ṣ
ṭ
ṛ
and of his son Tri
ś
iras
Vi
ś
v
ā
vasu
Beneficent to everyone; a Gandharva
Vi
ś
ve Devas
The All-gods
Vivasvat
Irradiant, Brilliant One; the Sun, one of the
Ā
dityas
Voice
V
ā
c
Vraja
V
ṛ
nd
ā
vana; the forest where K
ṛ
ṣ
ṇ
a would meet the
gopīs
, near Mathur
ā
vrata
Way of life, vow
vrāta
Band, fraternity, group of initiates
vrātya
Member of a wandering band (
vrāta
) bound by a vow,
vrata
V
ṛ
ddhak
ṣ
atra
Father of Jayadratha
Vrnd
ā
vana
Forest where K
ṛ
ṣ
ṇ
a and R
ā
dh
ā
pleasure each other; there is a celestial V
ṛ
nd
ā
vana and a terrestial V
ṛ
nd
ā
vana, also known as Vraja, near Mathur
ā
V
ṛ
ṣ
ṇ
is
The people of K
ṛ
ṣ
ṇ
a
V
ṛ
tra
Obstruction, obstacle; his mother is Danu; alternatively, born from the dregs of the
soma
Indra drank
Vy
ā
sa
Son of Satyavat
ī
and Par
ā
ś
ara, natural father of P
ā
ṇ
ḍ
u, Dh
ṛ
tar
ā
ṣ
t
ṛ
a, and Vidura; according to tradition, he arranged the texts of the
Ṛ
g Veda and was author of the
Mahābhārata
Wagner
Richard Wagner, 1813–1883
Waters
Ā
pa
ḥ
White Horse
Uccai
ḥ
ś
ravas, one of the
ratnas
, “gems,” that appeared during the churning of the ocean
Wind
V
ā
yu
Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889–1951
Wolf’s Belly
V
ṛ
kodara; epithet of Bh
ī
ma
Word
V
ā
c
ya evaṃ veda
“He who knows thus,” a recurring formula in the Br
ā
hma
ṇ
as and the Upani
ṣ
ads
yajña
Sacrifice
Y
ā
jñavalkya
A
ṛṣi
, named at the end of the fourteenth book of the
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
as author of the whole work
Yak
ṣ
a
Mysterious; genie, demon; the word appears in the
Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa
, 3.203, where it means “prodigious element or being”; all Hindu divinities, and the Buddha, are occasionally referred to as Yak
ṣ
as
Yama
Twin; son of Vivasvat and Sara
ṇ
y
ū
, twin brother of Yam
ī
, king of the dead
Yam
ī
Twin; daughter of Vivasvat and Sara
ṇ
y
ū
, twin sister of Yama
Yamun
ā
Sacred river, daughter of Vivasvat; in symbolic relationship with Ga
ṅ
g
ā
as the Sun is to the Moon
Ya
ś
od
ā
Adoptive mother of K
ṛ
ṣ
ṇ
a
Year
Sa
ṃ
vatsara
Yogarāsiṣṭha
A poem of around twenty-eight thousand
ślokas
, “stanzas,” probably composed in Kashmir between the eighth and thirteenth centuries
A.D.
yojana
A unit of length, corresponding to about fifteen kilometers
yoni
Vagina, womb, spring
Yudhi
ṣ
ṭ
hira
The eldest of the P
ā
ṇ
ḍ
avas, born of the union between Dharma and Kunt
ī
, first wife of P
ā
ṇ
ḍ
u, his putative father
yuga
Aeon
yūpa
Pole to which sacrificial victims are tied
Zodiac
Celestial band corresponding to the ecliptic
Akṣamālā
As in an akṣamālā a necklace of “nuts,” or akṣas, which were used for playing and sometimes likened to akṣaras, “syllables,” I string together here some of the names of those who helped this book to become what it is:
V. S. Agrawala; A. H. Anquetil-Duperron; André Bareau; Émile Benveniste; Abel Bergaigne; Madeleine Biardeau; Maurice Bloomfield; H. W. Bodewitz; J. F. K. Bosch; W. Norman Brown; J. A. B. van Buitenen; Eugéne Burnout: Wilhelm Caland; Jarl Charpentier; A. K. Coomaraswamy; Alain Daniélou; René Daumal; Hertha von Dechend; Joachim Deppert; Paul Deussen; Wendy Doniger; Georges Dumézil; Louis Dumont; P.-E. Dumont; Julius Eggeling; Robert Eisler; Harry Falk; Maryla Falk; Alfred Foucher; K. F. Geldner; Raniero Gnoli; Jan Gonda; René Guénon; Hermann Güntert; J. W. Hauer; J. C. Heesterman; G. J. Held; Victor Henry; Alfred Hillebrandt; Karl Hoffmann; E. W. Hopkins; Hermann Jacobi; K. F. Johansson; P. V. Kane; A. B. Keith; Willibald Kirfel; Stella Kramrisch; Hertha Krick; F. B. J. Kuiper; Sylvain Lévi; Heinrich Lüders; A. A. Macdonell; Charles Malamoud; Marcel Mauss: Manfred Mayrhofer; Armand Minard; J. E. Mitchiner; Max Müller; Paul Mus; Boris Oguibenine; Hermann Oldenberg; Jean Przyluski; Walpola Rahula; Wilhelm Rau; Louis Renou; Claudio Rugafiori; Giorgio de Santillana; Leopold von Schroeder; Émile Senart; D. D. Shulman; Lilian Silburn; Frits Staal; Theodor Stcherbatsky; Heinrich von Stietencron; Paul Thieme; Edward Thomas; L. B. G. Tilak; Jean Varenne; R. G. Wasson; W. D. Whitney; Stig Wikander; Moritz Winternitz; Michael Witzel; Heinrich Zimmer Jr.; Heinrich Zimmer Sr.
Roberto Donatoni and Giovanna Ghidetti have looked after the text from start to finish, watching over every detail.
They all have my deep gratitude.
Illustration credits
Jacket painting: Illustration from a Viṣṇu Avatāra series,
Bikaner
Frontispiece: Paullinus a S. Bartholomeo, Systema
Brahmanicum, Romae, 1791, frontispiece
Chapter I: Die Grundworte des indischen Monismus ous
den Upanishads des Veda, translated by P. Deussen,
illustration designed by E. Schneidler, Jena, 1914,
page 7
Chapter II: L. Renou, J. Filliozat, L’Inde classique,
vol. I, Paris, 1947, page 351, from G. Thiabut, Journal