| ENCYCLOPEDIA |
JABALI, JAVALI A Brahman who was priest of King Dasa-ratha, and held sceptical philosophical opinions. He is represented in the Ramayana as enforcing his views upon Rama, who decidedly repudiated them. Thereupon he asserted that his atheistical arguments had been used only for a purpose, and that he was really imbued with sentiments of piety and religion. He is said to have been a logician, so probably he belonged to the Nyaya school.
JAGAD-DHATRI (DHATA) `Sustainer of the world.’ An epithet given to both Saraswati and Durga.
JAGAN-MATRI (MATA) `Mother of the world.’ One of the names of Siva’s wife. See Devi.
JAGAN-NATHA `Lord of the world.’ A particular form of Vishnu, or rather of Krishna. He is worshipped in Bengal and other parts of India, but Puri, near the town of Cuttack, in Orissa, is the great seat of his worship, and multitudes of pilgrims resort thither from all parts, especially to the two great festivals of the Snana-yatra and Ratha-yatra, in the months of Jyaishtha and Ashadha. The first of these is when the image is bathed, and in the second, or car festival, the image is brought out upon a car with the images of his brother Bala-rama and sister Su-bhadra, and is drawn by the devotees. The legend of the origin of Jagan-natha is peculiar. Krishna was killed by a hunter, and his body was left to rot under a tree, but some pious persons found the bones and placed them in a box. A devout king named Indra-dyumna was directed by Vishnu to form an image of Jagan-natha and to place the bones of Krishna inside it. Viswa-karma, the architect of the gods, undertook to make the image, on condition of being left quite undisturbed till the work was complete. After fifteen days the king was impatient and went to Viswa-karma, who was angry, and left off work before he had made either hands or feet, so that the image has only stumps. Indra-dyumna prayed to Brahma, who promised to make the image famous, and he did so by giving to it eyes and a soul, and by acting as high priest at its consecration.
JAHNAVI The Ganges. See Jahnu.
JAHNU A sage descended from Pururavas. He was disturbed in his devotions by the passage of the river Ganga, and consequently drank up its waters. He afterwards relented, and allowed the stream to issue from his ear, hence Ganga is called Jahnavi, daughter of Jahnu. See Ganga.
JAIMINI A celebrated sage, a disciple of Vyasa. He is said to have received the Sama-veda from his master, and to have been its publisher or teacher. He was also the founder of the Purva-mimansa philosophy. The text of Jaimini is printed in the Bibliotheca Indica.
JAIMINIYA-NYAYA-MALA-VISTARA A work on philosophy by Madhava. It has been edited by Goldstucker and Cowell.
JAJALI A Brahman mentioned in the Maha-bharata as having by ascetism acquired a supernatural power of locomotion, of which he was so proud that he deemed himself perfect in virtue and superior to all men. A voice from the sky told him that he was inferior to Tuladhara, a Vaisya and a trader. He went to this Tuladhara and learnt wisdom from him.
JALA-RUPA The fish or the Makara on the banner of Kama.
JALA-SAYIN `Sleeping on the waters.’ An appellation of Vishnu, as he is supposed to sleep upon his serpent couch on the waters during the rainy season, or during the submersion of the world.
JAMAD-AGNI A Brahman and a descendant of Bhrigu. He was the son of Richika and Satya-vati, and was the father of five sons, the youngest and most renowned of whom was Parasu-rama. Jamad-agni’s mother, Satya-vati, was daughter of King Gadhi, a Kshatriya. The Vishnu Purana relates that when Satya-vati was pregnant, her Brahman husband, Richika prepared a mess for her to eat for the purpose of securing that her son should be born with the qualities of a Brahman. He also gave another mess to her mother that she might bear a son with the character of a warrior. The women changed the messes, and so Jamad-agni, the son of Richika, was born as a warrior-Brahman, and Viswamitra, son of the Kshatriya Gadhi, was born as a priest. The Maha-bharata relates that Jamad-agni engaged deeply in study and “obtained entire possession of the Vedas.” He went to King Renu or Prasena-jit of the Solar race and demanded of him his daughter Renuka. The king gave her to him, and he retired with her to his hermitage, where the princess shared in his ascetic life. She bore him five sons, Rumanwat, Sushena, Vasu, Viswavasu, and Parasu-rama, and she was exact in the performance of all her duties. One day she went out to bathe and beheld a loving pair sporting and dallying in the water. Their pleasure made her feel envious so she was “defiled by unworthy thoughts, and returned wetted but not purified by the stream.” Her husband beheld her “fallen from perfection and shorn of the lustre of her sanctity.” So he reproved her and was exceeding wroth. His sons came into the hermitage in the order of their birth, and he commanded each of them in succession to kill his mother. Influenced by natural affection, four of them held their peace and did nothing. Their father cursed them and they became idiots bereft of all understanding. When Parasu-rama entered, he obeyed his father’s order and struck off his mother’s head with his axe. The deed assuaged the father’s anger, and he desired his son to make a request. Parasu-rama begged that his mother might be restored to life in purity, and that his brothers might regain their natural condition. All this the father granted.
The mighty Karta-virya, king of the Haihayas, who had a thousand arms, paid a visit to the hermitage of Jamad-agni. The sage and his sons were out, but his wife treated her guest with all proper respect. Unmindful of the hospitality he had received, Karta-virya threw down the trees round the hermitage, and carried of the calf of the sacred cow, Surabhi, which Jamad-agni had acquired by penance. Parasu-rama returned and discovered what had happened, he then pursued Karta-virya, cut off his thousand arms with arrows, and killed him. The sons of Karta-virya went in revenge to the hermitage of Jamad-agni, and in the absence of Parasu-rama slew the pious sage without pity. When Parasu-rama found the lifeless body of his father, he laid it on a funeral pile and vowed that he would extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. He slew all the sons of Karta-virya, and “thrice seven times” he cleared the earth of the Kshatriya caste.
JAMADAGNYA The patronymic of Parasu-rama.
JAMBAVAT King of the bears. A celebrated gem called Syamantaka had been given by the Sun to Satra-jit. He, fearing that Krishna would take it from him, gave it to his brother, Prasena. One property of this jewel was to protect its wearer when good, to ruin him when bad. Prasena was wicked and was killed by a lion, which was carrying off the gem in its mouth, when he was encountered and slain by Jambavat. After sena’s disappearance, Krishna was suspected of having killed him for the sake of the jewel. Krishna with a large party tracked the steps of Prasena, till it was ascertained that he had been killed by a lion, and that the lion had been killed by a bear. Krishna then tracked the bear, Jambavat, into his cavern, and a great fight ensued between them. After waiting outside seven or eight days, Krishna’s followers went home and performed his funeral ceremonies. On the twenty-first day of the fight, Jambavat submitted to his adversary, gave up the gem, and presented to him his daughter, Jambavati, as an offering suitable to a guest. Jambavat with his army of bears aided Rama in his invasion of Lanka, and always acted the part of a sage counsellor.
JAMBAVATI Daughter of Jambavat, king of the bears, wife of Krishna, and mother of Samba.
JAMBHA Name of several demons. Of one who fought against the gods and was slain by Indra, who for this deed was called Jambha-bhedin. Also of one who fought against Arjuna and was killed by Krishna.
JAMBU-DWIPA One of the seven islands or continents of which the world is made up. The great mountain, Meru, stands in its centre, and Bharata-varsha or India is its best part. Its varshas or divisions are nine in number:- (1.) Bharata, south of the Himalayas and southernmost of all. (2.) Kim-purusha (3.) Hari-varsha. (4.) Ila-vrita, containing Meru. (5.) Ramyaka. (6.) Hiran-maya. (7.) Uttara-Kuru, each to the north of the preceding one. (8.) Bhadraswa and (9.) Ketu-mala lies respectively to the east and west of Ila-vrita, the central region.
JAMBU-MALI A Rakshasa general of Ravana. He was killed by Hanuman.
JANAKA 1. King of Mithila, of the Solar race. When Nimi, his predecessor, died without leaving a successor, the sages subjected the body of Nimi to attrition, and produced from it a prince “who was called Janaka, from being born without a progenitor.” He was the first Janaka, and twenty generations earlier than Janaka the father of Sita.
2. King of Videha and father of Sita, remarkable for his great knowledge and good works and sanctity. He is called Sira-dhwaja, `he of the plough banner,’ because his daughter Sita sprang up ready formed from the furrow when he was ploughing the ground and preparing for a sacrifice to obtain offspring. The sage Yajnawalkya was his priest and adviser. The Brahmanas relate that he “refused to submit to the hier-archical pretensions of the Brahmans, and asserted his right of performing sacrifices without the intervention of priests.” He succeeded in his contention, for it is said that through his pure and righteous life he became a Brahman and one of the Rajarshis. He and his priest Yajnawalkya are thought to have prepared the way for Buddha.
JANAKI A patronymic of Sita. (q.v.).
JANA-LOKA See Loka.
JANAMEJAYA A great king, who was son of Parikshit, and great-grandson of Arjuna. It was to this king that the Maha-bharata was recited by Vaisampayana, and the king listened to it in expiation of the sin of killing a Brahman. His father, Parikshit, died from the bite of a serpent, and Janemajaya is said to have performed a great sacrifice of serpents (Nagas) and to have conquered the Naga people of Taksha-sila. Hence he is called Sarpa-sattrin, `serpent-sacrificer.’ There were several others of the same name.
JANARDDANA `The adored of mankind.’ A name of Krishna, but other derivations are offered, a `extirpator of the wicked,’ by Sankaracharya.
JANA-STHANA A place in the Dandaka forest where Rama sojourned for a while in his exile.
JARAS `Old age.’ The hunter who unwittingly killed Krishna.
JARA-SANDHA Son of Brihad-ratha, and king of Magadha. Brihad-ratha had two wives, who after being long barren brought forth two halves of a boy. These abortions were regarded with horror and thrown away. A female man-eating demon named Jara picked them up and put them together to carry them off. On their coming in contact a boy was formed, who cried out so lustily that he brought out the king and his two queens. The Rakshasi explained what had happened, resigned the child, and entired. The father gave the boy the name of Jara-sandha, because he had been put together by Jara. Future greatness was prophesied for the boy, and he became an ardent worshipper of Siva. Through the favour of this god he prevailed over many kings, and he especially fought against Krishna, who had killed Kansa the husband of two of Jarasandha’s daughters. He besieged Mathura, and attacked Krishna eighteen times, and was as often defeated; but Krishna was so weakened that he retired to Dwaraka. Jara-sandha had many kings in captivity, and when Krishna returned from Dwaraka, he, with Bhima and Arjuna, went to Jara-sandha’s capital for the purpose of slaying their enemy and liberating the kings. Jara-sandha refused to release the kings, and accepted the alternative of a combat, in which he was killed by Bhima.
JARAT-KARU An ancient sage who married a sister of the great serpent Vasuki, and was father of the sage Astika.
JARITA A certain female bird of the species called Sarngika, whose story is told in the Maha-bharata. The saint Manda-pala, who returned from the shades because he had no son, assumed the form of a male bird, and by her had four sons. He then abandoned her. In the conflagration of the Khandava forest she showed great devotion in the protection of her children, and they were eventually saved through the influence of Manda-pala over the god of fire. Their names were Jaritari, Sarisrikta, Stamba-mitra, and Drona. They were “interpreters of the Vedas;” and there are hymns of the Rig-veda bearing the names of the second and third.
JATASURA A Rakshasa who disguised himself as a Brahman and carried off Yudhi-shthira, Saha-deva, Nakula, and Draupadi. He was overtaken and killed by Bhima.
JATA-VEDAS A Vedic epithet for fire. “The meaning is explained in five ways: - (1.) Knowing all created beings; (2.) Possessing all creatures or everything existent; (3.) Known by created beings; (4.) Possessing vedas, riches; (5.) Possessing vedas, wisdom. Other derivations and explanations are found in the Brahmanas, but the exact sense of the word seems to have been very early lost, and of the five explanations given, only the first two would seem to be admissible for the Vedic texts. In one passage a form, Jata-veda, seems to occur.” – Williams. This form of the term, and the statement of Manu that the Vedas were milked out from fire, air, and the sun, may perhaps justify the explanation, `producer of the Vedas.’
|
|
J
J1
Next
|
|
|