The Dashavatara (Sanskrit: दशावतार, IAST: daśāvatāra) are the ten primary avatars of Vishnu, a principal Hindu god. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from daśa, meaning "ten", and avatāra, roughly equivalent to "incarnation".
The list of included avatars varies across sects and regions, particularly in respect to the inclusion of Balarama (brother of Krishna) or Gautama Buddha. Though no list can be uncontroversially presented as standard, the "most accepted list found in Puranas and other texts is [...] Krishna, Buddha." Most draw from the following set of figures, in this order: Matsya; Kurma; Varaha; Narasimha; Vamana; Parashurama; Rama; Krishna or Balarama; Buddha or Krishna; and Kalki. In traditions that omit Krishna, he often replaces Vishnu as the source of all avatars. Some traditions include a regional deity such as Vithoba or Jagannath in penultimate position, replacing Krishna or Buddha. All avatars have appeared except one; Kalki, who will appear at the end of the Kali Yuga. (Full article...)
Its unique form of monotheistic core beliefs are based on Hindu scriptures, particularly Prabhupada's commentaries and translations of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana. ISKCON is "the largest and, arguably, most important branch" of Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has had adherents in India since the early 16th century and its American and European devotees since the early 1900s. It has around 10 million followers worldwide. (Full article...)
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The Yogini temples of India are 9th to 12th century roofless hypaethral shrines to the yoginis, female masters of yoga in Hindu tantra, broadly equated with goddesses especially Parvati, incarnating the sacred feminine force. They remained largely unknown and unstudied by scholars until late in the 20th century. Several of the shrines have niches for 64 yoginis, so are called Chausath Yogini Temples (Chausath Yogini Mandir, from चौसठ, Hindi for 64, also written Chaunsath or Chausathi); others have 42 or 81 niches, implying different sets of goddesses, though they too are often called Chausath yogini temples. Even when there are 64 yoginis, these are not always the same.
The extant temples are either circular or rectangular in plan; they are scattered over central and northern India in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. Lost temples, their locations identified from surviving yogini images, are still more widely distributed across the subcontinent, from Delhi in the north and the border of Rajasthan in the west to Greater Bengal in the east and Tamil Nadu in the south. (Full article...)
In Hindu tradition, the city of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Rama. In the 16th century a Mughal commander, Mir Baqi, had built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid at a site identified by some Hindus as Ram Janmabhoomi, or the birthplace of Rama. The Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was built on land where a non-Islamic structure had previously existed. In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. Several rallies and marches were held as a part of this movement, including the Ram Rath Yatra led by L. K. Advani. (Full article...)
The Trimurti is the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, preservation, and destruction are personified as a triad of deities. Typically, the designations are that of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. The Om symbol of Hinduism is considered to have an allusion to Trimurti, where the A, U, and M phonemes of the word are considered to indicate creation, preservation and destruction, adding up to represent Brahman. The Tridevi is the trinity of goddess consorts for the Trimurti. (Full article...)
Sita (Sanskrit: सीता; IAST: Sītā), also known as Siya, Janaki, Maithili, Vaidehi and Bhumija, is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, Ramayana. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as an avatar of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She is also the chief goddess of Rama-centric Hindu traditions. Sita is known for her dedication, self-sacrifice, courage, and purity.
Described as the daughter of Bhūmi (the earth), Sita is brought up as the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Videha. Sita, in her youth, chooses Rama, the prince of Ayodhya as her husband in a swayamvara. After the swayamvara, she accompanies her husband to his kingdom, but later chooses to accompany her husband, along with her brother-in-law Lakshmana, in his exile. While in exile, the trio settles in the Dandaka forest from where she is abducted by Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka. She is imprisoned in the garden of Ashoka Vatika, in Lanka, until she is rescued by Rama, who slays her captor. After the war, in some versions of the epic, Rama asks Sita to undergo Agni Pariksha (an ordeal of fire), by which she proves her chastity, before she is accepted by Rama, which for the first time makes his brother Lakshmana angry at him. (Full article...)
The Elephanta Caves contain rock-cut stone sculptures, mostly in high relief, that show syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist ideas and iconography. The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged. The main temple's orientation as well as the relative location of other temples are placed in a mandala pattern. The carvings narrate Hindu mythologies, with the large monolithic 5.45 metres (17.9 ft) Trimurti Sadashiva (three-faced Shiva), Nataraja (Lord of dance) and Yogishvara (Lord of Yogis) being the most celebrated. (Full article...)
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Raghunath Temple complex
Raghunath Temple is a Hindu temple located in Jammu in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It consists of a complex of seven Hindu shrines. Raghunath Temple was constructed by the first Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh in the year 1835 and later his son Maharaja Ranbir Singh got it completed in the year 1860 During Dogra rule. The temple has many gods in its complex of shrines, but the presiding deity is Rama – also known as Raghunath, an Avatar of Vishnu. All the spiral-shaped towers have gold plated spires. The niches in the walls of the shrines are decorated with 300 well-crafted icons of gods and goddesses including those of Surya and Shiva, but most are particularly related to the life stories of Rama and Krishna. The paintings in the 15 panels of the main shrine are based on themes from Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavad Gita. The temple premises include a school and a library that preserves over 6,000 manuscripts in many Indian languages, with a notable collection of Sarada script Sanskrit manuscripts.
The temple witnessed two terrorist attacks in the year 2002, when militants attacked it in March and November, with grenades and indulged in indiscriminate firing which resulted in the death of 20 devotees and also in injuries to over 40 people. (Full article...)
The following are images from various Hinduism-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Upanayana samskara ceremony in progress. Typically, this ritual was for eight-year-olds in ancient India, but in the 1st millennium CE it became open to all ages. (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 2Indra is a Vedic era deity, found in south and southeast Asia. Above Indra is part of the seal of a Thailand state. (from Hindu deities)
Image 3Ishvara is, along with Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, one of the 17 deities commonly found in Indonesian Surya Majapahit Hindu arts and records. However, Ishvara represents different concepts in various Hindu philosophies. (from Hindu deities)
Image 4A Hindu girl after her Karnavedha rite of passage (ear piercing) (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 5Goddess Durga and a pantheon of other gods and goddesses being worshipped during Durga Puja Festival in Kolkata. (from Hindu deities)
Image 6Samskaras are, in one context, the diverse rites of passage of a human being from conception to cremation, signifying milestones in an individual's journey of life in Hinduism. Above is annaprashana samskara celebrating a baby's first taste of solid food. (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 8The ten avatars of Vishnu, (Clockwise, from top left) Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Vamana, Krishna, Kalki, Buddha, Parshurama, Rama and Narasimha, (in centre) Radha and Krishna. Painting currently in Victoria and Albert Museum. (from Hindu deities)
Image 9A Hindu cremation rite in Nepal. The samskara above shows the body wrapped in saffron on a pyre. (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 10Six Hinduism deities. Surya, Parvati, Hanuman, Lakshmi, Vishnu, and Indra. All of these statues came from India, except Vishnu (from the Thai-Cambodian border). Various eras. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (from Hindu deities)
Image 11Vaishnavism focuses on Vishnu or one of his avatars, such as Krishna above (from Hindu denominations)
Image 12A Tamil Hindu girl (center) in 1870 wearing a half-saree, flowers and jewelry from her Ritu Kala samskara rite of passage (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 14Shiva (left), Vishnu (middle), and Brahma (right) (from Hindu deities)
Image 15A new born's Namakarana ceremony. The grandmother is whispering the name into the baby's ear, while friends and family watch. (from Samskara (rite of passage))
Image 17Annaprashanam is the rite of passage where the baby is fed solid food for the first time. The ritual has regional names, such as Choroonu in Kerala. (from Samskara (rite of passage))
After gradual research; I have come to the conclusion that long before all heavenly books, God had revealed to the Hindus, through the Rishis of yore, of whom Brahma was the Chief, His four books of knowledge, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. The Quran itself made veiled references to the Upanishads as the first heavenly book and the fountainhead of the ocean of monotheism.
The anecdotes and narratives of Krishna's life are generally titled as Krishna Līlā. He is a central figure in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, and the Bhagavad Gita, and is mentioned in many Hindu philosophical, theological, and mythological texts. They portray him in various perspectives: as a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and the universal supreme being. His iconography reflects these legends and shows him in different stages of his life, such as an infant eating butter, a young boy playing a flute, a young boy with Radha or surrounded by female devotees, or a friendly charioteer giving counsel to Arjuna. (Full article...)
Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also called Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, romanized: Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; pronounced[ramɔkriʂnopɔromoɦɔŋʃo]ⓘ; IAST: Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa), born RamakrishnaChattopadhay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. A devotee of the goddess Kali, Ramakrishna after adhering to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as from Islam and Christianity, proclaimed that various world religions are "so many paths to reach one and the same goal", thus validating the essential unity of religions. His parable-based teachings espoused the ultimate unity of diverse religions as being means to enable the realization of the same God. He is regarded by his followers as an avatar or divine incarnation of God. Born in Kamarpukur, Bengal Presidency, India, Ramakrishna was the fourth and youngest child of his parents. He encountered several religious experiences starting from his childhood, and later began his career, at age twenty, as a temple priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple in Calcutta. The devotional temperament of Ramakrishna coupled with his intense religious practices at the temple premises led him to experience various spiritual visions. Soon a few religious teachers visited Ramakrishna and assured him the sanctity of his visions. In 1859, in accordance with then prevailing customs, Ramakrishna was married to Sarada Devi, a marriage that was never consummated. (Full article...)
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Madhvacharya (IAST: Madhvācārya; pronounced[mɐdʱʋaːˈtɕaːrjɐ]; CE 1199–1278 or CE 1238–1317), and also known as Purna Prajna (IAST: Pūrṇa-Prajña) and Ānanda Tīrtha, was an Indian philosopher, theologian and the chief proponent of the Dvaita (dualism) school of Vedanta. Madhva called his philosophy Tattvavāda meaning "arguments from a realist viewpoint".
Madhvacharya was born on the west coast of Karnataka state in 13th-century India. As a teenager, he became a Sanyasi (monk) joining Brahma-sampradaya guru Achyutapreksha, of the Ekadandi order. Madhva studied the classics of Hindu philosophy, and wrote commentaries on the Principal Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras (Prasthanatrayi), and is credited with thirty seven works in Sanskrit. His writing style was of extreme brevity and condensed expression. His greatest work is considered to be the Anuvyakhyana, a philosophical supplement to his bhasya on the Brahma Sutras composed with a poetic structure. In some of his works, he proclaimed himself to be an avatar of Vayu, the son of god Vishnu. (Full article...)
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Gargi Vachaknavi (Sans: गार्गी वाचक्नवी (Devanagari); Gargi Vacaknavi (HK)), was an ancient Indian sage and philosopher. In Vedic literature, she is honoured as a great natural philosopher, renowned expounder of the Vedas, and known as Brahmavadini, a person with knowledge of Brahma Vidya. In the Sixth and the eighth Brahmana of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, her name is prominent as she participates in the brahmayajna, a philosophic debate organized by King Janaka of Videha and she challenges the sage Yajnavalkya with perplexing questions on the issue of atman (soul). She is also said to have written many hymns in the Rigveda. She remained a celibate all her life and was held in veneration by the conventional Hindus.
Gargi, the daughter of sage Vachaknu in the lineage of sage Garga (c. 800-500 BCE) was named after her father Gargi Vachaknavi. From a young age, she evinced a keen interest in Vedic scriptures and became very proficient in fields of philosophy. She became highly knowledgeable in the Vedas and Upanishads in the Vedic times and held intellectual debates with other philosophers. (Full article...)
Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar in June 1891, at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. There, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land-tax. (Full article...)
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Nome (born January 23, 1955) is a spiritual teacher at Society of Abidance in Truth, known by the acronym SAT, which established and maintains a temple for nondual Self-knowledge in California. He expounds the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Advaita Vedanta. He, along with Dr. H. Ramamoorthy, translated into English the essential and classic work of Advaita Vedanta, "Ribhu Gita", which was highly recommended by Sri Ramana Maharshi. The English translation has been published by Society of Abidance in Truth and has since then been re-published by Sri Ramanasramam (Tiruvannamalai, India) and translated into Hindi, Italian, Korean and German. (Full article...)
Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, IAST: Arjuna), also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, was an ancient Indian prince of the Kuru Kingdom discussed in the epic, Mahabharata. He was the third of five Pandava brothers, from the lineage of the Kuru. In the Mahabharata War, Arjuna was a key warrior from the Pandava side in the battle of Kurukshetra. Before the beginning of the war, his mentor Krishna gave him the supreme knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita to overcome his moral dilemmas. Arjuna was the son of Kunti, the wife of Kuru King Pandu, and the god Indra, who fathered him due to Pandu's curse. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is depicted as a skilled archer from an early age, as a student who earns the favor of his preceptor Drona, as the primary adversary of Kauravas, and the betrothed of Draupadi, who became the common wife of the Pandavas. Arjuna is twice exiled, first for breaking a pact with his brothers, and again with his brothers after his oldest brother is tricked into gambling away the throne. During his first exile, Arjuna married Ulupi, Chitrāngadā and Subhadra. From his four wives, Arjuna had four sons, one from each wife — Shrutakarma, Iravan, Babhruvahana and Abhimanyu. During his second exile, Arjuna gained many celestial weapons. Apart from being a warrior, Arjuna also possessed skills in music and dance. At the end of the epic the Pandavas, accompanied by Draupadi, retire to the Himalayas, where everyone in time passes away to arrive in heaven. (Full article...)