RishiIn Indian religions, a rishi (ऋषि) is an accomplished and enlightened person. They find mentions in various Vedic texts. Rishis are believed to have composed hymns of the Vedas. The Post-Vedic tradition of Hinduism regards the rishis as "great yogis" or "sages" who after intense meditation (tapas) realized the supreme truth and eternal knowledge, which they composed into hymns. The term appears in Pali literature as Ishi and in Buddhism, they can be either Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas, Arahats or a monk of high rank.
PanduIn the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Pandu (Pāṇḍu) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities, owing to his inability to bear children following sage Kindama's curse. He belonged to the Kuru Dynasty. When Vichitravirya died due to sickness, Bhishma was unable to ascend the throne because of his vow, and Bahlika's line was unwilling to leave the Bahlika Kingdom. There ensued a succession crisis in Hastinapura.
BalaramaBalarama (Sanskrit: बलराम, IAST: Balarāma) is a Hindu god and the elder brother of Krishna. He is particularly significant in the Jagannath tradition, as one of the triad deities. He is also known as Haladhara, Halayudha, Baladeva, Balabhadra, and Sankarshana. The first two epithets associate him with hala (langala, "plough") from his strong associations with farming and farmers, as the deity who used farm equipment as weapons when needed, and the next two refer to his strength.
KshatriyaKshatriya (क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit kṣatra, "rule, authority"; also called Rajanya) is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society and is associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term kṣatriyaḥ is used in the context of later Vedic society wherein members were organised into four classes: brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. The administrative machinery in the Vedic India was headed by a tribal king called Rajan whose position may or may not have been hereditary.
BaliBali (ˈbɑːli; ᬩᬮᬶ) is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre.
ShakuniShakuni (शकुनि, , bird) is one of the antagonists of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the prince of the kingdom of Gandhara when introduced, later becoming its king after the death of his father, Subala. He was the brother of Gandhari and the maternal uncle of the Kauravas. Portrayed as intelligent, crafty and devious, Shakuni supported his nephews, particularly the eldest, Duryodhana, in plotting against their cousinsthe Pandavas. It was Shakuni who played the game of dice against Yudhishthira, one of the seminal events in the epic.
KripaKripa (Kṛpa), also known as Kripacharya (Kṛpācārya), is a figure in Hindu History. According to the epic Mahabharata, he was a council member of Kuru Kingdom and a teacher of the Pandava and Kaurava princes. Born to warrior-sage Sharadvan and nymph Janapadi in an extraordinary manner, Kripa and his sister Kripi were adopted by King Shantanu of Kuru Kingdom. Kripa was trained by his birth father and became a great archer like him. Later in the epic, he fought on the Kauravas's side against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war and was among the few survivors of the war.
Matsya (tribe)Matsya (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of central South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The members of the Matsya tribe were called the Mātsyeyas and were organised into a kingdom called the Matsya kingdom. in Pāli and in Sanskrit mean "fish". The kingdom of the Mātsyeyas covered an extensive territory, with the Sarasvatī river and the forests skirting it as its western border, and its southern boundaries being the hills near the Chambal River.
Lunar dynastyThe Lunar dynasty (IAST: Candravaṃśa) is a legendary principal house of the Kshatriyas varna, or warrior–ruling caste mentioned in the ancient Indian texts. This legendary dynasty was said to be descended from moon-related deities (Soma or Lunar). The Hindu deity Krishna is believed to have been born in the Yaduvamsha branch of the Lunar dynasty. According to the Shatapatha Brahmana, Pururavas was the son of Budha (himself often described as the son of Soma) and the gender-switching deity Ila (born as the daughter of Manu).
KshemendraKshemendra (; 990-1070 CE) was an 11th-century Sanskrit polymath-poet, satirist, philosopher, historian, dramatist, translator and art-critic from Kashmir. Kshemendra was born into an old, cultured, and affluent family. His father was Prakashendra, a descendant of Narendra who was the minister to Jayapida. Both his education and literary output were broad and varied. He studied literature under "the foremost teacher of his time, the celebrated Shaiva philosopher and literary exponent Abhinavagupta".
