BrahminBrahmin (ˈbrɑːmɪn; brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. In the Vedic- and post-Vedic Indian subcontinent, Brahmins were designated as the priestly class, serving as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and spiritual teachers (guru or acharya). The other three varnas are the Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The traditional occupation of Brahmins is that of priesthood at Hindu temples or at socio-religious ceremonies, and the performing of rite of passage rituals such as solemnising a wedding with hymns and prayers.
DharmaDharma (ˈdɑːrmə; Dharma, dɦɐrmɐ; Dhamma); although no single-word translation exists for dharma in European languages, the term is commonly understood as referring to "order and custom" that sustain life, "virtue", or "religious and moral duties". It is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism among others. In Hinduism, dharma denotes behaviours that are considered to be in accord with Ṛta—the "order and custom" that makes life and universe possible.
ChandraChandra (Chandra), also known as Soma (सोम), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) and Dikpala (guardians of the directions). The word "Chandra" literally means "bright, shining or glittering" and is used for the "Moon" in Sanskrit and other Indian languages. It is also the name of various other figures in Hindu mythology, including an asura and a Suryavamsha king. It is also a common Indian name and surname.
TolkāppiyamTolkāppiyam, also romanised as Tholkaappiyam (தொல்காப்பியம் , lit. "ancient poem"), is the most ancient extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. The surviving manuscripts of the Tolkappiyam consists of three books (atikaram), each with nine chapters (iyal), with a cumulative total of 1,610 (483+463+664) sutras in the nūṛpā meter. It is a comprehensive text on grammar, and includes sutras on orthography, phonology, etymology, morphology, semantics, prosody, sentence structure and the significance of context in language.
VerethragnaVerethragna or Bahram (𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬚𐬭𐬀𐬖𐬥𐬀 vərəθraγna) is an Indo-Iranian deity. The neuter noun verethragna is related to Avestan verethra, 'obstacle' and verethragnan, 'victorious'. Representing this concept is the divinity Verethragna, who is the hypostasis of "victory", and "as a giver of victory Verethragna plainly enjoyed the greatest popularity of old." In Zoroastrian Middle Persian, Verethragna became 𐭥𐭫𐭧𐭫𐭠𐭭 Warahrām, from which Vahram, Vehram, Bahram, Behram and other variants derive. The word has a cognate in Vedic Sanskrit.
AsuraAsuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking demons related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is sometimes translated "titan", "demigod", or "antigod". According to Hindu scriptures, the asuras are in constant battle with the devas. Asuras are described in Indian texts as powerful superhuman demigods with good or bad qualities.
BuddhiIn Hindu mythology, Buddhi is one of the wives of Ganesha. Buddhi (Sanskrit: बुद्धि) refers to the intellectual faculty and the power to "form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand". Buddhi (बुद्धि) is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit root Budh (बुध् ), which literally means "to wake, be awake, observe, heed, attend, learn, become aware of, to know, be conscious again". The term appears extensively in Rigveda and other Vedic literature.
Foot (prosody)The foot is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Indo-European traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is composed of syllables, and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length. The most common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, dactyl, and anapest. The foot might be compared to a bar, or a beat divided into pulse groups, in musical notation.
Nyaya(Sanskrit: न्याय, nyā-yá), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment", is one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy that affirm the Vedas (an astika school). Nyaya's most significant contributions to Indian philosophy were systematic development of the theory of logic, methodology, and its treatises on epistemology. Nyaya school's epistemology accepts four out of six Pramanas as reliable means of gaining knowledge – Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumāṇa (inference), Upamāṇa (comparison and analogy) and Śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts).
IndologyIndology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term Indology (in German, Indologie) is often associated with German scholarship, and is used more commonly in departmental titles in German and continental European universities than in the anglophone academy. In the Netherlands, the term Indologie was used to designate the study of Indian history and culture in preparation for colonial service in the Dutch East Indies.
