Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

RELIGIONS

granted, Vishnu became a giant and covered the earth, heaven

and the middle air in three strides. But respecting the virtues of

Bali he stopped leaving the infernal regions to Bali.

Parasurama

(Rama with an axe, parasu): He was a Brahmin

and the fifth son of Jamadagni and Renuka. Kartavirya, a

kshatriya and a king, paid a visit to the hermitage of Jamadagni

in the absence of the sage but was hospitably entertained by his

wife. When he left he carried off a sacrificial calf belonging to

Jamadagni. This so enraged Parasurama that he pursued the

king and killed him. In retaliation the sons of Kartavirya killed

Jamadagni. In revenge Parasurama killed all the kshatriyas 37

times in succession. Tradition ascribes the origin of Kerala in

South India to Parasurama. According to one account he

received it as a gift of Varuna. According to another he cut

fissures in the Ghats with blows of his axe. He is said to have

brought Brahmins into Kerala from the north and bestowed the

land upon them in expiation of the slaughter of the kshatriyas.

Rama

: Prince of Ayodhya and hero of the

Ramayana.

Krishna

: The most important of the incarnations of Vishnu and

the most popular of Hindu deities. Krishna means the "black or

dark one". He was bom in Mathura. He belonged to the Yadava

tribe. His father was Vasudeva, his mother was Devaki, the

cousin of the ruling king Kamsa. Following a prophecy that

Kamsa would be killed by Devaki's eighth son, he set out to

destroy all her children. But Krishna and his elder brother

I Balarama were saved and were brought up as the sons of the

cowherd Nanda and his wife Yashoda:

There are many legends connected with his boyhood which

speak of his extraordinary powers. In his youth he had many

love affairs with the wives and daughters of the cowherds

(gopis).

His favourite was the beautiful Radha.

In the

Mahabharata

epic he appears as the friend and counsel-

lor of the five Pandavas. He preached the sermon of the

Bhagvad Gita

which forms the centrepiece of the epic.

After the Pandavas are victorious in the Kurukshetra battle,

Krishna settles down in Dwaraka in Gujarat. Here he is killed

by an arrow from a hunter which pierces his heel, his vulnerable

spot. Dwaraka was then submerged by the sea.

Buddha:

The last incarnation of Vishnu who is said to have

appeared as Buddha to encourage demons and wicked men to

despise the Vedas, reject caste and deny the existence of the

gods and thus achieve their own destruction.

10)

Kalki or Kalkin, the white horse:

In this incarnation Vishnu is

to appear at the end of the Kali age, seated on a white horse, with

a drawn sword blazing like a comet for the final destruction of

the wicked, the renovation of the world and the restoration of

purity.

Shiva is the third deity of the Hindu trinity, the Destroyer, the god

who destroys the world when it becomes evil-ridden. Shiva evolved

from the Vedic god, Rudra. But destruction in Hindu belief implies re-

production. So in this aspect he is worshipped in the form of the

reproductive organ, the phallus or

lingam.

This form is sometimes

combined with the

yoni

or female organ, the representative of his shakti

or female energy. A third aspect of Shiva is the great ascetic and the

patron deity of ascetics. He is depicted on the slopes of the Himalayan

Mount Kailas, sitting on the tiger skin, deep in meditation. In the middle

of his forehead is his third eye, emblem of his superior wisdom and

insight. Snakes of which he is the lord encircle his neck and arms.

Beside him is his weapon, the trident, his wife Parvathi and his mount,

the bull Nandi. Shiva is also the Lord of the Dance. The

Tartdava

is the

most famous of his many dances. It is the dance which destroys the

world at the end of the cosmic cycle.

In the

Ramayana

Shiva acknowledges the divinity of Rama and

holds a less exalted position than Vishnu. The

Mahabharata

also gives

Vishnu or Krishna the highest honour. In the Puranas devoted to Shiva's

praise it is affirmed that Brahma and Vishnu are inferior to him.

Most Hindus are either Vaishnavites or Shaivites. The Vaishnav-

ite does not deny the existence of Shiva but believes that he is one

among numerous gods, the creation of Vishnu or Brahma. The Shaivite

looks on Vishnu as an emanation of Shiva.

LESSER GODS

Ganesha or Ganapathi is the eldest son of Shiva and Parvathi. He

has an elephant’s head - an emblem of sagacity and is represented as

riding a rat. He has generally four hands. He is corpulent. Ganesha is

said to have written the

Mahabharata

at Vyasa's dictation. All works

of importance are begun by Hindus with a pious invocation to Ganesha.

He is also known as Vighneswara (Lord of Obstacles) and is wor-

shipped at the beginning of all undertakings to remove hurdles and

hindrances.

Hanuman, the monkey god, the friend and servant of Rama who

assisted Rama in his war against Ravana, is regarded as divine and

worshipped in some parts of India. Living monkeys are regarded as his

representatives.

In the Puranas, Yama is called the judge of men. He is depicted as

riding on a buffalo and is armed with a ponderous mace and a noose with

which to secure his victims. All that die appear before him. The

virtuous are conveyed to

swarga

(Indra's heaven) while the wicked are

driven to the different regions of

naraka

(hell). In the Vishnu Purana

the names of the different hells are given and it is-stated that "there are

many other fearful hells which are the awful provinces of Yama,

terrible with instruments of torture and fire."

THE GODDESSES

The importance given to goddess worship is one of the most

striking characteristics of Hinduism. Goddesses were known and

probably widely worshipped in the protohistoric Indus Valley (Harap-

pan) civilisation of

C.2500

B.C. Scholars have come to this conclusion

on the basis of the great number of female images, mostly of terra-cotta,

and the scenes depicted on small clay seals discovered during excava-

tions. The nature of the goddesses worshipped has not been ascer-

tained.

The early gods of the Aryans are predominantly male. Although

many goddesses are mentioned in the Rig Veda none can be equated

with such gods as

Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma and Surya,

who are

central to the Rig Vedic religion. Only Ushas, the goddess of the dawn,

to whom a number of hymns are addressed, could be considered to be

on a par with the less important male gods.

Ushas

was considered an

auspicious goddess associated with light and wealth. As the recurring

dawn she is worshipped for bringing light from darkness.