The Illustrated Dictionary of Hindu Iconography

Margaret Stutley

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367149017
• eBook ISBN: 9780429624254
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Indian art, increasingly popular in the west, cannot be fully appreciated without some knowledge of the religious and philosophical background. This book, first published in 1985, covers all aspects of Hindu iconography, and explains that its roots lie far back in the style of prehistoric art. The dictionary demonstrates the rich profusion of cults, divinities, symbols, sects and philosophical views encompassed by the Hindu religious tradition.

A

AThe first ‘imperishable’ letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, and the first sound in the manifested world which represents the beginning of all knowledge. It is also the first of the three sounds of the sacred mantra AUṀ (OṀ) which stands for Viṣṇu.

v. Brahmabīja.

Ābhaṅga A slightly bent position of the body of standing images when in meditative pose, with most of the weight on one leg.

v. Bhaṅga II.

Abhayamudrā (Also called śāntida.) A gesture (mudrā) which dispels fear because the presence of the divinity gives reassurance and protection to the devotee. In this mudrā the palm and fingers of the right hand are held upright and facing outwards.

The abhaya and varada mudrās are the earliest and most common mudrās depicted on Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina images.

Abhicāra ‘Magic’. The employment of incantations, spells or rites intended to cause harm.

v. Abhicārikamūrti; Agni.

Abhicāradevatā v. Krtyā.

Abhicārikamūrti ‘Enchanting’, ‘exorcising’. A terrifying aspect or form of particular deities venerated by those who wish to harm their enemies by magic (abhicāra).

Viṣṇu is occasionally depicted in this form when he wears few ornaments or none at all, and is never accompanied by his consorts, or any divine beings, or human devotees. He is portrayed with two or four arms and is clothed in black. His eyes look upwards.¹ This inauspicious image should never be placed in towns or villages, but only in forests, marshes, on mountains, or similar solitary places, and should face the direction of the enemy who is to be injured. If the image is to be housed in a shrine or temple, the building should be asymmetrical.²

Notes

¹ EHI, I, pt i, p. 90.

² Ibid., p. 84.

v. Abhicāra; Agni; Abhicārikaśayanamūrti.

Abhicārikaśāyanamūrti A form of Viṣṇu reclining on the coils of the serpent Ādiśeṣa. The latter has two heads and the body is shown in two coils only. There are no attendant deities.

Abhiṣeka ‘Consecration’, usually by sprinkling water from a shell (śaṅkha) over an image.

Abhīṣṭadevatā or Iṣṭadevatā The ‘chosen deity’ of a worshipper.

Ābhoga ‘Winding’, ‘curving’. Name of the parasol (chattra) of Varuṇa which denotes sovereignty. The expanded hood of a cobra also serves as a canopy over many Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina deities.

Abhramū Name of the mate of Indra’s white elephant Airāvaṇa. Her name means ‘to fashion’ or ‘to bind together (mu) clouds (abhra)’, a reference to her capacity to produce the fertilizing monsoon clouds.

v. Gaja.

Abja ‘Lotus’, which is born or produced from water.

v. Padma; Nīlotpala.

Abjaja or Abjayoni ‘Born in, or from a lotus’. An epithet of Brahmā who was born in a lotus (padma) which emerged from Viṣṇu’s navel.

v. Abja; Anantaśāyana.

Acalaliṅga or Sthirasthāvaraliṅga ‘Immovable liṅga’. Name of a class of stone liṅgas of which there are nine varieties.

Acalamūrti or Mūlabera ‘Immovable’. A large image made of stone or masonry permanently fixed in a temple. A portable image is called cala.

v. Dhruvabera; Mūlamūrti.

Ācārya I. A master, spiritual guide, temple priest, or teacher, especially one who invests a student with the sacred thread (yajñopavīta), and instructs him in the Vedas.

II. A class of Tamil vaiṣṇava teachers who regard the Āḷvārs as incarnations of Viṣṇu’s weapons.

v. Āyudhapuruṣa.

Acyuta ‘Never falling’. One of the twenty-four aspects of or names of Para-Vāsudeva (Viṣṇu), the wielder of the discus. The utterance of the name Acyuta with those of Ananta and Govinda (also names of Viṣṇu), will destroy every disease.

Acyuta is portrayed holding a mace, lotus, discus and conch.

Ādarśa or Darpaṇa ‘Mirror’. An attribute of a number of goddesses including Caṇḍā, Mahiṣāsuramardinī, Pārvatī, the Nine Durgās (navadurgās). Tripurasundarī and others. The female half of the androgynous Ardhanārīśvara holds a mirror. It is rarely depicted in the hands of gods.

Adhikāranandin A companion of Śiva, regarded as an anthropomorphic form of his white bull, or a form of Śiva himself.¹

Adhikārandin’s image resembles that of Śiva except that his front hands are placed together in añjali pose.

Note

¹ EHI, II, pt ii, p. 458.

Adhokṣaja v. Caturvinśatimūrti(s).

Ādimūrti A four-armed form (mūrti) of Viṣṇu in his primeval personification in which he is depicted seated in sukhāsana on the coils of a snake, with one leg folded and resting on the reptile, the other hanging down. The five or seven cobra heads form a canopy above the deity who holds the usual emblems of Viṣṇu. His two wives accompany him.

Ādināga or Ananta Nāga A serpent, the tutelary deity of Ahicchatra, the capital of Pañcāla. Ādināga is variously depicted as a huge cobra with one or more heads; or with the upper part of the body human, the lower serpentine, or as a young, handsome man with snake hoods above his head.

Ādi-nātha v. Siddha(s).

Ādiśakti The ‘primeval śakti’. One of Śiva’s five śaktis.

Ādiśeṣa The ‘primeval Śeṣa’. The King of the nāgas and of the subterranean regions (pātāla). The serpent body of Ādiśeṣa forms the couch on which Viṣṇu sleeps his fecund sleep between the devolution of one universe and the evolution of the next.

v. Anantaśayana; Vāsuki.

Aditi Name of the Vedic divine mother-goddess who embodies the primordial vastness of Universal Nature symbolized by a cow. She represents extension, breadth, and hence freedom.¹ She is the mother of the three worlds (AV, VIII, 9ff.), and of the primordial gods, whom she supports and who in turn sustain her.

Her sons are the twelve Ādityas.

Note

¹ Gonda, Some Observations …, pp. 75ff.

v. Kāmadhenu.

Āditya(s) ‘Descendants of Aditi’. Collective name of the twelve sons of the goddess Aditi, who are all fundamentally aspects of light. The sun-god Sūrya is called the Āditya and is their chief.

Twelve separate shrines in the sun-temple of Konarak are dedicated to the Ādityas. All are depicted four-armed, the only difference in the images being the objects held in their back hands. The front hands hold lotus flowers, emblematic of the sun-god. In Vedic time...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Introduction
• English subjects and Sanskrit equivalents
• Abbreviations
• Dictionary
• Bibliography