AMARU-SATAKA. A poem consisting of a hundred stanzas written by a king named Amaru, but by some attributed to the philosopher Sankara, who assumed the dead form of that king for the purpose of conversing with his widow. The verses are of an erotic character, but, like many others of the same kind, a religious or philosophical interpretation has been found for them.

There is a translation in French by Apudy with the text, and a translation in German by Ruckert.

AMBA. 'Mother.' I. A. name of Durga. 2. The eldest daughter of a king of Kasi. She and her sisters Ambika and Ambalika were carried off by Bhishma to be the wives of Vichitra- virya. Amba had been previously betrothed to a Raja of Salwa, and Bhishma sent her to him, but the Raja rejected her because she had been in another man's house. She retired to the forest and engaged in devotion to obtain revenge of Bhishma. Siva favoured her, and promised her the desired vengeance in another birth. Then she ascended the pile and was born again as Sik. handin, who slew Bhishma.  

AMBALIKA. The younger widow of Vichitra-virya and mother of Pandu by Vyasa. See Maha-bharata. 

AMBARISHA. I. A. king of Ayodhya, twenty-eighth in descent from Ikshwaku. (See Sunahsephas.) 2. An appellation of Siva. 3. Name of one of the eighteen hells.  

AMBASHTHA. A military people inhabiting a country of the same name in the middle of the Panjab; probably the  Aµß**** of Ptolemy. 2. The medical tribe in Manu.  

AMBIKA. I. A sister of Rudra, but in later times identified with Urns. 2. Elder widow of Vichitra-virya and mother of Dhritarashtra by Vyasa. See Maha-bharata. 

AMBIKEYA. A. metronymic applicable to Ganesa, Skanda, and Dhrita-rashtra.  

AMNAYA. Sacred tradition. The Vedas in the aggregate. AMRITA. 'Immortal.' A. god. The water of life. The term was known to the Vedas, and seems to have been applied to various things offered in sacrifice, but more especially to the Soma juice. It is also called Nir-jara and Piyusha. In later times it was the water of life produced at the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons, the legend of which is told with some variations in the Ramayana, the Maha-bharata, and the puranas. The gods, feeling their weakness, having been worsted by the demons, and being, according to one authority, under the ban of a holy sage, repaired to Vishnu, beseeching him for renewed vigour and the gift of immortality. He directed them to churn the ocean for the Amrita and other precious things, which had been lost. The story as told in the Vishnu Purana has been rendered into verse by Professor Williams thus: 

The gods addressed the mighty Vishnu thus-'Conquered in battle by the evil demons, We fly to thee for succour, soul of all;Pity, and by thy might deliver us!'Hari, the lord, creator of the world,Thus by the gods implored, all graciouslyReplied-' Your strength shall be restored, ye gods;Only accomplish what I now command.Unite yourselves in peaceful combination With these your foes j collect all plants and herbsOf diverse kinds from every quarter; cast themInto the sea of milk; take Mandara,The mountain, for a churning stick, and Vasuki,The serpent for a rope; together churnThe ocean to produce the beverage- Source of all strength and immortality-Then reckon on my aid; I will take careYour foes shall share your toil, but not partakeIn its reward, or drink the `immortal draught.'

Thus by the god of gods advised, the hostUnited in alliance with the demons.Straightway they gathered various herbs and cast themInto the waters, then they took the mountainTo serve as churning-staff, and next the snakeTo serve as cord, and in the ocean's midstHari himself, present in tortoise-form,Became a pivot for the churning-staff.

Then did they churn the sea of milk; and firstOut of the waters rose the sacred Cow,God-worshipped Surabhi, eternal fountainOf milk and offerings of butter; nextWhile holy Siddhas wondered at the sight, With eyes all rolling, Varuni uprose,Goddess of wine. Then from the whirlpool sprangFair Parijata, tree of Paradise, delightOf heavenly maidens, with its fragrant blossomsPerfuming the whole world. The Apsarasas,Troop of celestial nymphs, matchless in grace,Perfect in loveliness, were next produced.

Then from the sea uprose the cool-rayed moon,Which Maha- deva seized; terrific poison Next issued from the waters; this the snake-godsClaimed as their own. Then, seated on a lotus,Beauty's bright goddess, peerless Sri, aroseOut of the waves; and with her, robed in white,Came forth Dhanwantari, the gods' physician.  

High in his hand he bore the cup of nectar- Life-giving draught - longed for by gods and demons.Then had the demons forcibly borne off The cup, and drained the precious beverage,Had not the mighty Vishnu interposed.Bewildering them, he gave it to the gods;Whereat, incensed, the demon troops assailed The host of heaven, but they with strength renewed, Quaffing the draught, struck down their foes, who fellHeadlong through space to lowest depths of hell!"

There is an elaborate article on the subject in Goldstucker's Dictionary. In after-times, Vishnu's bird Garuda is said to have stolen the Amrita, but it was recovered by Indra.  

ANADHRISHTI. A son of Ugrasena and general of the Yadavas. 

ANAKA-DUNDUBHI 'Drums.' A name of Vasu-deva, who was so called because the drums of heaven resounded at his birth.  

ANANDA. 'Joy, happiness.' An appellation of Siva, also of Bala-rama. 

ANANDA GIRI A follower of Sankaracharya, and teacher and expositor of his doctrines. He was the author of a Sankara. vijaya, and lived about the tenth century. 

ANANDA-LAHARI 'The wave of joy.' A poem attributed to Sankaracharya. It is a hymn of praise addressed to parvati, consort of Siva, mixed up with mystical doctrine. It has been translated into French by Troyer as L'Onde de Beatitude. 

ANANGA. 'The bodiless.' A name of Kama, god of love. 

ANANTA. ' The infinite. ' A name of the serpent Sesha. The term is also applied to Vishnu and other deities. ANARANYA. A descendant of Ikshvaku and king of Ayodhya. According to the Ramayana, many kings submitted to Ravana without fighting, but when Anaranya was summoned to fight or submit, he preferred to fight. His army was over-come and he was thrown from his chariot. Ravana: triumphed over his prostrate foe, who retorted that he had been beaten by fate, not by Ravana, and predicted the death of Ravana at the hands of Rama, a descendant of Anaranya. 

ANARGHA RAGHAVA. A drama in seven acts by Murari Misra, possibly written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Raghava or Rama is the hero of the piece. "It has no dramatic merit, being deficient in character, action, situation, and interest.As a poem it presents occasionally poetic thoughts, but they are very few, and are lost amid pages of flat commonplace, quaint conceit, hyperbolical extravagance, and obscure mythology."- Wilson. It is also called, after its author, Murari Nataka.  

AN-.A.RYA. 'Unworthy, vile.' People who were not Aryans, barbarians of other races and religion. 

ANASUYA. ' Charity.' Wife of the Rishi Atri. In the Ramayana she appears living with her husband in a hermitage in the forest south of Chitra-kuta. She was very pious and given to austere devotion, through which she had obtained miraculous powers. When Sita visited her and her husband, she was very attentive and kind, and gave Sita an ointment, which was to keep her beautiful forever. She was mother of the irascible sage Durvasas. A friend of Sakuntala.  

ANDHAKA. I. A demon, son of Kasyapa and Diti, with a thousand arms and heads, two thousand eyes and feet, and called Andhaka because he walked like a blind man, although he saw very well He was slain by Siva when he attempted to carry off the Parijata tree from Swarga. From this feat Siva obtained the appellation Andhaka-ripu, `foe of Andhaka.' 2. A grand son of Kroshtri and son of Yudhajit, of the yadava race, who, together with his brother Vrishni, is the ancestor of the celebrated family of Andhaka- Vrishnis. 3. The name was borne by many others of less note.  

ANDHRA, ANDHRA. Name of a country and people in the south of India, the country of Telingana. It was the seat of a powerful dynasty, and the people were known to Pliny as gens Andaoe. 

ANDHRA-BHRITYA. A dynasty of kings that reigned in Magadha somewhere about the beginning of the Christian era. The name seems to indicate that its founder was a native of Andhra, now Telingana. .  

ANGA. I. The country of Bengal proper about Bhagalpur. Its capital was Champa, or Champa-puri. (See An1L ) 2. A supplement to the Vedas. See Vedanga.  

ANGADA. I. Son of Lakshmana and king of Angadi, capital of a country near the Himalaya. 2. Son of Gada (brother of Krishna) by Vrihati. 3. Son of Bali, the monkey king of Kishkindhya. He was protected by Rama and fought on his side against Ravana. 

ANGIRAS. A Rishi to whom many hymns of the Rig-veda are attributed. He was one of the seven Maharshis or great Rishis, and also one of the ten Prajapatis or progenitors of mankind. In later times Angiras was one of the inspired lawgivers and also a writer on astronomy. As an astronomical personification he is Brihaspati, the regent of the planet Jupiter, or the planet itself. He was also called " the priest of the gods," and "the lord of sacrifice." There is much ambiguity about the name. It comes from the same root as agni,' fire,' and resembles that word in sound. This may be the reason why the name Angiras is used as an epithet or synonym of Agni The name is also employed as an epithet for the father of Agni, and it is found more especially connected with the hymns addressed to Agni, Indra, and the luminous deities. According to one statement, Angiras was the son of Uru by Agneyi, the daughter of Agni, although, as above stated, the name is sometimes given to the father of Agni Another account represents that he was born from the mouth of Brahma. His wives were Smriti, `memory,' daughter of Daksha; Sraddha, 'faith,' daughter of Kardama; and Swadha 'oblation,' and Sati, `truth,' two other daughters of Daksha. His daughters were the Richas or Vaidik hymns, and his sons were the Manes called Havishmats. But he had other sons and daughters, and among the former were Utathya, Brihaspati, and Markandeya. According to the Bhagavata Purana "he begot sons possessing Brahmanical glory on the wife of Rathi-tara, a Kshatriya who was childless, and these persons were afterwards called descendants of Angiras."

ANGIRASAS, ANGIRASES. Descendants of Angiras. "They share in the nature of the legends attributed to Angiras. Angiras being the father of Agni, they are considered as descendants of Agni himself, who is also called the first of the Angirasas. Like Angiras, they occur in hymns addressed to the luminous deities, and, at a later period, they become for the most part personifications of light, of luminous bodies, of divisions of time, of celestial phenomena, and fires adapted to peculiar occasions, as the full and change of the moon, or to particular rites, as the Aswa-medha, Raja-suya, &c. "-Goldstucker. In the Satapatha Brahmana they and the Adityas are said to have descended from Prajapati, and that "they strove together for the priority in ascending to heaven."

Some descendants of Angiras by the Kshatriya wife of a childless king are mentioned in the Puranas as two tribes of Angirasas who were Brahmans as well as Kshatriyas.

The hymns of the Atharva-veda are called Angirasas, and the descendants of Angiras were specially charged with the protection of sacrifices performed in accordance with the Atharva-veda. From this cause, or from their being associated with the descendants of Atharvan, they were called distinctively Atharvangirasas. 

ANGIRASAS. A class of Pitris (q.v.). 

ANILA. 'The wind.' See Vayu.  

ANILAS. A gana or class of deities, forty-nine in number, connected with Anila, the wind. 

ANIMISHA. 'Who does not wink.' A general epithet of all gods.