme

achievement.

Braj

the area near Mathura, the place of

Lord Krishna’s Lila.

Brahmo Samãj

a reform movement organised by

Raja Ram Mohan Roy among the

Hindus of Bengal.

Brihadãranyak

one of the Upanishads.

Brihat Samhita

an immortal treatise on astronomy

and other sciences by Barahmihir.

16

Buddhi vivek

intelligence and wisdom.

Chaãddar

a bed cover, a female garment to

cover the upper body, a sheet of

cloth offered to sufi’s grave,

Chaítanya

the famous saint from Bengal;

literally, consciousness.

Chaitya

a Buddhist or Jain temple, place of

meditation for monks.

Chakravãk

an Indian bird supposed to quench

its thirst only from the rain water

in a particular time of planets’

conjugation called ‘swãti’; a

metaphor for true love.

Chakravartin

a king of kings, a world-ruler;

literally, a wheel turner.

Chaksu eye.

Chãnd Moon

Chãndãl

mean, of the lowest caste.

Chandí

a name for Shakti or Durga.

Charak-achara

animate and inanimate.

Charak Samhitã

the treatise on medicine by one of

the foremost personalities in the

field of ancient Indian medicine,

namely Charak,

Chãturmãsya

meditative style of living at a place

for four months at a stretch.

Chetanã consciousness.

Chinnamastã

A name of Shakti; literally, ‘the

beheaded one’.

Chidãnand

eternal bliss.

Chowries

a kind of sea shells, also the lowest

coin in vogue in the subcontinent till

middle of the twentieth century.

Chau

a folk dance from Assam.

17

Chidambaram

eternal abode.

Chitram

picture, painting.

Daivata

godliness, ‘godly shine’.

Dakhini

southern, southerner.

Dakhinkosala

southern part of Kosal kingdom.

Damaru

a tabor or a small drum shaped

like an hour-glass, the pet musical

instrument of Lord Shiva.

Dãn

the act of giving alms, charity,

donation, bestowal, grant,

purification,

Dargãh

a doorsill, threshold, a shrine, place

of worship, tomb.

Darvesh

a mendicant, a sufi saint.

Dãsa

a slave, a servant, also of God,

vassal.

Dasyu

a robber, demon, non-Aryan.

Delhvi

belonging to Delhi, the old as well as

modern capital of India.

Deva

a deity, god, demon, giant.

Devabhãshã

honoured name of Sanskrit; literally,

god’s language,

Devadasi

a dancing girl devoted to temple

worship.

Devakul pantheon.

Devaloka Eden.

Devamãlã pantheon.

Devata

deity, god, divinity.

Devata ayatan

an abode of god.

Devatãtmã

one whose soul is of god or deity.

Deví

a goddess, consecrated queen, a

suffix with female name denoting

respect.

18

Dhammachakka

a Pali version of ‘Dharm Chakra’,

the Wheel of Law.

Dhanurveda

knowledge of archery

Dharam Shãstra

holy writ, code of law, Hindu

jurisprudence authored by Manu.

Dharmic

religious, legal, just.

Dholuk

a small drum.

Dhoti

cloth worn round the waist, a

national garment in India for both

male and female.

Dhruva

fixed, permanent, motionless, the

pole.

Dhydan

meditation, concentration,

contemplation, reflection, thought,

imagination, attention, musing,

reverie.

Digambara

literally, the sky-clothed, one of the

two Jain sects, an epithet of Shiva,

naked.

Díksha

investiture, also of the sacred thread,

religious observance, initiation of a

sacred text or ‘mantra’-training.

Dípaka-raga

a note in Indian classical music

supposed to light a lamp.

Diwan

a book of poems in Persian or Urdu.

Dravidian

the ancient race of India.

Dronãchãrya

the military preceptor of the

Pandavas and the Kurus.

Duipa

an island, one of the seven mythical

insular continents.

Durgã

incarnation of Shakti, primeval

energy, a nine year old girl.

Durgã-pujã

a festival connected with goddess

Durga, most popular in Bengal.

19

Dussehra

the tenth day of the bright half of the

month of Jyestha, the most popular

festival connected with the victory

of Lord Rama over Ravana.

Dyãpara

one of the four ages in Hindu

calendar, the age of Lord Krishna.

Dyija

twice born, generally used for

Brahmins, also for Kshatriya and

Vaisya castes whose investiture with

sacred thread makes up a second

birth.

Ekãdashi

the eleventh of the fortnight in

Hindu calendar.

Ek sat vipra

truth or God is one described

vahudha yvadanti

variously by the learned.

Fakír

a sufi mendicant, hermit, recluse.

Firangi raj

rule of the British sword, a derisive

epithet for British rule in India.

Gãtha

a verse, praise, story, a kind of

religious book of Parsees.

Gauri

maiden of fair complexion, another

name for Parvati.

Gãyatri

the most sacred verse of the

Rigveda, a form of the Goddess

Durga.

Gítã

the theological episode of the

Mahabharata called Bhagawat Gita

supposed to have had its origin in

the words of Lord Krishna.

Gõdhumra wheat

Gõpuram

the gate of a city or fort; heaven;

architecturally, the frontage of

ancient temples.

Gõshthi

an assembly, conversation,

discourse.

20

Gõvinda

an epithet of Lord Krishna.

Graha ganita

knowledge of conjunction of

planets.

Granthi

a knot, joint, illusion.

Granth Sãhib

the religious book of the Sikh

compiled by Guru Nanak.

Gridha

a vulture.

Guru

a teacher, a religious mentor,

preceptor, exalted, one who explains

law and theology to his disciples.

Guru kripa

mercy of the teacher, of the spiritual

mentor.

Guru shishya

teacher and disciple.

Hãt

shopping centre, market.

Hadis

the traditional sayings of Prophet

Mohammad.

Hakim

master, officer, boss.

Haqíqat reality.

Haq

right, legality.

Hari

God, one of the thousand epithets of

Lord Vishnu.

Harijan

God’s man, devotee of God,

currently applied for members of

depressed classes of India.

Harishchandra

a king of the solar race famous for

his generosity and truthfulness.

Harit

green, the horse of the sun god,

emerald, an epithet of the sun.

Harivamsha

a Purana describing the glorious

family of the Yadavas.

Hãsya

laughter, humour, mirth.

Hazarat

an eminent person, a majesty, a title

used for Prophet Mohammad.

21

Hidamba

the sister of the demon Hidamb

whom, Bhima, one of the mighty

Pandavas, married.

Himãvat

the Himalayas.

Hinayãn

‘the little vehicle’, a name applied to

one of the three Buddhist schools;

the other two are Mahayan and

Vajrayan.

Hindí

one of the many regional languages

of India which has been accorded

the status of the national language.

Hólí

the most popular colour festival of

Hindus.

Hãhi

an Arabic term for God.

Imãm

muslim religious priest.

Imãmbãrã

the yard in which Muslims of the

Shia sect keep and bury their Tazias.

Indrajãl

magic, conjuring.

Indralõka

the world or kingdom of Indra,

supposed to be in-charge of safety

and protection of Hindu gods.

Inqilãb revolution.

Irã

earth, cow, voice, praise, heaven, the

goddess Durga, a ganglion in the

body according to Hathayoga.

Jagannath

the God Vishnu, His idol at Puri in

Odisha, master of the universe.

Jahãn Dõst

a friend of the universe.

Jambu Dwipa

one of the seven divisions of the

world as described in the Puranas.

Janamãshtamí

the birth day of Lord Krishna which

is celebrated on a popular scale

throughout India.

Jan man gan

the first line and the refrain in the

22

National Anthem of India; literally, the collective of people and their

psyche.

Japji

silent repetition of mantra,

muttering of prayer.

Jãtak

Buddhistic tales narrating incidents

of Buddha’s previous births.

Jãtrã

journey, pilgrimage.

Jai mangal

victory and well-being.

Jeevãtina

the individual soul.

Jhüla swing.

Jíva

life, soul, spirit, existence, a creature.

Jnãna

knowledge, perception,

understanding, erudition.

Jõgípurã

settlement for mendicants

constructed by Emperor Akbar.

Jõgí

saint, ascetic.

Jyaishtha

elder; one of the summer months in

Hindu calendar.

Jyotirlinga

an epithet of Lord Shiva.

Kãbã

the square shaped building at

Mecca, the greatest Muslim

pilgrimage.

Kãdambarí

a great romance in highly exquisite

Sanskrit prose by Vanabhatta, the

court poet of king Harsha; literally,

the goddess Saraswati; wine; a

female cuckoo.

Kãfi

one of the ragas in Indian classical

music.

Kãfir

disbeliever, an infidel, an atheist.

Kajari

a style of folk song prevalent in

North India, especially in rainy

season.

23

Kãk crow.

Kalash

a water pot, a pitcher, a dome, an

ornament on top or summit of the

dome; an auspicious omen.

Kãlí

incarnation of the goddess Durga or

Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva.

Kalmã

the statement, confession in Islam.

Kalpa

a world age, a day and night of

Brahma consisting of 4300,000,000

years of mortals.

Kalpa sûtra

the work written in the form of

aphorisms in which religious rites

and ceremonies are described in

detail.

Kãma

desire, love, the aesthetic side of life,

cupid, lust, carnal appetite.

Kamalã

Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

Kãmadeva

the god of love, Cupid of Hindu

mythology.

Kãmasútra

the famous treatise on Kama by

Vatsyayan.

Kamandlu

an earthen or wooden pot used by

mendicants, a spout for keeping

water.

Kammãr

artisan, artist, sculptor.

Kanyã

daughter, a virgin.

Kãngrã

a valley in Himachal region; also,

associated with a style of miniature

painting.

Kanker

a crystal of lime stone.

Kannada

one of the regional languages

spoken in Karnatak state in India.

Karbalã

the desolate spot in Arabia where

Husain was killed; the place where

Tazias are buried.

24

Karím

an Arabic term for God, the merciful.

Karama

work, applied also to the fruit of

work.

Karunã

pity, compassion, mercy, tenderness

of feeling.

Karuna rasa

the feeling of pathos invoked in

poetry and music.

Kathã

story, religious narration.

Kathak

a form of Indian classical dance.

Kathãkalí

one of the classical dances

originating from Odisha.

Kartãl

a kind of small cymbal.

Kaumãrya

a state of bachelorship or virginity.

Kaustubha

the jewel worn by Lord Vishnu on

His breast.

Kãvya

poetry, poem.

Kãyã

body, appearance.

Kesar

the tendrils of a flower, saffron, the

plant—Messus ferria.

Keshava

an epithet of Lord Vishnu, Krishna.

Khanjan

a kind of wagtail.

Kharoshti

an ancient Indian script which was

written from right to left.

Khayãl

literally, thought; mind, attention,

memory, fancy, vision, opinion,

respect, fun, a kind of song.

Khuda

an Arabic term for God.

Khushrãz

literally, happy day; Emperor Akbar

named a day in a week when secular

markets were organised.

Kïrtan

singing in loud tone in praise of

God, recitation accompanied by

music.

25

Kolattam

a South Indian dance with small

sticks.

Kripa

mercy, pity, grace, kindness, favour,

humanity, pardon.

Krishna-ãtam

a kind of folk dance in South India.

Krodh anger

Kshne kshne yat that

which appears new at every

Navatam upaiti

moment—-Kalidas in Shakuntalam.

Kuchipudi

a dance form prevalent in South

India.

Kumãri

a virgin, a maiden; a damsel,

unmarried.

Kumbha melã

a festival occurring every twelve

years held at Hardwar, Allahabad,

Ujjain and Nasik.

Kundalinî

one of the prominent ganglion in the

body according to Hathayoga.

Kutumba family.

Lakshmi

the goddess of wealth, the wife of

Lord Vishnu.

Lalit

fine, beautiful, lovely, delicate.

Lalita

a musical mode or ragini, one of

the female companions of Radhika,

Krishna’s beloved.

Lãlitya

fineness, beauty, delicacy, sweetness,

grace.

Lãsya

dalliance in dance and music.

Lãt

a lofty pillar.

Lãthimar Holi

a brisk form of the colour festival in

which women folk in and around

Braj use sticks to defeat menfolk in

mirth.

Laukik worldly

Lãvani

a folk form of singing most popular

in Maharashtra.

26

Laya

fusion, immersion, absorption,

destruction, concentration, ardent

affection, the annihilation of the

world, cadence, concord, metre,

melody, measure, modulation.

Lílã

sport, game, also of god.

Lïlãvati

a well-known treatise on

mathematics in Sanskrit written by

Bhaskar.

Linga

a sign, a mark, a token, the prime

nature according to Sankhya,

phallus, an idol of Shiva in the form

of Phallus.

Lingam

same as linga.

Lãbha greed.

Loka

world, universe, people, mankind.

Lãk-ruchi

popular taste, people’s taste.

Madan

mythical god of Cupid.

Madanõtsav

a festival of the god of Cupid.

Mãgadhi

one of the folk languages of North

India.

Mãgh

one of the coldest months in winter

in Hindu calendar; also the name of

a famous Sanskrit poet.

Mahãbhãrata

the greatest Hindu epic in Sanskrit

composed by Vyas.

Mahãdeva

another name of Lord Shiva.

Mahãkãla

an epithet of Lord Shiva.

Mahãkãli

the wife of Mahakala, a form of

Durga in a terrible form.

Mahãkosala

the ancient kingdom comprising of

greater Kosals.

Mahãparinirvana

the great deliverance, the

deliverance of the Buddha.

27

Mahãpralaya

the great deluge, the end.

Maharishi

a title for a great saint.

Mahãyãn

literally, the great vehicle, a term

applied to one of the three sects

in Buddhism, the other two being

Hinayan and Vajrayan.

Mãheshwari

the wife of Lord Shiva.

Mekara

an alligator, a fish, the eleventh

month of the Hindu calendar,

the tenth sign of the Zodiac,

Capricornus.

Makarsankrãnti

time when the sun enters the

mansion of Capricornus, a time for

Hindu festival.

Mãnasa

desire, name of a goddess:

pertaining to the mind.

Mãnas putra

the son born, according to Puranas,

by wish, not by condition.

Manda Vahini

slow flowing.

Manipuri

a dance form in Eastern India.

Mantra

a chant, a concentrated form of

wordings related to revelation,

Manu-smriti

the book on Hindu ethics and polity,

the code of Hindu law Promulgated

by sage Manu.

Manvantara

the fourteenth part of a day of

Brahma.

Marãthi

one of the regional languages of

India spoken in Mahrashtra.

Masnavi

a collection of Persian or Urdu

poetry with love as its theme.

Mãtangí

the ninth Mahavidya,

Mãtrã

quantity, magnitude, dose, the

length of the time required to

28

Pronounce a short vowel, a vowel mark in Devanagari script.

Mãyã

illusion, Lakshmi, delusion, fraud,

conjuration, hypocrisy, magical

power of a deity, Durga.

Mãyã-Dévi

the name of the mother of Gautam

Buddha.

Mayür peacock.

Meenãkshï

literally, having eyes like those of a

fish, goddess Lakshmi.

Mehfil

a gathering of singers or poets or

any cultured group.

Mélã fair.

Mithuna

a couple, the third sign of the

Zodiac, Gemini.

Mitra

friend, a companion, the sun,

Mlechcha

untouchable, doer of wrong deeds.

Mõhan

literally, attractive; a term for Lord

Krishna.

Mõhiní Ãtam

a form of Indian classical dance.

Mõksha

salvation, deliverance, the last stage

in life as defined in Hindu theology.

Mridengam

a form of musical instrument,

Mudra

gesture, currency,

Muharram

the first month of the Arabic year

sacred to Muslims.

Mujahideen

a group of Muslim rebels.

Mukti

same as Moksha.

Mulãdhãra

one of the ganglions in the body

according to Hathayoga.

Mullã

Muslim priest.

Muni

a seer, a sage.

Murti

a figure, an image, a statue, a

picture, an idol.

29

Musalla

the sheet or carpet on which a

Muslim prays.

Nãd

a sound, music.

Nãdanta

an end or culmination of a sound.

Nãd vijnana

science of sound, also acoustics.

Naga-bali

sacrifice of snake.

Nãgara

pertaining to city,