Ambika was the daughter of King of Kashi and wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur. Along with her sisters Amba and Ambalika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara. (Bhishma challenged the assembled Kings and Princes and defeated them.) He presented them to Satyavati for marriage to Vichitravirya. After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Rishi Veda Vyasa. According to his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them each a son. When Vyasa ...

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Ambika: (Sanskrit) "Mother." A benign form of the Goddess, one of the central Deities of the Shakta religion, along with Durga, Kali and Parvati. See: Shakti. amends: To make amends, to make up for injury or loss that one has caused to another. This is done through sincere apology, expressing contrition, public penance, such as kavadi, and the abundant giving of gifts. See: papa, penance.

(See also: Ambika, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Ambika: (Sanskrit) "Mother." A benign form of the Goddess, one of the central Deities of the Shakta religion, along with Durga, Kali and Parvati. See: Shakti. amends: To make amends, to make up for injury or loss that one has caused to another. This is done through sincere apology, expressing contrition, public penance, such as kavadi, and the abundant giving of gifts. See: papa, penance.

(See also: Ambika, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

The Jain philosophy of Anekantavada (multitude beliefs) tells us that there are no absolute theories or formulae that can describe reality in absolute terms. Rather, our belief of Anekantavada tells us that we do not know the complete truth. We can learn from others as well. Let truth prevail, say Jains . Truth in its final analysis is wholesome and one, which leads us to love and understanding. And that is the very necessary essence of all religions.

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In Hindu mythology, Queen Satyavati bore King Santanu two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Chitrangada, the elder son, succeeded Santanu to the throne of Hastinapura. When he died childless, the second son, Vichitravirya, became king. As Vichitravirya was still a child when he was crowned king, Bhishma ruled as his regent. When the young king was of the age to marry, Bhishma looked for a suitable bride. He heard the king of Kasi was holding a swayamvara for his three daughters. Since Vichitravirya himself was too young to stand any chance of being chosen by the ...

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Ambalika was the daughter of King of Kashi and wife of Vichitravirya, King of Hastinapur. Along with her sisters Amba and Ambika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara. (Bhishma challenged the assembled kings and princes and defeated them.) He presented them to Satyavati for marriage to Vichitravirya. After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Rishi Veda Vyasa. According to his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. Ambalika was in ...

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Hinduism Lexicon on A

From aadheenam to axis.

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Amba was the eldest daughter of King of Kashi in the Hindu epic of the Mahabharata. Along with her sisters Ambika and Ambalika, she was taken by force by Bhishma from their Swayamvara. (Bhishma challenged the assembled Kings and Princes and defeated them.) He presented them to Satyavati for marriage to Vichitravirya, the king of Hastinapura. Vichitravirya married only her sisters, since Amba had already given her heart to some other. Amba then demanded that Bhishma marry her, since he was the one to have won her in swaya ...

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Vidura was a son of a maid-servent who served the Queens of Hastinapura, Queen Ambika and Ambalika. In some accounts, he was an incarnation of Yama or Dharma Raj, who was cursed by the sage, Mandavya, for imposing punishment on him that exceed the sin. The Queens were married to King Vichitravirya of Hastinapur, who died childless. Vichitravirya's mother Satyavati, who needed to ensure that the line was carried on, called upon her other son Vyasa, to go to the beds of the two queens and father children. Vyasa was a hermit, and ...

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In the Mahabharata Dhritarashtra was the son born by Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika and fathered by Vyasa. This blind king of Hastinapura was father to 100 children by his wife Gandhari. These children came to be known as the Kauravas. Duryodhana and Dushasana were the first two sons. Dhritarashtra - Birth. After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Vyasa. According to his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. When Vyasa vi ...

Including:

• Dhritarashtra - Birth
• Dhritarashtra - Battle of Kurukshetra

Read more here: » Dhritarashtra: Encyclopedia - Dhritarashtra

Shakti: (Sanskrit) "Power, energy," from the root shak, "to be able."

The active power or manifest energy of Siva that pervades all of existence. Its most refined aspect is Parashakti, or Satchidananda, the pure consciousness and primal substratum of all form.

This pristine, divine energy unfolds as ic�ha shakti (the power of desire, will, love), kriya shakti (the power of action) and jnana shakti (the power of wisdom, knowing), represented as the three prongs of Siva's trishula, or trident. From these arise the five powers of revealment, concealment, dissolution, preservation and creation.

In Saiva Siddhanta, Siva is All, and His divine energy, Shakti, is inseparable from Him. This unity is symbolized in the image of Ardhanarishvara, "half-female God." In popular, village Hinduism, the unity of Siva and Shakti is replaced with the concept of Siva and Shakti as separate entities. Shakti is represented as female, and Siva as male. In Hindu temples, art and mythology, they are everywhere seen as the divine couple. This depiction has its source in the folk-narrative sections of the Puranas, where it is given elaborate expression. Shakti is personified in many forms as the consorts of the Gods. For example, the Goddesses Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati are the respective mythological consorts of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Philosophically, however, the caution is always made that God and God's energy are One, and the metaphor of the inseparable divine couple serves only to illustrate this Oneness.

Within the Shakta religion, the worship of the Goddess is paramount, in Her many fierce and benign forms. Shakti is the Divine Mother of manifest creation, visualized as a female form, and Siva is specifically the Unmanifest Absolute. The fierce or black (asita) forms of the Goddess include Kali, Durga, Chandi, Chamundi, Bhadrakali and Bhairavi. The benign or white (sita) forms include Uma, Gauri, Ambika, Parvati, Maheshvari, Lalita and Annapurna. As Rajarajeshvari ("divine queen of kings"). She is the presiding Deity of the Sri Chakra yantra. She is also worshiped as the ten Mahavidyas, manifestations of the highest knowledge - Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagata, Matangi and Kamala. While some Shaktas view these as individual beings, most revere them as manifestations of the singular Devi. There are also numerous minor Goddess forms, in the category of gramadevata ("village Deity"). These include Pitari, "snake-catcher" (usually represented by a simple stone), and Mariyamman, "smallpox Goddess."

In the yoga mysticism of all traditions, divine energy, shakti, is experienced within the human body in three aspects:

1)    the feminine force, ida shakti,

2)    the masculine force, pingala shakti, and

3)    the pure androgynous force, kundalini shakti, that flows through the sushumna nadi.

Shakti is most easily experienced by devotees as the sublime, bliss-inspiring energy that emanates from a holy person or sanctified Hindu temple.

See: Amman, Ardhanarishvara, Goddess, Parashakti, Shaktism.

(See also: Shakti, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

In the Mahabharata epic, Pandu is the son of Vichitravirya and his second wife, Ambalika from Vyasa. He is more popularly known as the father of the Pandavas. Pandu - Birth. After Vichitravirya's death his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Rishi Veda Vyasa. According to his mother's wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son. Ambalika was instructed by Satyavati to keep her eyes open lest she would bear a blind son like Ambika (Dhritarashtra). She did keep her eyes open b ...

Including:

• Pandu - Birth
• Pandu - Life
• Pandu - Death

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Satyavati is the great-grandmother of the Pandava and Kaurava princes, principal characters of the Mahabharata, one of the principal texts in Hindu mythology. She is nevertheless a commoner, daughter to a ferryman or fisherman. As a young woman, she met the wandering rishi Parashara, by whom she had a son, Vyasa. His birth took place in secret on an island in the river Yamuna. Later, King Santanu of Hastinapura saw her and asked her to marry him. She agreed on condition that their children would inherit the throne. Their ...

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Followers of the Wiccan, Dianic, and Neopagan religions, as well as some archeologists and mythographers, believe that long before the coming of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Triple Goddess embodied the three-fold aspect of Gaia, the Earth Mother (Roman Magna Mater). A mother goddess was worshipped under a variety of names not only in the Ancient Near East and the ...

Including:

• Triple Goddess - Maiden Mother and Crone
• Triple Goddess - Maiden
• Triple Goddess - Mother
• Triple Goddess - Crone
• Triple Goddess - Lunar imagery
• Triple Goddess - Fates
• Triple Goddess - Other trifold goddesses

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Commonly known as Devi (goddess), Vaishnodevi (देवी, Devī in Hindi and Sanskrit) is the Divine Mother of Hinduism. Some of her other names include Jai Mata Di and Mata Rani. She is known as the goddess of strength, the female aspect of divinity, usually considered to have an equal role with the male aspect as energy or the driving force (Shakti), without which the male aspect, which represents consciousness or discrimination, is impotent. Vaishnodevi's main temple is situated in Jammu regio ...

Including:

• Devi - Shakta
• Devi - Aspects

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Vyasa (Vyāsa in IAST transliteration) is an important and much revered figure in the Hindu tradition and its literature. He is considered to be an ideal Brahmarishi- omniscient, truthful, purest of the pure and possessor of knowledge of the essence of Brahman. Vyasa - The legend of Vyasa. Vyasa appears for the first time as the author and an important character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The epic, whilst having its roots in historical events centuries before the common era, is an extraordinarily long c ...

Including:

• Vyasa - The legend of Vyasa
• Vyasa - 'Veda' Vyasa
• Vyasa - Author of Mahabharata
• Vyasa - Author of Puranas
• Vyasa - Vyasa in Buddhism
• Vyasa - In the Arthashastra
• Vyasa - Author of Brahma Sutra
• Vyasa - Author of Yoga Bhashya

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Shruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajur Veda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihāsas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita

Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति; Tamil: பக்தி) is a Tamil or Sanskrit term from Hinduism that means intense devotion expressed by action (service). A person who practices bhakti is called Bhakta. The concept of devotion is more or less the same in all religions. But in Hinduism there are certain extra subtleties which make it comparatively more complicated. These are : the One Reality versus many ‘Gods’ of worship; deity worship through ‘icons’ and ‘images’; the freedom to choose one’s own ‘favo ...

Including:

• Bhakti - Concept of God
• Bhakti - Brahman the Ultimate
• Bhakti - Two schools the Absolutist and the non-Absolutist
• Bhakti - Ishwara the all-powerful Almighty
• Bhakti - Names and Forms
• Bhakti - Favourite deity worship
• Bhakti - Six traditional favourites
• Bhakti - All-encompassing eclecticism
• Bhakti - Classifications of Bhakti
• Bhakti - Example of Towering Giants of Bhakti
• Bhakti - Theory of Grace
• Bhakti - Take the first step
• Bhakti - One Purpose of prayer and worship
• Bhakti - Sources

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Viluppuram (also Villupuram) is one of thirty districts which make up Tamil Nadu State situated on the southern tip of India. Viluppuram District came into existence on 30 September 1993 when it was created out of South Arcot District. The district headquarters are located at Viluppuram. The district occupies an area of 7217 km² and has a population of 2,943,917 (as of 2001). Viluppuram - Early history. Between the 1st and 4th century AD the Chola were the rulers of the area, Karika ...

Including:

• Viluppuram - Early history
• Viluppuram - Geographical location
• Viluppuram - Sites of interest in Viluppuram
• Viluppuram - Gingee
• Viluppuram - Fortification walls
• Viluppuram - Kalyana Mahal
• Viluppuram - Venugopala Swamy Temple
• Viluppuram - Nandieswarar Thiruvamathur Temple
• Viluppuram - Pachchaiamman Temple
• Viluppuram - Angala parameswari Melmalayanur
• Viluppuram - The temple of Lord Ranganatha Singavaram
• Viluppuram - Krishnagiri Fort
• Viluppuram - Mandagapattu
• Viluppuram - Mel Chittamur
• Viluppuram - Thirunarungondai
• Viluppuram - Auroville
• Viluppuram - Matrimandir
• Viluppuram - Thirukkoilur
• Viluppuram - Kalrayan Hills
• Viluppuram - Mayilam - Arulmigu Subramaniya
• Viluppuram - Thiruvakkarai
• Viluppuram - Thiruvennainallur
• Viluppuram - Marakanam Beach

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Pandu was an excellent archer. He became the commander of King Dhritarashtra's army and also ruled the kingdom for him. Pandu conquered the territories of Dasarnas, Kashi, Anga, Vango, Kalinga, Magadha etc. and thus re-established their superiority over all the kings. Pandu got married to Madri, daughter of the King of Madra, and Kunti, King Kuntibhoja of Vrish's daughter. While enjoying in a forest, Pandu shot a Rishi (who was mating), so the Rishi cursed him that, when he approaches his wife with love he will die. Upset, Pandu renounced his kingdom and lived ...

See also:

Pandu, Pandu - Birth, Pandu - Life, Pandu - Death

Read more here: » Pandu: Encyclopedia II - Pandu - Life