ARJUNA. 'White.' The name of the third Pandu prince. All the five brothers were of divine paternity, and Arjuna's father was Indra, hence he is called Aindri. A brave warrior, high-minded, generous, upright, and handsome, the most Prominent and the most amiable and interesting of the five brothers. He was taught the use of arms by Drona, and was his favourite pupil. By his skill in arms he won Draupadi at her Swayamvara. For an involuntary transgression he imposed upon himself twelve years' exile from his family, and during that time he visited parasu-rama, who gave him instruction in the use of arms. He at this period formed a connection with Ulupi, a Naga princess, and by her had a son named lravat. He also married Chitrangadi, the daughter of the king of Manipura, by whom he had a son named Babhru-vahana. He visited Krishna at Dwaraka, and there he married Su-bhadra, the sister of Krishna. (See Su-bhadra.) By her he had a son named Abhimanyu. Afterwards he obtained the bow Gandiva from the god Agni, with which to fight against lndra, and he assisted Agni in burning the Khandava forest. When Yudhi-shthira lost the kingdom by gambling, and the five brothers went into exile for thirteen years, Arjuna proceeded on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas to propitiate the gods, and to obtain from them celestial weapons for use in the contemplated war against the Kauravas. There he fought with Siva, who appeared in the guise of a Kirata or mountaineer; but Arjuna, having found out the true character of his adversary, worshipped him, and Siva gave him the pasupata, one of his most powerful weapon Indra, Varuna, Yama, and Kuvera came to him, and also presented him with their own peculiar weapons. Indra, his father carried him in his car to his heaven and to his capital Amaravati where Arjuna spent some years in the practice of arms. Indra sent him against the Daityas of the sea, whom he vanquished, and then returned victorious to Indra, who "presented him with a chain of gold and a diadem, and with a war-shell which sounded like thunder." In the thirteenth year of exile he entered the service of Raja Virata, disguised as a eunuch, and acted as music and dancing master, but in the end he took a leading part in defeating the king's enemies, the king of Trigarta and the Kaurava princes, many of whose leading warriors he vanquished in single combat. Preparations for the great struggle with the Kauravas now began. Arjuna obtained the personal assistance of Krishna, who acted as his charioteer, and, before the great battle began, related to him the Bhagavad-gita. On the tenth day of the battle he mortally wounded Bhishma , on the twelfth he defeated Susarman and his four brothers , on the fourteenth he killed Jayadratha; on the seventeenth, he was so stung by some reproaches of his brother, Yudhi-sthira, that he would have killed him had not Krishna interposed. On the same day he fought with Karna, who had made a vow to slay him. He was near being vanquished when an accident to Karna's chariot gave Arjuna the opportunity of killing him. After the defeat of the Kauravas, Aswatthaman, son of Drona, and two others, who were the sole survivors, made a night attack on the camp of the Pandavas, and murdered their children. Arjuna pursued Aswatthaman, and made him give up the precious jewel, which he wore upon his head as an amulet. When the horse intended for Yudhi-shthira's Aswa-medha sacrifice was let loose, Arjuna, with his army, followed it through many cities and countries, and fought with many Rajas. He entered the country of Trigarta, and had to fight his way through. He fought also against Vajradatta, who had a famous elephant, and against the Saindhavas. At the city of Manipura he fought with his own son, Babhru-vahana, and was killed; but he was restored to life by a Naga charm supplied by his wife Ulupi. Afterwards he penetrated into the Dakshina or south country, and fought with the Nishidas and Dravidians: then went westwards to Gujarat, and finally conducted the horse back to Hastinapura, where the great sacrifice was performed. He was subsequently called to Dwaraka by Krishna amid the internecine struggles of the Yadavas, and there he performed the funeral ceremonies of Vasudeva and of Krishna. Soon after this he retired from the world to the Himalayas. (See Maha-bharata.) He had a son named Iravat by the serpent nymph Ulupi; Babhru-vahana, by the daughter of the king of Manipura, became king of that country; Abhimanyu, born of his wife Su-bhadra, was killed in the great battle, but the kingdom of Hastinapura descended to his son Parikshit. Arjuna has many appellations: Bibhatsu, Guda-kesa, Dhananjaya, Jishnu, Kiritin, Paka-sasani, Phalguna, Savya-sachin, Sweta-vahana, and Partha.

ARJUNA. Son of Krita-virya, king of the Haihayas. He is better known under his patronymic Kirta-virya (q. v.).  

ARTHA-SASTRA. The useful arts. Mechanical science. 

ARUNA. 'Red, rosy.' The dawn, personified as the charioteer of the sun. This is of later origin than the Vedic Ushas (q.v.). He is said to be the son of Kasyapa and Kadru. He is also called Rumra, `tawny,’ and by two epithets of which the meaning is not obvious, An-uru, `thigh less,’ and Asana, `stony.’ 

ARUNDHATI. The morning star, personified as the wife of the Rishi Vasishtha, and a model of conjugal excellence. 

ARUSHA, ARUSHI. `Red.’ `A red horse.’ In the Rig-veda the red horses or mares of the sun or of fire. The rising sun. 

ARVAN, ARVA. `A horse.’ One of the horses of the moon. A fabulous animal, half-horse, half-bird, on which the Daityas are supposed to ride. 

ARVAVASU. See Raibhya. 

ARYA, ARYAN. `Loyal, faithful.’ The name of the immigrant race from which all that is Hindu originated. The name by which the people of the Rig-veda “called men of their own stock and religion, in contradistinction to the Dasyus (or Dasas), a term by which we either understand hostile demons or the rude aboriginal tribes” of India, who were An-aryas. 

ARYA-BHATA. The earliest known Hindu writer on algebra, and, according to Colebrooke, “If not the inventor, the improver of that analysis,” which has made but little advance in India since. He was born, according to his own account, at Kusuma-pura (Patna), in A.D. 476, and composed his first astronomical work at the early age of twenty-three. His larger work, the Arya Siddhanta, was produced at a riper age. He is probably the Andubarius (Ardubarius?) of the Chronichon Paschale, and the Arjabahr of the Arabs. Two of his works, the Dasagiti-sutra and Aryashtasata, have been edited by Kern under the title of Aryabhatiya. See Whitney in Jour. Amer. Or. Society for 1860, Dr. Bhau Daji in J. R. A. S. for 1865, and Barth in Revue Critique for 1875. There is another and later astronomer of the same name, distinguished as Laghu Arya-bhatta, i.e., Arya-bhatta the Less. 

ARYAMAN. `A bosom friend.’ 1. Chief of the Pitris. 2. One of the Adityas. 3. One of the Viswa-devas. 

ARYA SIDDHANTA. The system of astronomy founded by Arya-bhatta in his work bearing this name. 

ARYAVARTA. `The land of the Aryas.’ The tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the eastern to the western sea. – Manu. 

ASAMANJAS. Son of Sagara and Kesini. He was a wild and wicked young man, and was abandoned by his father, but he succeeded him as king, and, according to the IIari-vansa, he was afterwards famous for valour under the name of Panchajana. 

ASANGA. Author of some verses in the Rig-veda. He was son of Playoga, but was changed into a woman by the curse of the gods. He recovered his male form by repentance and the favour of the Rishi Medhatithi, to whom he gave abundant wealth, and addressed the verses preserved in the Veda.  

ASARA. A Rakshasa or other demon. 

ASHTAVAKRA. A Brahman, the son of Kahoda, whose story is told in the Maha-bharata. Kahoda married a daughter of his preceptor, UddaIaka, but he was so devoted to study that he neglected his wife. When she was far advanced in her pregnancy, the unborn son was provoked at his father's neglect other, and rebuked him for it. Kahoda was angry at the child's impertinence, and condemned him to be born crooked; so he came forth with his eight (ashta) limbs crooked (vakra); hence his name. Kahoda went to a great sacrifice at the court of Janaka, king of Mithili. There was present there a great Buddhist sage, who challenged disputations, upon the under- standing that whoever was overcome in argument should be thrown into the river. This was the fate of many, and among them of Kahoda, who was drowned. In his twelfth year Ashtavakra learned the manner of his father's death, and set out to avenge him. The lad was possessed of great ability and wisdom. He got the better of the sage who had worsted his father, and insisted that the sage should be thrown into the water. The sage then declared himself to be a son of Varuna, god of the waters, who had sent him to obtain Brahmans for officiating at a sacrifice by overpowering them in argument and throwing them into the water. When all was explained and set right, Kahoda directed his son to bathe in the Samanga river, on doing which the lad became perfectly straight. A story is told in the Vishnu Purana that Ashtavakra was standing in water performing penances when he was seen by some celestial nymphs and worshipped by them. He was pleased, and told them to ask a boon. They asked for the best of men as a husband. He came out of the water and offered himself. When they saw him, ugly and crooked in eight places, they laughed in derision. He was angry, and as he could not recall his blessing, he said that, after obtaining it, they should fill into the hands of thieves. 

ASIKNI. The Vedic name of the Chinab, and probably the origin of the classic Akesines.  

A-SIRAS. ' Headless. 'Spirits or beings without heads. 

ASMAKA. Son of Madayanti, the wife of Kalmasha-pada or Saudasa. See Kalmasha -pada. 

ASOKA. A celebrated king of the Maurya dynasty of Magadha, and grandson of its founder, Chandra-gupta. "This king is the most celebrated of any in the annals of the Buddhists. In the commencement of his reign he followed the Brahmanical faith, but became a convert to that of Buddha, and a zealous encourager of it. He is said to have maintained in his palace 64,000 Buddhist priests, and to have erected 84,000 columns (or topes) throughout India. A great convocation of Buddhist priests was held in the eighteenth year of his reign, which was followed by missions to Ceylon and other places." Ho reigned thirty-six years, from about 234 to 198 B.C., and exercised authority more or less direct from Afghanistan to Ceylon. This fact is attested by a number of very curious Pali inscriptions found engraven upon rocks and pillars, all of them of the same purport, and some of them almost identical in words, the variations showing little more than dialectic differences. That found at Kapur-di-giri, in Afghanistan, is in the Bactrian Pali character, written from right to left; all the others are in the India Pali character, written from left to right. The latter is the oldest known form of the character now in use in India, but the modern letters have departed so far from their proto- types that it required all the acumen and diligence of James Prinsep to decipher the ancient forms. These inscriptions show a great tenderness for animal life, and are Buddhist in their character, but they do not enter upon the distinctive peculiarities of that religion. The name of Asoka never occurs in them; the king who set them up is called Piyadasi (Sans. Priya-darsi), 'the beautiful,' and he is entitled Devanam-piya, `the beloved of the gods.' Buddhist writings identify this Piyadasi with Asoka, and little or no doubt is entertained of the two names representing the same person. One of the most curious passages in these inscriptions refers to the Greek king Antiochus, calling him and three others "Turamayo, Antakana; Mako, and Alika-sunari," which represent Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander. "The date of Asoka is not exactly that of Antiochus the Great, but it is not very far different; and the corrections required to make it correspond are no more than the in exact manner in which both Brahmanical and Buddhist chronology is preserved may well be expected to render necessary." See Wilson's note in the Vishnu Purana, his article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol xii, Max Muller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, and an article by Sir F. Perry in vol iii of the Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society.

ASRAMA. There are four stages in the life of a Brahman, which are called by this name. See Brahman.