A River Sutra (21 page)
(1569-1627) Son of Akbar and Moghul emperor from 1605 to 1627.
Kaaba
In Mecca, a large black stone, now thought to be a meteorite, where the Prophet Muhammad broke the idols of the unbelievers and prayed.
Kabir
(1440-1518) Reformer of the two great religions of India in his time, Hinduism and Islam. He scorned the rituals of both religions, the idolatry of the Hindus and the theological hair-splitting of the Muslims, and consigned the priests of both religions to hell. He also objected to the Jain and Buddhist emphasis on absolute abstinence from violence on the grounds that life sustained itself by preying on life. The founder of the Sikh religion was profoundly influenced by Kabir's insistence on truth, mercy, and self-control. Banned from the Hindu holy city of Benares, persecuted by the Muslim emperor Sikandar Lodi, Kabir was vastly popular with the masses and persecuted by the ruling classes.
The paradise of Shiva. A Himalayan mountain, north of Lake Manasa.
Kalidasa
India's greatest poet and dramatist, one
of
the nine gems of King Vikramaditya's court at Ujjain. As there were several kings with that name at Ujjain, Kalidasa's work has been dated variously from 400
B.C.
to
A
.
D
.
200.
Shakuntala,
Goethe wrote,
Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit einem namen begriefen
Nenn' ich Sakuntala dich, und so ist alles gesagt. (Can the earth and heaven itself in one name be combined?
I name you, 0 Shakuntala, and all is said.)
Kama
God of love, incinerated by a glance from Shiva's third eye when he disturbed the meditating god. He then became known as Ananga, the bodiless one.
Kamarupa
Ancient name for the current Indian region of Assam, an area associated with erotic cults of great antiquity. It is called the land of Kama because here Kama, God of Love, is thought to have regained his rupa, or physical form.
Kama Sutra
An encyclopedia of erotic education, covering most aspects and techniques of courtship and sexual union, written by Vatsayana in the fifth century
Khusrau, Amir
The first and greatest disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, one of the founders of Indian Sufism. A poet and musician, he is credited with the invention of the modern sitar and the Urdu language. He died in Delhi, 1325.
Lingam
Phallus of Shiva, symbolizing regenerative religion. Also elliptical stones polished by the action of the Narmada River, worshipped as the image of Shiva.
Mahabharata
Epic poem of the Hindus, probably the longest poem in the world. It is said to have been dictated by the sage Vyasa. Its main theme is the war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas; in it the divine charioteer, Lord Krishna, expounds to King Arjuna the philosophy that has become one of the central texts of the Hindus, the
Bhagavad Gita,
or the
Song of the Divine One.
Elephant trainer.
Birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad; holiest city of Islam.
Mirabai
(c. 1450-1520) Hindu poet and mystic. A Rajput queen who left her husband to worship her deity, Lord Krishna, Mirabai's songs to Krishna are sung all over India.
Religious teacher, in Islamic faith.
Naked ascetics, followers of Shiva. Also known as the protector ascetics.
Nizamuddin
Quarter in the capital of modern India, New Delhi. It contains the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya, one of the founders of Indian Sufism, and also the tomb of Amir Khusrau, his most famous disciple. It has been the center of Quawwal music (songs in praise of .God) since the thirteenth century
A.D.
Digestive made from betel leaf, lime paste, and crushed areca nut.
Vendor of paans.
Patiala peg
Triple shot of whisky named after the Maharajah of Patiala, who was famous for his height and his appetites.
Mongrel.
Slang for "the real thing."
Purana
Literally, ancient. Collection of texts giving legendary accounts of ancient times. Though the Puranas contain much earlier material handed down orally, their written dates are comparatively late—from the first century
B.C.
to the sixth century
A.D
. There are eighteen great Puranas and eighty-eight subordinate works also called puranas but not thought to have much merit.
Quawwali
Singer of quawwals (literally, aphorisms), songs in praise of God. Quawwal music spread in India in the thirteenth century
A.D
. and was used by Sufi singer-saints to popularize their message. It is usually sung by a group of singers in a constant interchange of solo and choral modalities.
Raga
Literally, shade or tint. Each raga, or modal melody, is supposed to color the mind of the listener with a specific emotion or musical atmosphere. These melodies constitute the highest expression of Indian classical music.
Raga-vivodha
Composed in 1609 by Somanatha, this important musical text makes special reference to melodies in Indian classical music.
Rasa
Literally, juice. An emotional state, in music the soul of the performance. The most ancient treatise on Indian art,
The Natya Shastra
—also sometimes called the Fifth Veda—defines rasa as the permanent mood experienced by the audience that can be conveyed only by a musician who has himself experienced the rasa.
The Natya Sastra
identifies eight rasas, each of which has a color and a presiding deity: Love, Laughter, Rage, Pathos, Terror, Disgust, Heroism, and Wonder. After the advent of Buddhism, a ninth rasa was added, Tranquility.
Rupee
Indian currency, made up of 100 paisas.
Holy man, ascetic.
Sari
Garment worn by Indian women. A single piece of fabric six meters long is folded at the waist to fall to the ground, with one end draped over the shoulder.
Savory pastry filled with minced meat or vegetables.
Shankaracharya
(c. 770-810) Religious teacher and reformer, believed by many in his lifetime to have been an incarnation of Shiva.
Shiva
One of the three gods of the Hindu triad— Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. He is the supreme god to his votaries. Shiva is also thought to date from the preHindu period. When worshipped as the God of Death, he is the oldest god in India.
Sufis
Islamic mystics, a sect of the Shia Muslims. Indo-Sufism is based on the concept of mystical love with two central tenets: striving to unite with God by following the Way under the direction of a spiritual guide and ecstatic intuition of divinity through God's illumination. Indo-Sufism spread through the subcontinent in the thirteenth century
A.D
. The concept of the guide or teacher is very strong in Indo-Sufism, leading to veneration of Sufi saints and celebrations on their death anniversaries at their shrines to commemorate their fined union with God. Sufis believe mystical love must be cultivated spiritually and aroused emotionally, leading to the great impact of the Quawwali singers in India as a means of achieving the ecstasy in which God is found.
Literally, a thread or string. Also a term for literary forms, usually aphoristic in nature.
Tabla
Pair of drums. The treble drum is played with the right hand and the bass drum is played with the left hand.
A long gourd with four strings, used to provide a drone in support of main instrument or voice.
Tansen
(1550-1610) One of India's greatest musicians and singers, considered one of the nine jewels of Emperor Akbar's court. A tamarind tree grows by his grave, and it is believed that singers who chew the leaves from this tree will acquire greater richness and purity of voice.
Tapas
Ascetic heat or ardor; a kind of psychic explosion that leads in the case of the gods to the creation of universes, and with humans to the acquisition of such powers that even the gods tremble before them. Shiva as the supreme Ascetic sustains the universe through his tapas.
1\ilsidas (c. 1527-1620) Poet and religious reformer who was abandoned by his parents and brought up by a wandering ascetic. He is also thought to have been influenced by the ideas of the Nestorian Christians.
Upanishads
About 150 treatises of esoteric doctrines, generally thought to have been recorded in the sixth century
B.C.
With their remarkable freedom of exploration, they are considered to be the origins of Hindu metaphysical inquiry.
Yanaprasthi
Forest hermit or forest dweller.
Vatsayana
(fifth century
A.D
.) Greatest Indian authority on erotics. He is thought to have been himself an ascetic and a celibate.
Veda
Divine knowledge of the Hindus in hymn form. They are thought to have been written from 2500
B.C.
to 1000
B.C.
There are four vedas—Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva. The Rig Veda is the most ancient.
Veena
India's most ancient stringed instrument. It is made of a wide wooden fingerboard with two gourds under the stem at each end, twenty-four frets, and six strings—four playing strings and two drone strings.
Viceroy
Representative of the King of England, who was also Emperor of India, to India; head of the government of British India.
Vyasa
Literally, arranger of the Vedas. Semilegendary sage of great antiquity, considered the author of the
Mahabharata.
He is supposed to have been the grandsire of the two royal lines who are the protagonists of the war described in the
Mahabharata.
Slang for friend, pal.
Yoga
One of the six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy. It is also a form of mental and physical discipline codified by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Additionally, it is a code of ascetic practices, mainly pre-Aryan in origin. It is the main expression of Indian meditation.