Aruni Uddalaka Aruni or Uddalaka or Uddalaka Aruni (fl. c. 7th century BCE) was a philosopher of Vedic India, whose teachings are recorded in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads. One of the first philosophers inrecorded history, he taught that everything in the universe (including all living things) is made of…
Kuru (Sanskrit: कुरु) was the name of a Vedic Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing the modern-day states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and western part of Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 – c. 850 BCE) and developed into the first recorded state-level society in…
Sarpa Yaga Emperor Janmejay ascended to the throne of Hastinapura upon the death of his father Parikshit. According to legend, Parikshit, the lone descendant of the House of Pandu, had died of snakebite. He had been cursed by a sage to die so, the curse having been consummated by the…
JanamejayaJanamejaya (Sanskrit: जनमेजय) was a Kuru king who reigned during the Middle Vedic period (12th or 11th century BCE). Along with his predecessor Parikshit, he played a decisive role in the consolidation of the Kuru state, the arrangement of Vedic hymns into collections, and the development of the orthodox srauta ritual,…
Vaishampayana Vaishampayana (Sanskrit: वैशंपायन, Vaiśampāyana) was one of the three to whom the the Indian epic Mahabharata was first narrated by the composer of the epic, Vyasa, in the form of Jaya. He became the first narrator of the epic to humans, when he narrated it to Janamejaya, the great…
There are two traditions being followed with respect to the start of the month. Amavasyant (Amanta) tradition followed mainly in the western and southern states of India (namely Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu) considers a new moon occurring before sunrise on a day to be the first day of the lunar month. Purnimant tradition, on…
Kali Yuga (Devanāgarī: कलियुग lit. “age of [the demon] Kali”, or “age of vice”) is the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Sanskrit scriptures, within the present Mahayuga. The other ages are called Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, and Dvapara Yuga. Kali Yuga is associated with the demon Kali (not to be confused…
The Dwapara Yuga, also spelt as Pardhasaradhi Yuga, is the third out of four Yugas, or ages, described in the scriptures of Hinduism. Dvapara in Sanskrit literally means “two ahead”, that is, something in the third place. The Dvapara Yuga follows the Treta Yuga and precedes the Kali Yuga. According to the Puranas, this yuga ended at the moment when Krishna returned to his…
Treta Yuga (Devanagari: त्रेता युग) is the second out of the four yugas, or ages of mankind, in the religion of Hinduism. It follows the Satya Yuga and is followed by the Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. Treta means ‘a collection of three things’ in Sanskrit, and is called so because during the Treta Yuga, there were…
The Satya Yuga (Devanagari: सत्य युग), also called Sat Yuga, Krta Yuga and Krita Yuga in Hinduism, is the first of the four Yugas, the “Yuga (Age or Era) of Truth”, when humanity is governed by gods, and every manifestation or work is close to the purest ideal and humanity will allow intrinsic goodness to rule supreme. It is sometimes referred…