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[German Version] I. The word reincarnation, like the similar expression transmigration of souls (I), from which it is generally not distinguished, refers to various notions of how a person’s soul or spirit may be reembodied for a new life (or series of lives) on earth. A possible terminological distinction might be made between transmigration and reincarnation by restricting reincarnation primarily to the modern Western variant first proposed by G.E. Lessing ( Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts, 1780, §§94ff.; ET: The Education of the Human Race, 1858), but a certain overla…

[German Version] (Sanskrit “liberation,” also mukti) designates the attainment of the state of salvation in the Indian religions (Hinduism) of the post-Vedic period (Vedas), i.e. release from the cycle of birth and rebirth (Reincarnation, saṃsāra). Largely synonymous concepts are apavarga (“completion”), kaivalya (“isolation”), niḥśreyasa (“the best”), and nirvāṇa (“cessation”). The liberated being also escapes the cyclical regeneration of the world (a view rejected by the Ājīvikas). Mokṣa is normally only possible during an incarnation as a human being; it is…

[German Version] (Sanskrit “circle”). Especially in the Tantric forms of Indian religion (Tantrism), maṇḍala designates the arrangement of deities in a cosmos-palace. Traditional (Purāṇas) cosmology (ring-shaped continents surrounding a central mountain) persists in the concentric circles of the maṇḍala. The subdivision into four quadrants represents the cardinal points; squares symbolize the palace, further square elements mark its gates, etc. The main deity resides in the center of the maṇḍala, while other deities flank it in the peripheral segments. The Buddhist maṇḍala …

*Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin (Tib. Mtho btsun grub rje) is the author of two Buddhist hymns, the Viśeṣastava and Sarvajñamaheśvarastotra, transmitted in Tibetan translation. The name of the poet, now widely accepted as Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin, is reconstructed from its rendering in Tibetan; another proposal was *Mudgaragomin Siddhapati (Schiefner, 1869, 64). However, two still unpublished Sanskrit manuscripts have rather Rādhasvāmin (Schneider, forthcoming). Prajñāvarman (8th/9th cent.) gives information concerning Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin’s life in the preamble to hi…

Śaṃkarasvāmin (also known as *Śaṃkarapati, Tib. Bde byed bdag po) is the author of the Devātiśayastotra (Skt. ed. Hahn, 2000; Schneider, 2014; Tib. ed. Schneider, 2014). The earliest sources containing an account of his life are Prajñāvarman’s Viśeṣastavaṭīkā and Devātiśayastotraṭīkā (Schneider, 1993, 2014). According to these accounts, Śaṃkarasvāmin and his elder brother Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin were Brahmins and worshippers of Maheśvara (Śiva). On a pilgrimage to Mount Kailāsa, they witnessed Śiva paying honor to Buddhist monks. Accordi…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich 1. Die menschliche Geburt ist in der Religionsgesch. seit jeher Gegenstand mannigfaltiger Vorstellungen, Riten und Gebräuche, darunter auch W. Als rite de passage ist die Geburt kein bloß natürlicher Vorgang, sondern kann eine vorherige Geburt wiederholen, den Tod als Durchgang zu neuem Leben ansehen oder innerhalb des Lebens einen physischen von einem geistigen Geburtsakt mit dazwischen liegendem rituellen Tod unterscheiden. Die griech. Terminologie ist uneinheitlich und verwendet α᾿n̆αγεn̆n̆α˜n̆/anagennán, α᾿n̆αβιου˜n̆…