Glossary

Aditi	‘Boundless’, the infinitude of space. In myth Aditi is called the ‘mother of the gods’; she is the daughter of the Primal Ancestor, Daksa.
Airāvata	The celestial elephant who rose from the ocean when it was churned for Amṛta (ambrosia) at the Beginning; the mount of Indra.
Alakā	Kubera’s capital on Mt. Kailāsa.
Apsarā	‘Born of the waters’; celestial dancers; guardians of pools.
Āmra-kūta	‘Mango Peak’; source of the Narmadā or Revā, in the eastern Vindhyas. Identified with the modern Amara-kantak.
Arjuna or Kakubha (i)	A tree that blooms at the beginning of the year, bearing creamy spikes of flowers; Terminalia Arjuna. Kakubha is another name for this tree.
Arjuna (ii)	‘Bright’; the name of the middle Pāndava brother; one of the foremost warriors in the epic Mahābhārata; he was the son of Kunti by Indra, Lord of the Immortals. The Pāndavas were sons of Pāndu, born by levirate.
Aromatic gums	A fragrant and resinous rock that is powdered and burnt in a brazier like incense, the smoke dries and perfumes women’s hair after it is washed.
Aruṇa	The very first light of dawn; the word signifies a coppery-red; Aruna is the charioteer of the sun.
Ārya-putra	‘My lord’; the respectful form of address used by a wife to her husband.
Āsāḍha	The last month of summer, mid-June to mid-July. The rains begin at the end of Āsāḍha.
Ash	The residue of the universe when it is burnt and destroyed at the end of a great epoch (mahā-kalpa) by fire, wind and water. A new universe is created out of the ashes after a long period of rest. Ash is therefore a symbol of dissolution and recreation. Sacred ash is given to devotees as symbolic of this cosmic process. Temple elephants are decorated with lines of ash and other colours, red, yellow, black. Seen from a height the grey rocks of granite in central India, streaked with silvery streams and branches of rivers that divide to go round rocks, look like supine elephants basking in the sun.
Aśoka	An evergreen blooming in Spring; the compact clusters of blossoms varying in colour from pale orange to scarlet, depending on their age, cover the tree completely; the flowers have a delicate fragrance. The Aśōka (a-śōka) meaning ‘sorrow-less’ is a tree celebrated in myth and legend. The flower is one of the five flower-arrows of Kāma, god of love; Sita, the heroine of the epic Rāmāyana who was ab-ducted by Rāvaṇa, the demon-king of Lankā, spent a year in his Aśoka-grove, waiting in sorrow for Rāma to come and rescue her. The tree was believed to bloom at the touch of the richly-jewelled left foot of a lovely young woman.
Atimukta	A variety of fragrant jasmine; the petals are sparkling white; the tubes and underside of two of the petals are a pale purple, clearly noticeable in the buds; probably what is commonly known as chameli.
Avanti	The ancient name for Malwa, now the western part of the state of Madhya Pradesh. Avanti is a very ancient kingdom, mentioned in the Mahābhārata as one of the 16 great kingdoms—mahā-janapada. In the time of Gautama Buddha (sixth century BC), it was very powerful under its ruler Pradyōta; Ujjayinī was its capital. Avanti was a rich kingdom because of its overseas trade which passed through Ujjayinī.
Bakula or Kesara	A beautiful timber tree bearing clusters of small, pale-cream flowers that retain their fragrance when dry. Mimusops Elengi is the botanical name of this tree.
Bali	Literally ‘offering’; the name of an ancient king famed for his magnanimity; see under ‘Bali and Viṣṇu’s Three Strides’ in Appendix II: Myths.
Bandhūka	Jungle geranium; Ixora Goccinea. A small shrub that blooms all the year round but specially luxuriant during the rains; the tubular flowers form thick heads, a brilliant orange in colour.
Betel	A vine whose leaves are chewed after meals; the juice is a digestive.
Bhavānī	‘Becoming’ as opposed to ‘Being’; the feminine formed from ‘Bhava’ one of Śiva’s epi-thets. It is one of the many names for Śaktī, Śiva’s inherent power, that brings the world into existence.
Bhṛgu-chief	Paraśu-rāma (Rāma, wielding the axe) decimated the Baronage. The legend implies some enmity of Brahmins and Kṣatriyas (warriors). Paraśu-rāma is believed to have thrown his battle-axe and made the cleft in the mountain, known as the Kraunca Pass or modern Niti Pass in Ladakh.
Blossoming time	Certain trees were believed to bloom from contact with a lovely young woman; either from the touch of her hands or her jewelled foot, or by being sprinkled with wine from her mouth. This is a poetic convention known as ‘dohada ’—the longings of a pregnant women.
Blue of his throat	Śiva swallowed the deadly poison spewed out by the Ocean when it was churned at the Beginning, according to a myth of Origins, and retained it in his throat to save the newly-created universe from destruction by being burnt by the poison; an ambivalent myth, because the churning produces treasures as well as poison. In this context, it underlines the highest service that can be done, to serve the good of others at great cost to one’s own well-being.
Blue-throated friend	Peacock.
Bodiless One	Kāma, the god of Love; puffed up with pride, Kāma had the temerity to assail the Great Yogi, Śiva, seated on Mt. Kailāsa in medita-tion, to break the Lord’s single-minded contemplation. A spark from Śiva’s third eye—the inner eye of wisdom—burnt Kāma to ashes. This myth is beautifully developed in the third canto of Kumārasambhavam by Kālidāsa.
Brahmā	‘One with Brahma or holy creative power’; the Creator.
Brahmāvarta	‘The Holy Land’: ‘the land where the gods came down ’ ; original home of the Vedic people; it lay between ‘the divine rivers Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvati ’: the land west of the Jamunā and modern Delhi; in Vedic times the great sacrifices were performed here and the gods invoked to come down and partake of the oblations offered into the fire.
Brother’s wife	A term of respect in addressing and referring to a lady; no relationship is involved; the term ‘bhabhi’ (brother’s wife) is still used in the Indian languages.
Caṇdeśvara	‘The Wrathful Lord’; one of the names given to Śiva. It denotes the destructive aspect of Time, for all things are born in Time and are destroyed by Time.
Cakravāka (m)	The sheldrake or ruddy goose; also known as
Cakravāki (f)	Brahminy Duck; these birds formed loving pairs and became a symbol in literature for connubial love and constancy; they were believed to have been cursed by a sage or by Rāma, to spend nights apart; in fact they forage at opposite sides of a stream or pool and call constantly to each other.
Carmaṇvatī	The river Chambal, a mighty river that rises in the Vindhyas and flows north, gathering the waters of many rivers in Malwa—Śiprā, Sindhu, Nirvindhyā and smaller streams mentioned in Meghadūtam—to join the river Yamunā. Further, myth speaks of the innumerable sacrifices of the pious monarch Rantideva who ruled over the kingdom of Daśapura (modern Mandasor District) through which the Chambal flows, and the stream of blood of the sacrificial cows that flowed as the river.
Cātaka	The crested cuckoo, sometimes identified as the hawk-cuckoo. Because of its persistent and peculiar call, it is also known as the brain-fever bird. The cātaka is believed to subsist only on rain drops; as it disdains to drink any other water, it has become a symbol in literature of pride and self-respect; it is associated with clouds and rain. To see a cātaka on the left is a good omen; in st.9 of Megh. three good omens are listed: the cātaka on the left, a gentle breeze and hen-cranes eager for mating.
Chowries	Fly-whisks and fans made of the soft hair of yaks’ tails and bound and set in ornamental handles were used ceremonially for deity and royalty.
Citra-Kūta	The peak mentioned in the Rāmāyana as one of the places that Rāma spent his years of exile with Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā.
Crest-jewel (i)	Popular belief that the cobra had a priceless gem encrusted in its hood. Cf. Shakespeare: ‘. . . the toad, ugly and venomous, / wears yet a precious jewel in his head’ (As You Like It, 2:13, 14)
Crest-jewel (ii)	The moon is depicted in iconography as Śiva’s crest jewel; it might symbolize the life-sap contained in the bowl of the moon (see under, Tree of Paradise) or be a residual feature derived from the iconographical representation of an ancient horned god depicted on Indus seals (second and third millennium BC) and identified with an early form of Śiva; the bull as Śiva’s mount might also be linked to this old conception and representation of deity. The moon is represented as a crescent on Śiva’s topknot in iconography.
Cosmic dance	The dance of creation and destruction; the two acts are inseparable; nothing can be formed without something else being destroyed; all creative acts are acts of trans-forming. Everything is born and destroyed in and by Time (Mahākāla). The metaphor of the dance is used in Saiva myth and metaphysics to figure the process of creation; dance is movement, ‘a becoming’ in space and time.
Dance drama	Same as the cosmic dance. The Burning of the Triple-City was the first drama said to have been composed by Brahmā, the Creator, and performed on Kailāsa before Śiva and Śaktī by Bharata and his troupe; see Intro., p. 12.
Dakṣa	‘Skill, dexterity’; the power to fashion; Aditi, from whom the devas were born and Diti from whom the daityas were born were his daughters; he had many other daughters—50, 27 are the figures mentioned—from whom sprang all the animals and birds. Dakṣa is therefore the Primal Parent.
Darbha	Sacred grass used in Vedic rituals (still in use in rites and ceremonies).
Daśa-pura	‘Ten Cities’—modern Mandasor in western Madhya Pradesh; mentioned in the Mahābhārata as one of the sixteen great kingdoms—Mahā-janapada; it was probably a confederation originally, of ten city-states; at the close of the first millennium BC it was headed by a powerful dynasty of rulers.
Daśarṇa	Literally ‘Ten Citadels’—the region round modern Bhopal.
Deodar	The Himalayan cedar.
Deva/Devī	The bright or shining ones; gods and goddesses of Light.
Divine Fire	Agni, the Creative Energy; The terms Sacred Fire and Mystic Fire found in the play also refer to Agni.
Dūrvā	Sacred grass, sleek and dark-green; according to Sir William Jones, its tiny flowers ‘look like rubies and emeralds’.
Elephant-hide	When illusion in the form of a fierce, demonic tusker (gaja-asura) attacked Śiva’s devotees (and in one variant Śiva himself), Śiva ripped the demon’s hide in one clean sweep from trunk to tail and flinging the blood-moist hide over his shoulders, danced in ecstasy. The Śiva concept of godhead is a composite one and complex. One of its constituting elements is of an ancient war-god. In myth, asuras or demons, represent brute power, energy running rampant, unguided and uncontrolled by any higher principle, which makes it evil and destructive.
Eyebrow play	The language of coquetry.
Flower cloud	The reference is to the daily temple rituals; to lustrations with holy water and adornment of the deity with flowers as well as adoration using flower-offerings.
Flowers . . . threshold	Flowers offered daily to the divinities of the home. The threshold has sacral associations as it protects the home from the dark forces outside, waiting to enter.
Forest of uplifted arms	The multiplicity of arms represents the omnipotence and the all-embracing, protective nature of godhead. It can also be the iconic representation of many functions or elements that went into the evolution of a composite figure of divinity.
Gambhīrā	‘Deep River’; an actual river in Malwa; but it is also a type of woman, a nāyikā, one who is high-souled and noble, strong-minded, dignified, yet loving; the opposite of the flashy and shallow woman.
Gandhavatī	‘Fragrant stream’; an arm of the River Śiprā; the sacred grove of Mahā-Kāla with its shrine was located beside this stream.
Gāndharva rite	Marriage by rites of mutual love; no ceremony or consent of the family was required; it was more or less a form of marriage reserved for warriors (Kṣatriyas), but it had to be undertaken with a full sense of the responsibilities involved. It is recognized in Manusmṛti as a legal marriage.
Gāṇdīva	Arjuna’s celebrated bow; the swords, clubs, bows, conches of epic heroes had special names; cf. King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur.
Gangā	The Ganges is the holiest of India’s great rivers and the life-giving river of the northern plains; rises in the Garhwal Himālayas and flows east into the Bay of Bengal. The river has many names; see Appendix II: Myths, for the myth of its descent from heaven.
Gaurī	‘The bright goddess’—one of the names of the mother-goddess, born of the snows of the Himālayas and hence ‘Gaurī’; white, brilliant. Pārvatī, another name meaning ‘mountainborn’.
Girdles	An important part of the ancient Indian woman’s dress: it kept the lower garment in place like a belt but it was also ornamental. Girdles were made of gold or silver, of elaborate filigree-work or were gem-studded and had loops of little bells at the lower edge to make a sweet, tinkling sound as the woman moved around.
Glory	is described as spotlessly white in Sanskrit literature; perhaps, because royal glory is symbolized by the white chowries and umbrella.
Guardian elephants	Colossal elephants in space that guarded the eight points of the compass.
Hara	‘Remover’ of illusion and ignorance; one of Śiva’s epithets.
Hema-Kūta	‘Golden Peak’—a name for Mt. Kailāsa.
Indra	Lord of Heaven; Chief of the Immortals; god of thunder and rain, sustainer of the universe; Indra is with Agni (Fire) the most-invoked deity in the Ṛgveda. He is the bountiful giver of riches, ‘maghona’. He is referred to by many names in the play Śakuntalā, all of which I have translated.
Indra’s bow	The rainbow.
Ingudi	Hermit-tree; its nuts provided ascetics with oil for their lamps and a medicinal salve for wounds.
Jahnu’s daughter	The river Gangā; Jahnu was an angry old sage who drank up the waters of the river Gangā brought down from heaven because the river’s flow inundated his sacrificial grounds. Relenting, he released the river through his ear; the river is therefore considered as his offspring or daughter, born of his body.
Janaka	King of Videha with its capital Mithilā; father of Sītā of the epic Rāmāyana.
Kadamba or Nīpa	A large tree that blooms in the rains; the composite flowers made up of tiny tubular golden florets look like yellow balls; the styles of the florets protrude giving the flower the look of a pin-cushion.
Kailāsa	Holiest of Himālayan peaks; considered the temporal abode of Śiva and Śaktī. Nearby is the sacred lake of Mānasa or Mānasarovar. Kailāsa is described in the Purānas as the fabled mountain of priceless gems and sparkling crystal created as the playground of the divine.
Kāla-nemi	A myriad-headed demon.
Kanakhala	A hill near the gorge through which the Gangā rushes into the plains at Hardwar; a village of the same name is a couple of miles down river on the west bank.
Kandalī	A small plant springing up with the first heavy rains, bearing tiny purple flowers.
Karṇikāra	The golden champa; has large, showy, flowers with slender petals that twist and curve back; no fragrance.
Kāśa	A tall grass growing by pools and streams, seen mostly in autumn; bears long, silky plumes of pale silver; the fluff floats free like bits of cotton wool carrying tiny seeds; baskets are woven of the grass.
Ketaka, also Ketakī	Screw-pine (Pandanus); the outer leaves are a dark-green, long and tough with serrated edges, sharp as needle-points. The inner leaves are a pale gold, and sheath the creamy efflorescence, both carrying a heavy perfume. Women wear the fragrant leaves stuck in hair knots or plait them into wreaths for their chignon. An essence is made out of the young leaves and efflorescence to be used in perfumes; the essence is also used to scent drinking water, sweets and desserts.
Kimśuka	The Flame-of-the-Forest; a magnificent flowering tree; the scarlet blossoms form spikes; each flower has a curved petal forming a keel which makes it look like a parrot’s beak. The word kim-śuka, means ‘what-a-parrot’ or ‘what? a parrot?’; Kim—what? and śuka—parrot.
Kimpurụsa	A class of divine beings like yakṣas and kinnaras.
Kinnara (m)	A class of divine beings like the yakśas; they
Kinnari (f)	are the celestial singers. Kinnari—woodland nymph.
Kovidāra	Bauhinia Variegata, commonly known as the Mountain Ebony, in Hindi it is known as kachnar. There are several varieties of kachnar growing in India, each bearing flowers of a different colour; rich rose-red, white, golden-yellow. They are gorgeous and have a delicate fragrance.
Kraunca Pass	Niti Pass; migrating birds are said to fly through it in their annual journeys between India and Central Asia.
Kubera	God of wealth and Lord of the earth’s treasures; called the ‘King of Kings’ because he is the yakṣas overlord. See note on yakṣas.
Kurabaka	Philippine violet; or amaranth grown as ornamental hedge.
Kura’s Field	Kuru-kṣetra; some 80 miles north of Delhi: celebrated as the battle-field of the Great War in the epic Mahābhārata where cousins fought a bloody and bitter war for the throne. The Gīta was preached by Kṛṣṇ a to Arjuna on the opening day of the war, on this battlefield.
Kuśa	Sacred grass, strewn on Vedic altars; a relic of ancient Indo-Iranian sacrificial ritual.
Kutaja	The tree bears five-petalled, star-shaped white flowers.
Lākṣā	Lac-juice, used to tint the palms and soles of the feet; the juice is a deep rose-red.
Laughter	Is always white in Sanskrit literature, perhaps because of the sparkling whiteness of the teeth visible when laughing.
Lodhra	Blooms in winter; the flower-petals were used to perfume wine; crushed and powdered it became face-powder for the beauties of the ancient world.
Lord of Raghus	Rāma; Raghu was the most famous ruler of the solar dynasty in which Rāma was born as Raghu’s great-grandson. Kālidāsa’s epic Raghuvamśam celebrates the fame and fortunes of the solar dynasty of Raghu.
Lord of Mountains	The Himalāyas, also called ‘Mountain of Snows’.
Lotus and Conch	Two of the treasures (nidhi) of Kubera; they were drawn on entrance doors of mansions and houses as auspicious signs to ward off evil.
Lotus	There are several varieties; those that bloom during the day touched by the sun’s rays, and the night-blooming lotuses; they come in many colours; white, pink, deep rose or red, golden and deep blue; the last is really a deep purple shade.
Mādhavī	The spring-creeper, bears white flowers, like the jasmine.
Mahākāla	The name of Śiva in the shrine at Ujjain. Kāla is time; Mahākāla is time projected on to the cosmic plane. It is one of the many epithets of Śiva. The shrine of Mahākāla at Ujjain is of great antiquity; it may have originally been a cave-shrine because at present steps lead down to it. A silver serpent, symbol of Time, circles the linga.
Mālatī	A variety of jasmine—most varieties of jasmine bloom at night and fill the night air with their fragrance.
Mirage	The Sanskrit word is mṛgatṛṣṇā, the antelope’s parching thirst; the poet frames a whole stanza based on the etymology of the word (R.:I:II); and uses it again in the play.
Mānasa	‘Mind-born’; the sacred lake in the Kailāsa range; haunt of wild geese, swans and flamingos that have their breeding grounds in that region. Both Kailāsa and Mānasa being in Tibet are now in Chinese territory.
Mandāra	One of the five trees of paradise; it has been identified with the rhododendron, native to the Himālayan valleys. In myth Mandāra flowers are unfading.
Nīcai hill	‘Low Hill’—a long row of low hills lie in the vicinity of Vidiśā (Bhilsa), near Bhopal. There are caves in these hills, some with rock-paintings from neo-lithic times; there are also carved reliefs of the Gupta period, fourth-fifth century AD in the caves.
Nicula	It may be a species of palm with succulent stems.
Nirvindhyā	The Nevaj; rises in the Vindhyas and joins the Chambal.
Pāṭaī	Identified as the trumpet-tree; the pale, pink
Pāṭala	blossoms are trumpet-shaped and have a delicate fragrance; a species of Bignonia.
Peacock	The gorgeous bird is the mount of Śkanda, Śiva’s emanation and a war-god; the rainy season is the time of courtship for these beautiful birds and one can hear their shrill matingcalls; therefore peacocks and clouds are closely associated in literature. Peacocks and peacock-eyes are seen on Indus valley pottery, symbolizing the human soul; they are held as sacred in many parts of the country. A natural enmity exists between it and the cobra.
Pinākī	Lord Śiva; the pināka is the bow that destroys evil and ignorance; the bow is also considered as Time.
Plough-bearer	Balarāma, elder brother of Kṛṣṇa; he is said to have drawn the river Yamunā with his plough; this implies some agricultural and irrigation activities. It refers probably to an ancient leg-end about a cult-hero who harnessed the river for irrigation, digging canals and nurturing agriculture, and who was later deified for benefiting his people. Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa are the light and dark aspects of godhead. Being associated with wine, Balarāma may also have cultivated the grape-vine.
Pravaha	Seven winds or air currents are mentioned in ancient cosmo-graphic accounts as circling in space; Pravaha is the current just above the level of clouds.
Preceptor of the Triple-World	Three aspects of Śiva are presented in these two lines—‘the holy shrine. . . blue of his throat’; the wrathful, Candeśvara, to punish evil; the preceptor (Guru) to teach and guide the three worlds out of darkness into light; the Protector of the Triple-World, i.e. the universe. The three worlds are: Earth; the world of light above, of Devas (Immortals) or Shining Ones; the world below or the underworld. Śiva transcends these and as pure Being is beyond Time.
Priyangu	A vine with slender, dark-bluish stems; it grows into a thicket; the flowers are yellow and fragrant.
Puru	The youngest son of Yayāti of the lunar dynasty, is celebrated for the filial affection and obedience he displayed in exchanging his own youth, beauty and strength for his father’s bodily decrepitude brought on by a curse. The Kings of the Paurava (Puru’s) dynasty who succeeded him were expected to follow the noble ideal set up by him of putting service for others above his own interests. Puru was rewarded by ultimately succeeding his father as the ‘universal monarch’ (cakra-varti) even though he was the youngest son. King lists are provided in the Mahābhārata and in the Purānas of the two celebrated dynasties of India in ancient times: the Solar and the Lunar, descended from the Sun and the Moon. Rāma, hero of the epic Rāmāyana belonged to the former and the heroes of Kālidāsa’s two plays based on myth, Purūravas and Duhṣanta, to the latter. The poet’s epic Raghuvamśam has the solar dynasty for its theme.
Rāma-giri	Rāma’s Hill; Rāma spent part of his exile in this region with his wife Sītā and brother Lakṣmaṇa; it is identified with Ramtek, a few rules north-east of Nagpur; a place of pilgrimage; a great fair is held here in December. Its other name is ‘the hill of red rock’, so called because the rocks when broken are a bright red in colour; a reference to this is seen in M.: 104.
Ranti-deva	A pious monarch, sixth in descent from Bharata, son of Śakuntalā and Duhṣanta; he is said to have performed so many sacrifices that the blood of the victims flowed as a river—the Carmaṇvatī or Chambal.
Rāvạna	A ten-headed demon king in the epic Rāmāyana, ruler of Lankā; he abducted Sītā, wife of Rāma and kept her in the Aśoka grove in his palace for a year until Rāma with his brother and a great army of monkeys and bears (obviously tribes of Central India who had monkey and bear totems) fought and killed him. Lankā is traditionally identified with the island of Ceylon (Sri Lankā), but strong arguments have been adduced to prove that Rāvaṇa was the monarch of a large and powerful Gond kingdom in Central India (MP). Rāvaṇa was a great devotee of Śiva; he tried to uproot Mt. Kailāsa with Śiva and Pārvatī on it, and carry it away and fix it in his own gardens, so as to have the sacred presence always close to him and for him alone. When the peak shook from his efforts to uproot it, Parvati was frightened; the Lord pressed it down with one big toe to steady it, crushing the intruder who cried for mercy. Repenting, Rāvaṇa cut off one of his ten heads and, hymned the Supreme Power, using the neck and head as a stringed instrument—a drone, in fact—to accompany his singing.
Regal Swans	Rāja-hamsa, in Sanskrit; literally King of Swans; it is variously identified as the flamingo, the bar-head goose and the Chinese swan; the last is the most beautiful species of swans, a pure white, with vermilion beak, orange legs and black claws; a splendid looking bird in short, deserving the title of King of Swans. It is a rare species.
Ritual baths	Certain ceremonies requires frequent purifying baths during their performance. The rites referred to in this stanza are those performed by the beloved for her husband’s safety and speedy return. The hair was washed and knotted, but not dressed.
Revā	River Narmadā, rises in the eastern Vindhya ranges and flows right across the peninsula to fall into the Arabian Sea. The ancient port of Bhrgu-kaccha (Broach) through which most of the extensive trade between India and Rome via Alexandria passed, was situated near the river’s mouth.
Revatī	The beloved wife of Balarāma.
Rohiṇī	The bright star Aldebaran in Taurus.
Rose apple	Hindi—Jamun. A sweet fruit with a big nut, like dark cherries in size, appearance and taste.
Sagara	An ancient mythical king; see Appendix II: Myths, under myth of the Descent of the Gangā.
Sapta-parṇa or	‘Seven-leaved’; the leaves grow in groups of
Saptacchada	seven; small pale clusters of flowers spring from the base of the leaf-whorls.
Śarabha	A fabulous creature with eight legs; probably a species of large locusts. Locusts breed in dry, desert areas and fly in swarms with the prevāiling winds; it is likely that rain and thunder scatter and destroy the hordes.
Saras crane	It stands five feet tall with bluish-grey plumage; head and underfeathers are a shining red; they inhabit mostly pools and marshy places and frequent rice-fields; they have a trumpet-like call.
Sarasvatī	‘Flowing waters’. The river celebrated as most sacred in the Vedas. The Vedic tribes performed their great sacrifices on its banks. The river loses itself in the sands of the Rajasthan desert. Later the word signifies the Śaktī or power of Brahmā, the Creator; the name also symbolizes learning, eloquence, wisdom. Sarasvatī becomes the muse of poetry and the patron-deity of the arts. An ancient civilization, the Sārasvata, believed to have flourished in the Sarasvati Valley. Excavations are in progress.
Sarja	A timber tree; a variety of teak.
Śarmṣṭṭā	Mother of Puru and Yayāti’s queen.
Śephālikā	A tree that bears small, white, six-petalled and fragrant flowers with coral tubes and centres; the flowers bloom late in the evening and lie fallen in the morning on the ground.
Siddha holy Siddhas (plural)	‘The perfected one’. Humans who through merit and yogic practices become semi-divine, gaining psychic and super human powers, known as Siddhis.
Siddhis	‘Perfections’; eight in number: the ability to become minute, airy and light, enormous, powerful; to attain all wishes; possess self-control; lordship and the ability to move freely at will.
Sindhu	The Kāli Sindh, a river in Malwa.
Single braid	The hair simply twisted or plaited in one braid; the sign of a woman grieving separated from her husband.
Śiprā	The river on which Ujjain is situated.
Śirīṣa	One of the loveliest of Indian flowering trees; the composite flowers are made up of tiny tubular florets, pale cream or deep rose in colour and crested with fine, long, silky filaments, the effect of which is to make the delicate flowers look like miniature power puffs.
Śiva	Literally Good, Beneficent, Auspicious. In Purānic mythology, Śiva is defined as one of the Trinity; its destructive aspect; but in Śaiv-ism or Śiva-ism which in its earliest form is perhaps the earliest of the religions in the country, Śiva is the Supreme Being, the Absolute One; and Śaktī, its inherent power. It should be remembered that the many names given to the divine are attributes of the unitive godhead or descriptive of its myriad functions; they are not separate gods.
Skanda	An emanation of Śiva created to fight the forces of darkness and therefore imaged as the son of Śiva and Śaktī. Śiva’s energy was deposited among the reeds on the banks of the River Gangā and when it assumed the form of a child, the six Pleiades nursed it; it grew in strength and size by the minute, soon assuming command of Indra’s hosts, the forces of light to fight against the dark forces.
Soma-tīrtha	‘The ford of the moon’—Soma, the moon was said to have been cured of the ‘wasting disease’ (consumption) which afflicted him when his father-in-law Dakṣa cursed him for showing a preference for one of his twenty-seven wives (the constellations), Rohiṇī (Aldebaran) over the others. This is a myth to explain the waxing and waning of the moon. Soma-tīrtha was a famous place of pilgrimage known as Prabhāsa, in Kathiawad, near the celebrated temple of Somnath. It was believed to be the abode of ‘the wind-driven fire’ and therefore called the ‘mouth of the gods’, because all oblations to gods are offered into the Sacrificial Fire; this is implied in Priyamvadā’s words to Anasuya describing Kaṇva’s felicitation of Śakuntalā (Act 4). It was probably a place where subterranean gases or vapours emerged, out of the rocks or a fissure near some natural gas deposit.
Son of the wind	Hanumān, the monkey chief who brought Rāma’s message of hope with his signet ring to Sītā.
Surabhi	The celestial cow; the fabled cow of plenty.
Śyāmā	The word has three meanings: (i) a slender vine also known as Priyangu, (ii) a young woman who has borne no children, (iii) a young woman with a glowing, pale gold complexion.
Travellers	In ancient India men who travelled on business of various kinds always returned home at the onset of the rains. The rain cloud is therefore a harbinger of hope for the women waiting anxiously at home, as it heralded the return of husbands and sons.
Tree of Paradise Sanskrit: Kalpavṛkṣa)	The wish-granting tree. In later myth five trees are described as growing in Nandana, Indra’s pecial grove in Paradise; the bowl containing ambrosia (Aṃrta), the drink of Immortality, was set at the base of the Tree of Paradise, on its roots; the Kalpavṛkṣa is the original of the Tree of Life; the bowl of Amṛta was guarded by a serpent, while an archer sat hid in the branches of the tree with his arrow fixed to shoot at anyone trying to steal it. The sun in the form of a golden falcon, stole the bowl, brought it down to earth in a golden boat and placed it on Mujavat, the twin peak of Kailāsa. Through a mythic labyrinth to which I have as yet not found the clue, the bowl in later literature becomes the moon which is also known as Soma; the ancients believed that the life-sap (Soma) dripped from the moon on plants at night and from there entered animals and man. But whereas in Paradise the gods who drank from this ever-replenished bowl were ever-young and immortal, once the ambrosia fell+6, that is descended, into the world, this was not so. The trees in Paradise had jewelled leaves, fruits and flowers.
Triple-city	The three cities of gold, silver and iron built for the Titans (anti-gods) in the sky, in the air and on earth; a spark from Śiva’s third eye burnt all three to ashes. At a metaphysical level the Triple-city represents the three-fold darkness of human consciousness.
Triple-eyed god	Śiva; the third eye is the eye of inner vision of wisdom.
Triple-world	(i) Heaven the realm of light, (ii) Earth, (iii) Under world.
Udayana, the Vatsa monarch	A famous king of the sixth century BC, contemporary of the Buddha. He ruled over the Vatsa kingdom, one of the three powerful kingdoms (with Avanti and Magadha); Kosāmbi (Kosam, near Allahabad) was his capital. A cycle of stories gathered round his fame as a hero, celebrating his exploits in love and war. He was also an accomplished musician and his lute was equally famous.
Ujjayinī	Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; one of the greatest cities in ancient India; see Intro., p. 6. It is also one of the earliest human settlements in the country.
Vetravatī	‘River with reeds’; River Betwa near the modern town of Bhilsa not far from Bhopal.
Vidiśā	Like Ujjayinī, a great and wealthy city, capital of powerful kingdoms in ancient India; on the trade route from the Imperial capital of Pātalīputra to the Arabian Sea ports. The Emperor Aśoka’s chief queen was the beautiful daughter of a banker of Vidiśā.
Village-shrines	Caityas, simple shrines, sometimes with a small image within and a flag on its roof were built at the base of ancient trees, especially the sacred fig tree, on a raised platform round the base of the tree trunk. A few flowers, fruit were placed there as an offering to honour the tree-spirit. Passers-by stopped to offer flowers, fruit or a few incense sticks. It is part of the yakṣa-yakṣī cults of ancient India. Such shrines can still be seen in central and southern India.
Vịṣnu	‘All-Pervader’; originally a sky god; therefore depicted as blue in colour. Viṣṇu, in the earliest conception is a solar deity, the sun that pervades the universe with light and heat and strides across the sky, ‘the wide-stepping second stride’. Viṣṇu is believed to be immersed for four months (mid-August to mid-November) in yoga-nidrā, the sleep of contemplation.
Wheel	The water-wheel or Persian wheel; a number of buckets or metal containers were attached to its rim to draw water out of pools and streams.
War of the barons	The Mahābhārata war; it is the theme of the epic.
Wearer of the crescent-moon	Śiva
White Bull	Nandi, Śiva’s mount.
Yakṣa	Pre-Brahmanic divinities of the ancient people of the country, replaced by Vedic and Puranic gods and fitted into the pantheon in subordinate positions; originally forces of nature and indwelling spirits of trees and pools they were associated with fertility and plenitude. They were worshipped as givers of life and riches. Kubera was their overlord, lord of all the earth’s treasures; later assigned the position of regent of the north. Śiva himself probably a pre-Vedic deity is invoked as ‘the lord in a yakṣa-form’. The Purānas place Kubera’s kingdom in the trans-Himālayan region; he is sovereign over many yakṣa-rulers whose cities were wealthy, possessing splendid mansions and beautiful gardens—a kind of Earthly Paradise.
Yamunā	River Jamna; one of the three great rivers of the northern Indian plains; it joins the Gangā at Allahabad; the confluence is a very sacred spot. Delhi is situated on the banks of the Yamunā.
Yayāti	Father of Puru and possibly the first ‘universal monarch’.
Yuthikā	A large, fragrant variety of jasmine.