Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online

In the 15th–16th centuries, there lived in Benares a poet-singer known as Kabīr (?–1518), weaver by trade and rebel in religious matters, who bequeathed to posterity a living tradition of singing his “truth” about worldly and divine questions and proposing a new, direct practice to experience extraworldly dimensions. For the last five hundred years, his poem-songs have enjoyed tremendous acclaim, locally and internationally, and are a source of inspiration and imitation. For many adherents to his views, he is a spiritual master ( guru) and founder of a recognized community ( panth); h…

“Kabīrpanth” designates a religious community having Kabīr, the 15th-/16th-century poet, as its central reference and founding figure. Though usually the term “Kabīrpanth” is used in the singular, there are many branches ( śākhās) and sub-branches ( upaśākhās) that can be very different from one another. The adherents to the Kabīrpanth are known as the Panthīs. The study of the Kabīrpanth bears testimony to the complex and controversial heritage of Kabī…

Kālī is a Hindu goddess who is understood in many ways. In some areas of India, she is a tribal and village goddess who protects a group of people or a geographical region, an ancestress who grants the desires of her people. She is also a tantric and yogic goddess of death and transcendence who gives the gift of liberation to her followers. She may also be understood as a loving mother who saves her devotees from painful rebirth and gives them protection from harm as well as entrance into her he…

Traditional Hinduism specifies four principal aims or goals one should strive for in one’s life: conformity to social and religious norms ( dharma), wealth ( artha), sensual enjoyment ( kāma), and final liberation ( mokṣa) from the cycle of rebirths ( saṃsāra). This fourfold religious prescription typifies the Hindu’s attitude toward life: all human activity is religious and sacred. Although sensual enjoyment includes all kinds of pleasures that delight and fulfil the senses, from the earliest time of the Ṛgveda, the Sanskrit word kām…

Kānphaṭā (Split-Ear) yogīs is a popular designation of the Śaiva sectarian tradition of the Nāth  yogīs or Gorakhnāthī yogīs alludes to the hallmark of their sect, huge round earrings piercing the ear cartilage. However popularly used, this appellation is considered by the yogīs as derogatory, and they prefer the more prestigious name of “Nāth yogīs,” which link…

Although no written works by Kāpālikas are known to us, this antinomian Śaiva movement of skull bearers, who took up the attributes of Śiva’s frightening form, Bhairava, was once very much present from Kashmir and Nepal to the Tamil-speaking south. The earliest mention of Kāpālikas is found perhaps in Hāla’s Saṭṭasaī, datable to the 3rd to 5th centuries CE (Lorenzen, 1991, 13), but most of our sources on them come from the 7th to the 12th centuries CE. Since there are mainly indirect sources about their doctrine and practice, it is often difficult to separate fictitious or biased elements from what may be true in their descriptions.Indeed, their very name is problematic. In its most general usage, the word kāpālika can simply denote someone who carries or deals with a skull or skulls ( …

Roots of the Belief in Karman and Rebirth In Sanskrit karman means “action,” “deed,” or “work.” This entry is on a derivative meaning of the term, namely, that action of an individual, and the transempirical impression or residue it leaves, which helps consequentially to determine the quality and direction of that individual’s passage through saṃsāra (the flow of transient existence). In this sense, karman is associated with rebirth or tr…

Karnataka is one of the southwestern states of the Indian Union, situated between 12⁰ and 18⁰ north latitude and 74⁰ and 78⁰ east longitude. It was formed in 1956 as the successor of the Mysore state when political units were reorganized on the basis of language. Further territorial adjustments were made in 1973. Kannada, a Dravidian language documented from about 500 CE onwards, is the official language of Karnataka. Before India’s Independence in 1947, its territories partly belonged to the pr…

Hemmed in by high mountains at the western end of the Himalayas, little more than 129 km in length from southeast to northwest, and no more than 40 in breadth at its widest point, Kashmir (Skt. Kaśmīra, Kaśmīrā, or Kāśmīra), in spite of this isolation and limited territory, proved outstandingly creative in the domain of religion during most of the centuries in which the dominant faiths of the inhabitants were Buddhism or Hinduism, the latter embracing in this region not only the tradition of Bra…

The expression “Kashmir Śaivism” is now commonly used to refer to a group of nondualistic or monistic, tantric Śaiva (Śiva worshipping) traditions, which originated and flourished in Kashmir from the latter centuries of the 1st millennium CE through the early centuries of the 2nd millennium. These traditions must be distinguished from dualistic Śaiva Siddhānta traditions, which also flourished in medieval Kashmir. Though almost disappearing among the Brahmans of Kashmir, the nondualistic (like t…

Kerala, the most southwestern state in peninsular India, located between the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, occupies a total area of 38,854 km2 and defines a coastline of 579 km. Its geographical position and abundance of natural plant products add to its natural beauty and serenity, and Malayalis, the inhabitants of Kerala, popularly refer to it as “God’s own country.” The natural coastal ports, which have facilitated international trade relations from ancient times, have contributed towards Kerala’s socioreligious diversity.Kerala’s socioreligious and cultural matrix, an amalgam of native and foreign cultures and creeds, shapes its distinctive culture. Immigrants came at different times, bringing (along with their vivid physical features) beliefs, traditions, and lifestyles that formed a subculture within Kerala. Although Kerala was connected with other parts of the world for many centuries prior to the Christian era, immigrants settled during the Christian era (Aiya, 1999; Menon, 1983). The earliest immigrants, th…

① astronomical② botanical③ calendrical④ community (Hindu, Muslim, etc.)⑤ cinematographic⑥ gods, goddesses, and powers⑦ dynasty⑧ festival⑨ groups of gods, goddesses, and powers⑩ language/script⑪ literary genre/feature⑫ medical⑬ musical genre/feature⑭ musical instrument⑮ performance tradition⑯ poet, teacher, saint (pre-1900)⑰ poet, tea…