Library: Eastern Religions by Credo Reference: Hinduism

Deities

Brahma
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
The creator of the universe and sustainer of the world, according to late–Vedic and subsequent traditions. Brahma is a member of the trimurti, the triad consisting of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.
Durga
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
One of the aspects of Devi, Durga is a deity in which various village goddesses and supernatural beings connected to forests and mountains eventually coalesced.
Ganesh: Topic Page
Hindu god of prophecy, son of Shiva and Parvati; he is represented as elephant-headed and is worshipped as a remover of obstacles.
Indra
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Indra's names. Indra was the chief god of the Aryan people who invaded India in the seventeenth century BCE, and he held his position at the centre of Indian religious myth for over 1000 years. He was the Thunderer, wielder of the Thunderstone and god of rain.
Kali
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Hindu mythology, the goddess of destruction and creation. She is the wife of Shiva. Kali feeds herself on blood, but produces life and destroys ignorance.
Krishna: Topic Page
Eighth avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The devotion of the bhakti movement is usually directed towards Krishna.
Lakshmi
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Hindu goddess of wealth, beauty, and good fortune, consort of Vishnu, and mother of the world; her festival is Diwali.
Shiva: Topic Page
In Hinduism, the third chief god (with Brahma and Vishnu) making up the Trimurti.
Vishnu
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
Originally a minor Vedic deity, personifying solar energy, described as encompassing the whole universe in three strides, Vishnu acquired new attributes and slowly became one of the most important Hindu deities, along with Shiva and Brahma.

Sacred Literature

Bhagavad Gita: Topic Page
[Skt.,=song of the Lord], Sanskrit poem incorporated into the Mahabharata, one of the greatest religious classics of Hinduism.
Mahabharata: Topic Page
Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. The Mahabharata, comprising more than 90,000 couplets, usually of 32 syllables, is the longest single poem in world literature.
Puranas
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
A collection of ancient myths concerning the creation of the world, its destruction and re–creation, and the genealogies of the gods and the patriarchs.
Ramayana: Topic Page
Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed in the 3d cent. B.C. Based on numerous legends, it is traditionally the work of Valmiki, one of the minor characters.
Upanishads
From The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
A group of ancient Hindu philosophical texts, or the esoteric sacred doctrines contained in them. ‘Upanishad’ includes the notion of the student “sitting near” the guru.
Vedas: Topic Page
The term Veda, derived from the root vid, “to know,” means “knowledge.” The Veda functions in Hindu traditions as an authoritative category that is ascribed the status of transcendent knowledge and has both textual and supratextual dimensions.

Religious Figures

Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi (1869 - 1948): Topic Page
1869-1948, Hindu religious and political leader and social reformer; advocate of passive resistance; leader of Indian self-government movement.
Ramakrishna (1836 - 1886)
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Hindu mystic. He was born of a poor Brahman family in Bengal, and his given name was Gadadhar Chatterjee.
Ramana Maharishi (1879 - 1950)
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Tamil (southern Indian) sage. Following an early experience in which he believed he was dying, he gained a deep insight into the nature of the self and of the spirit which transcends the body.
Sankara (700 - 750)
From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Sankara was born at Kalati, Kerala in southern India. He became a philosopher-monk, teaching the Hindu VEDANTA philosophy, which emphasises the realisation of a supposed fundamental reality.
Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1952)
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Hindu mystic, major exponent of Vedanta philosophy. He was born of a well-to-do family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and his given name was Narendra Nath Datta.

Significant Places

Dasaswamedeh Ghat
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Dasaswamedeh Ghat, in the holy city of Varanasi (Benares), India.
Ganges River
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide Major river of India and Bangladesh; length 2,510 km/1,560 mi. It drains a fertile and densely populated basin, approximately a quarter of the total area of India, and is the most sacred river for Hindus.
Kolkata (Calcutta): Topic Page
Capital of West Bengal state in India, on the River Hooghly, the westernmost mouth of the River Ganges, some 130 km/80 mi north of the Bay of Bengal.
Mount Meru
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Mount Meru (or Sumeru), in Hindu and Buddhist myth, was the home of the gods. It was a lotus-shaped mountain, built of gold and so vast that only Brahma could comprehend it.
Tirumala
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
One of the most famous and the wealthiest Vaishnava places of pilgrimage, Tirumala (Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh) is part of a small range of seven hills.
Uttar Pradesh: Topic Page
State of north India, bordered by Nepal and Uttarakhand to the northeast, with Madhya Pradesh to the south, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan to the west, and Bihar in the east.
Varanasi
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
City in Uttar Pradesh, India, one of the seven holy cities of Hinduism, on the River Ganges; population (2001 est) 1,211,700. There are 1,500 golden shrines, and a 5 km/3 mi frontage to the Ganges with sacred stairways (ghats) for purification by bathing.