AMRITA. "The gods addressed the mighty Vishnu thus- Replied Your strength shall be restored, ye gods; Unite yourselves in peaceful combination With these your foes; collect all plants and herbs The mountain, for a churning stick, and Vasuki, Straightway they gathered various herbs and cast them Then did they churn the sea of milk; and first Goddess of wine. Then from the whirlpool sprang Of heavenly maidens, with its fragrant blossoms 13 14 ANADHRISHTI- ANARGHA RAGHAVA. High in his hand he bore the cup of nectar- The cup, and drained the precious beverage, 'The host of heaven, but they with strength renewed, There is an elaborate article on the subject in Goldstücker's Dictionary. In after-times, Vishnu's bird Garuda is said to have stolen the Amrita, but it was recovered by Indra. ANĀDHRISHTI. A son of Ugrasena and general of the Yadavas. ĀNAKA-DUNDUBHI. 'Drums.' A name of Vasu-deva, who was so called because the drums of heaven resounded at his birth. ANANDA. Joy, happiness.' An appellation of Siva, also of Bala-rāma. ANANDA GIRI. A follower of Sankaracharya, and a teacher and expositor of his doctrines. He was the author of a Sankara-vijaya, and lived about the tenth century. ANANDA-LAHARI. 'The wave of joy.' A poem attributed to Sankaracharya. It is a hymn of praise addressed to Parvati, consort of Siva, mixed up with mystical doctrine. It has been translated into French by Troyer as L'Onde de Beatitude. ANANGA. 'The bodiless.' A name of Kama, god of love. ANANTA. 'The infinite.' A name of the serpent Sesha. The term is also applied to Vishnu and other deities. ANARANYA. A descendant of Ikshwaku and king of Ayodhya. According to the Rāmāyana, many kings submitted. to Ravana without fighting, but when Anaranya was summoned to fight or submit, he preferred to fight. His army was overcome and he was thrown from his chariot. Rāvana triumphed over his prostrate foe, who retorted that he had been beaten by fate, not by Ravana, and predicted the death of Ravana at the hands of Rama, a descendant of Anaranya. ANARGHA RAGHAVA. A drama in seven acts by Murari Misra, possibly written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Raghava or Rāma is the hero of the piece. "It has no dramatic merit, being deficient in character, action, situation, and interest. AN-ARYA-ANGADA. 15 As a poem it presents occasionally poetic thoughts, but they are very few, and are lost amid pages of flat commonplace, quaint conceit, hyperbolical extravagance, and obscure mythology."Wilson. It is also called, after its author, Murāri Nataka. AN-ARYA. Unworthy, vile.' People who were not Aryans, barbarians of other races and religion. ANASUYA. Charity.' Wife of the Rishi Atri. In the Rāmāyana she appears living with her husband in a hermitage in the forest south of Chitra-kūta. She was very pious and given to austere devotion, through which she had obtained miraculous powers. When Sītā visited her and her husband, she was very attentive and kind, and gave Sītā an ointment which was to keep her beautiful for ever. She was mother of the irascible sage Durvāsas. A friend of Sakuntalā. ANDHAKA. 1. A demon, son of Kasyapa and Diti, with a thousand arms and heads, two thousand eyes and feet, and called Andhaka because he walked like a blind man, although he saw very well. He was slain by Siva when he attempted to carry off the Pārijāta tree from Swarga. From this feat Siva obtained the appellation Andhaka-ripu, foe of Andhaka.' 2. A grandson of Kroshtri and son of Yudhajit, of the Yadava race, who, together with his brother Vrishni, is the ancestor of the celebrated family of Andhaka-Vrishnis. 3. The name was borne by many others of less note. ANDHRA, ANDHRA. Name of a country and people in the south of India, the country of Telingana. It was the seat of a powerful dynasty, and the people were known to Pliny as gens Anduræ. ANDHRA-BHRITYA. A dynasty of kings that reigned in Magadha somewhere about the beginning of the Christian era. The name seems to indicate that its founder was a native of Andhra, now Telingana. ANGA. 1. The country of Bengal proper about Bhagalpur. Its capital was Champa, or Champa-puri. (See Anu.) 2. A supplement to the Vedas. See Vedānga. ANGADA. 1. Son of Lakshmana and king of Angadi, capital of a country near the Himalaya. 2. Son of Gada (brother of Krishna) by Vrihati. 3. Son of Bali, the monkey king of Kishkindhya. He was protected by Rama and fought on his side against Ravana. 16 ANGIRAS-ANGIRASAS. ANGIRAS. A Rishi to whom many hymns of the Rig-veda are attributed. He was one of the seven Maharshis or great Rishis, and also one of the ten Prajapatis or progenitors of mankind. In later times Angiras was one of the inspired lawgivers, and also a writer on astronomy. As an astronomical personification he is Brihaspati, the regent of the planet Jupiter, or the planet itself. He was also called "the priest of the gods," and "the lord of sacrifice." There is much ambiguity about the name. It comes from the same root as agni, 'fire,' and resembles that word in sound. This may be the reason why the name Angiras is used as an epithet or synonyme of Agni. The name is also employed as an epithet for the father of Agni, and it is found more especially connected with the hymns addressed to Agni, Indra, and the luminous deities. According to one statement, Angiras was the son of Uru by Agneyi, the daughter of Agni, although, as above stated, the name is sometimes given to the father of Agni. Another account represents that he was born from the mouth of Brahma. His wives were Smriti, 'memory,' daughter of Daksha; Sraddha, 'faith,' daughter of Kardama; and Swadha 'oblation,' and Satī, 'truth,' two other daughters of Daksha. His daughters were the Richas or Vaidik hymns, and his sons were the Manes called Havishmats. But he had other sons and daughters, and among the former were Utathya, Brihaspati, and Märkandeya. According to the Bhagavata Purana "he begot sons possessing Brahmanical glory on the wife of Rathi-tara, a Kshatriya who was childless, and these persons were afterwards called descendants of Angiras." ANGIRASAS, ANGIRASES. Descendants of Angiras. "They share in the nature of the legends attributed to Angiras. Angiras being the father of Agni, they are considered as descendants of Agni himself, who is also called the first of the Angirasas. Like Angiras, they occur in hymns addressed to the luminous deities, and, at a later period, they become for the most part personifications of light, of luminous bodies, of divisions of time, of celestial phenomena, and fires adapted to peculiar occasions, as the full and change of the moon, or to particular rites, as the Aswa-medha, Raja-suya, &c."-Goldstücker. In the Satapatha Brahmana they and the Adityas are said to have descended from Prajapati, and that "they strove together for the priority in ascending to heaven." ANGIRASAS-ANSUMAT. 17 Some descendants of Angiras by the Kshatriya wife of a childless king are mentioned in the Puranas as two tribes of Angirasas who were Brahmans as well as Kshatriyas. The hymns of the Atharva-veda are called Angirasas, and the descendants of Angiras were specially charged with the protection of sacrifices performed in accordance with the Atharva-veda. From this cause, or from their being associated with the descendants of Atharvan, they were called distinctively Atharvāngirasas. ANGIRASAS. A class of Pitris (q.v.). ANILA. 'The wind.' See Vayu. ANILAS. A gana or class of deities, forty-nine in number, connected with Anila, the wind. ANIMISHA. 'Who does not wink.' A general epithet of all gods. ANIRUDDHA. 'Uncontrolled.' Son of Pradyumna and grandson of Krishna. He married his cousin, Su-bhadra. A Daitya princess named Usha, daughter of Bāna, fell in love with him, and had him brought by magic influence to her apartments in her father's city of Sonita-pura. Bāna sent some guards to seize him, but the valiant youth, taking an iron club, slew his assailants. Bana then brought his magic powers to bear and secured him. On discovering whither Aniruddha had been carried, Krishna, Bala-rāma, and Pradyumna went to rescue him. A great battle was fought; Bāna was aided by Siva and by Skanda, god of war, the former of whom was overcome by Krishna, and the latter was wounded by Garuda and Pradyumna. Bana was defeated, but his life was spared at the intercession of Siva, and Aniruddha was carried home to Dwaraka with Ushā as his wife. He is also called Jhashanka and Ushā-pati. He had a son named Vajra. ANJANA. 1. The elephant of the west or south-west quarter. 2. A serpent with many heads descended from Kadru. ANJANA. Mother of Hanumat by Vayu, god of the wind. ANNA-PURNA. Full of food.' A form of Durgā, worshipped for her power of giving food Cf. the Roman Anna Perenna. ANSUMAT, ANSUMAN. Son of Asamanjas and grandson of Sagara. He brought back to earth the horse which had been carried off from Sagara's Aswa-medha sacrifice, and he discovered the remains of that king's sixty thousand sons, who had been killed by the fire of the wrath of Kapila. B |