Roberto Calasso: Ka

ḍ

u’s second wife

Nanda

Herdsman, K

ṛ

ṣ

ṇ

a’s adoptive father

Nanda

Brother of the Buddha

Ś

ā

kyamuni

Nandin

The bull that

Ś

iva rides

Nara

Man from whom the waters,

n

ā

ras

, are born; a

ṛṣi

, brother of N

ā

r

ā

ya

ṇ

a; appears as Arjuna in the

Mahābhārata

N

ā

rada

A

ṛṣi

, son of Brahm

ā

N

ā

r

ā

ya

ṇ

a

He who moves in the waters; dwelling place of man; epithet of Vi

ṣ

ṇ

u; a

ṛṣi

, brother of Nara

N

ā

ṭ

ya

ś

ā

stra

Treatise on the Theater, attributed to Bharata; the first and most important Indian text on the theater, sometimes considered a Fifth Veda

Naw

ā

b J

ā

far Kh

ā

n

Ruler at whose court in Bengal in 1717 a dispute took place between supporters of

srakīyā

love and

parakīyā

love in the cult of K

ṛ

ṣ

ṇ

a and R

ā

dh

ā

neṣṭṛ

Priest who leads the wives of the king in the

aśramedha

Neumann

Karl Eugen Neumann, 1865–1915, seholar of Buddhism

Night

Ratri

N

ī

laka

ṇ

ṭ

ha

The Blue-Necked One: epithet of

Ś

iva: refers to the stain that appeared on the god’s neck after he drank K

ā

lak

ū

ṭ

a

n

ī

pa

Nauclea cadamba

, a tree of scented, orange-colored flowers

Nir

ṛ

ti

Dissolution

nire

ā

ṇ

a

Extinction

Ni

ṣ

ā

das

Population of India; according to the

Lau’s of Manu

, 10.8, “a Ni

ṣ

ā

da is born from a brahman and the daughter of a

śūdra

[the lowest caste]”

Noble Ones

Ā

ryas

ṇ

yagrodha

Ficus indica

, the banyan tree

Nymph

Apsaras

Oldenberg

Hermann Oldenberg, indologist. 1854–1920

Olympus

Seat of the Greek gods

Omniform

Vi

ś

var

ū

pa: epithet of Tva

ṣ

ṭ

ṛ

and of his son Tri

ś

iras

One-and-more

Aṇguttaranikāya

; a group of discourses made up of one or more lines; name of one of the sections into which the

Suttapiṭaka

, one of the Three Baskets of the Buddha’s discourses, is divided

Order

The Buddhist community (

saṅgha

)

Order

Ṛta

Orion

A constellation between Gemini and Taurus; Praj

ā

pati in the sky

Orissa

A region of northeastern India

O

ṣ

adhiprastha

A city in the Him

ā

laya, birthplace of P

ā

rvat

ī

pālāgalī

Daughter of the Herald; fourth in rank of the king’s wives, of a lower caste than the others

P

ā

ñ

c

ā

las

People who share a border with the Kuru people

Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa

The twenty-five-chapter Br

ā

hma

ṇ

a: similar in theme to the

Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa

P

ā

ṇ

ḍ

avas

The five brothers born of Kunt

ī

and M

ā

dr

ī

, and held to be the sons of P

ā

ṇ

ḍ

u, cousins of the Kauravas, desceudants of the lunar dynasty

P

ā

ṇ

ḍ

u

Son of Vy

ā

sa and Amb

ā

lik

ā

, putative father of the five P

ā

ṇ

ḍ

avas

P

ā

ṇ

ini

The greatest Indian grammarian, who lived around 500

B.C.

in

Ś

al

ā

tura in northwest India

parakīyā

Another’s woman; the object of an adulterous, illegitimate love

parakīyādharma

Law of the illegitimate one

Par

ī

k

ṣ

it

Son of Abhimanyu and Uttar

ā

, father of Janamejaya

pāriplara

Circular story

pariāṛktā

Neglected One: the third in rank of the king’s wives

Parjanya

Cloud; Indra’s younger brother

Park of the Mango Trees

Ā

mrava

ṇ

a; a park in Vai

ś

ā

l

ī

parvan

Knot; used of the books that compose the

Mahābhārata

P

ā

rvat

ī

Daughter of the Mountain; her father, Himavat, is also called Parvata

paśus

Domestic animals (including man); animals that can be sacrificed

Pa

ś

upati

Lord of the Herds; one of the names of Rudra, then of

Ś

iva

pāyasa

Rice cooked in milk

pecus

Herd: primordial form of wealth, from which comes

pecunia

, “money”

Person

Puru

ṣ

a

Person in the Eye

Indra and Indr

ā

n

ī

appear as Persons in the Eye, he in the right, she in the left

Physician

Dhanvantari; one of the

ratnas

, “gems,” that appeared during the churning of the ocean

Place of the Hunter

The celestial region between Sirius and Aldebaran, including the constellations Gemini and Taurus

Plak

ṣ

a Pr

ā

srava

ṇ

a

A place forty-eight days’ march from where the Sarasvat

ī

silts up; the center of the earth is a span (

prādeśa

) to the north of it

Plato

427–347

B.C.

Pleasure

Rati

Pleiades

K

ṛ

ttik

ā

s; a group of seven stars in the Taurus constellation

Prabh

ā

sa

A city in Gujarat

pradakṣiṇā

Ritual circumambulation around a statue, a temple, or a person, in a clockwise direction, that keeps the object of veneration on one’s right (from

dakṣiṇā

, “right hand”)

Praj

ā

pati

Progenitor; Lord of the Creatures: antecedent of Brahm

ā

prajñā

Wisdom

prakṛti

Nature’s fabric, made up of three threads (

guṇas

); the female counterpart of Puru

ṣ

a, in the S

ā

ṃ

khya doctrine

pralaya

Cosmic dissolution, which occurs at the end of every

kalpa

prāṇa

Vital breath; man has seven of them

prāśitra

First portion; when the portions of the sacrificial food are distributed, the first to be cut is a morsel no bigger than a barley grain, which is offered to the brahman on a wooden plate with a handle; it corresponds to the piece of flesh torn from Praj

ā

pati when he was wounded

prati-

Prefix that indicates, among other things, a coming toward, typical of U

ṣ

as

pratiṣṭhā

Foundation, base

pratītyasamutpāda

“Production (

utpāda

) converging (

sam

) in function of (

pratītya

)” (L. Silburn); “law of interconnection” (T. Stcherbatsky)

Precious Stone