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Purana means “ancient” and thus this body of literature claimed to be authori­tative, especially for the kali yuga (the present age). Scholars date their compo­sition in three periods (300-500; 500-1000; 1000-1800). Puranas deal with both philosophical and existential issues, mostly presented through a poetic narra­tive. The five topics covered in the Puranas are primary and secondary creations or re-creations, genealogies of gods, kings, and heroes, and the cycles of time and history. There are eighteen major Puranas and eighteen minor Puranas. Some of the main Puranas are the Bhagavata Purana, … Continue reading →

Prana means “breath” or “life” and by extension could mean “energy” or “life force.” There was one hymn in the Atharvaveda in which Prana was personified as a deva (god). It was, however, as life force that prana appeared in Hindu mythology. In the practice of yoga (especially hatha yoga) the five primary breaths (pra- nas or vayus) and the five secondary ones (upaprana) circulated in the vital path­ways (nadis). These breaths were controlled (in the practice called pranayama) to gain mastery over the senses. This mastery over the senses … Continue reading →

Pralaya (“dissolution”) generally meant the destruction of one creation before the next. Chapter 2 deals with Hindu conceptions of time and of multiple cre­ations. The Agni Purana mentioned four kinds of pralaya: a daily destruction (nityapralaya), the destruction at the end of a kalpa or a day of Brahma (Brahmapralaya), the destruction at the end of a thousand catur-yugas (Prakri- tapralaya), and the final destruction and dissolution of the individual self (atman) and absorption into the Supreme Self (atyantika-pralaya). See also Catur-Yuga; chapter 2 on time For further reading: Hermann … Continue reading →

(1) Matter; (2) A goddess Prakriti was a term meaning nature, origin, or progress, which was used to express one of the foundational ideas of India’s earliest philosophical system, Samkhya (or Sankhya). In Samkhya prakriti was the category of matter or mate­riality. Hindu mythology simplified Samkhya’s complexity and even personified Prakriti as a goddess (devi). However, before prakriti was personified, the early Vedic hymns linked matter with other notions of creation or origin such as the first man, or first being (purusha) in Rigveda 10.90, the father of beings or … Continue reading →

Prajapati was first a Vedic god (deva) of real importance, only to be reduced over the centuries to the function of a group (rank) of gods. Prajapati literally means the lord of creatures, of living beings. During the period of the Brahmanas he was the supreme being and father of the gods. He may have had his own cults. But his supremacy was taken over by Brahma, who was seen as creating Praja- pati to be his (Brahma’s) agent of creation. Later still, the myths tell of other Pra- japatis … Continue reading →

Prahlada was the son of the asura Hiranyakasiipu. His father became emperor of the demons and attempted to have everyone worship him. However, his own son, Prahlada, refused and continued to worship Vishnu. Prahlada would have been killed if Vishnu had not incarnated in just the right way, as the man-lion Narasimha, to be able to kill Hiranyakasiipu. The killing was unusually bloody, with Narasimha ripping out Hiranyakasiipu’s intestines and wearing them as a garland in a naked dance that lasted only a moment. Then Vishnu appeared to Prahlada, blessed … Continue reading →

The pitris were first a class of demigods (not quite full devas, gods), as well as the “fathers” or “ancestor spirits.” As a class of demigods they were connected with the ritualistic offerings to the spirits of the dead. One of the earliest con­cepts of an afterlife spoke of the way of the fathers (pitri-yana) as distinguished from the way of the gods (deva-yana). Pitri-yana was associated with the moon, while deva-yana was the solar way. Their origin had several explanations. In one version the pitris were created by the … Continue reading →

Pasupati was an epithet for a divinity that meant “lord of the creatures (pasu)” and “lord of cattle (pasu).” In the early Vedic hymns this appellation pointed to Agni, the god of fire, whose divine heat (tapas) was creative and destructive (rudra). Another figure, Purusha (the first man), was also praised as Pasupati. However, it was Rudra as the fire (agni) that kills that finally appropriated the epithet—or one should say Rudra-Siva, since Siva appropriated Rudra’s entire mythology. In the Satapatha Brahmana Rudra accepted birth in order to punish Prajapati, … Continue reading →

Parikshit had a miraculous birth. At the very end of the war told of in the Mahabharata, one of the last surviving Kauravas launched the magical weapon of Brahma (a Brahmashira) to exterminate all of the Pandavas, but Arjuna had an equal weapon that he launched to defeat it. However, the future Parikshit’s preg­nant mother was struck in the abdomen by the Kauravas’ terrible weapon. She barely survived, and Parikshit was killed in the womb. Krishna cursed the attacker for his evil deed. When Parikshit was stillborn, his mother Uttara … Continue reading →