NANDISA, NANDISWARA ‘Lord of Nandi.’ A title of Siva. It is related in the Ramayana that Ravana went to the Sara-vana, the birthplace of Karttikeya, and on his way through the mountains he beheld “a formidable, dark, tawny-coloured dwarf called Nandiswara, who was a follower of Maha-deva, or rather that deity himself in another body. This being desired Ravana to halt, as Siva was sporting in the mountain, and so one, not even a god, could pass. Ravana asked derisively who Siva was, and laughed contemptuously at Nandiswara, who had the face of a monkey. Nandiswara retorted that monkeys having the same shape as him and of similar energy should be produced to destroy Ravana’s race. In reply to this menace, Ravana threatened to pull up the mountain by its roots and let Siva know his own danger. So he threw his arms round the mountain and lifted it up, which made the hosts of Siva tremble and Parvati quake and cling to her husband. Siva then pressed down the mountain with his great toe, and crushed and held fast the arms of Ravana, who uttered a loud cry, which shook all creation. Ravana’s friends counseled him to propitiate Siva, and he did so for a thousand years with hymns and weeping Siva then released him, and said that his name should be Ravana from the cry (rava), which he had uttered. The origin of this story is sufficiently manifest, it has been built up on the name Ravana, to the glory of Siva, by a zealous partisan of that deity.

NARA ‘Man.’ The original eternal man.

NARADA A Rishi to whom some hymns of the Rig-veda are ascribed. He is one of the Prajapatis, and also one of the seven great Rishis. The various notices of him are somewhat inconsistent. The Rig-veda describes him as “of the Kanwa family.” Another authority states that he sprang from his forehead of Brahma, and the Vishnu Purana makes him a son of Kasyapa and one of Daksha’s daughters. The Maha-bharata and some Puranas state that he frustrated the scheme which Daksha had formed for peopling the earth, and consequently incurred that patriarch’s curse to enter again the womb of a woman and be born. Daksha, however, relented at the solicitation of Brahma, and consented that Narada should be born again of Brahma and one of Daksha’s daughters; he was hence called Brahma and Deva-brahma. In some respects he bears a resemblance to Orpheus. He is the inventor of the vina (lute), and was chief of the Gandharvas or heavenly musicians. He also went down to the infernal regions (Patala), and was delighted with the legend of Krishna. He warned Kansa of the imminent incarnation of Vishnu, and he afterwards became the friend and associate of Krishna.

        The Narada-pancha-ratra relates that Brahma advised his son Narada to marry, but Narada censured his father as a false teacher, because devotion to Krishna was the only true means of felicity. Brahma then cursed Narada to lead a life of sensuality, in subjection to women, and Narada retorted the curse, condemning Brahma to lust after his own daughter, and to be an object unworthy of adoration. Narada has the appellations, Kali-karaka, ‘strife-maker;’ Kapi-vaktra, ‘monkey-faced;’ Pisuna, ‘messenger or spy.’

        Narada was also one of the great writers upon law. His textbook, called “Naradiya Dharma-sastra,” has been translated into English by Dr. Jolly.

NARADA PANCHA-RATRA A ritualistic work of the Vaishnavas. It has been printed in the Bibliotheca Indica.

NARADA-PURANA, NARADIYA-PURANA “Where Narada has described the duties which were observed in the Brihat Kalpa, that is called the Naradiya, having 25,000 stanzas.” But the only copy that Wilson analysed contained not more than 3000 stanzas. There is another work called the Brihan or Great Naradiya, but this extends only to 3500 verses. These Puranas, says Wilson, bear “no conformity to the definition of a Purana; both are sectarial and modern compilations, intended to support the doctrine of Bhakti or faith in Vishnu.” They are modern compositions, possibly even of so late a date as the sixteenth or seventeenth century. One of them refers to the “killers of cows” and “condemners of the gods,” meaning, no doubt, the Mohammadans, so that the passage would seem to have been written after India was in their hands.

NARAKA Hell; a place of torture to which the souls of the wicked are sent. Manu enumerates twenty-one hells: - Tamisra, Andha-tamisra, Maha-raurava, Raurava, Naraka, Kalasuta, Maha-naraka, Sanjivana, Maha-vichi, Tapana, Sampratapana, Sanhata, Sakakola, Kudmala, Puti-mrittika, Loha-sanku, Rijisha, Panthana, Salmali, Asi-patra-vana, and Loha-daraka. Other authorities vary greatly as to the numbers and names of the hells. See Vishnu Purana, a. 214.

NARAKA An Asura, son of the Earth. In the Maha-bharata and Vishnu Purana he is said to have carried off the ear-rings of Aditi to the impregnable castle of Prag-jyotisha, but Krishna, at the request of the gods, went there and killed him and recovered the jewels. In the Hari-vansa the legend differs. According to this, Naraka, king of Prag-jyotisha, was an implacable enemy of the gods. He assumed the form of an elephant and having carried off the daughter of Viswa-karma, he subjected her to violation. He seized the daughters of the Gandharvas, and of gods and of men, as well as the Apsarasas themselves, and had more than 16,000 women, for whom he built a splendid residence. He also appropriated to himself jewels, garments, and valuables of all sorts, and no Asura before him had ever been so horrible in his actions.

NARA-NARAYANA Two ancient Rishis, sons of Dharma and Ahinsa. The names are sometimes applied to Krishna and to Krishna and Arjuna. The Vamana Purana has a legend about them which is alluded to in the drama of Vikramorvasi. Their penances and austerities alarmed the gods, so Indra sent nymphs to inspire them with passion and disturb their devotions. Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. Immediately there sprung from it a beautiful nymph whose charms far excelled those of the celestial nymphs, and made them return to heaven filled with shame and vexation. Narayana sent this nymph to Indra with them, and from her having been produced from the thigh (uru) of the sage, she was called Urvasi.

NARASIMHA-AVATARA See Avatara.

NARASINHA PURANA See Purana.

NARA-VISHWANA ‘A man-devourer;’ a Rakshasa or other malignant being.

NARAYANA 1. The son of Nara, the original man, and often identified or coupled with Nara. 2. The creator Brahma, who, according to Manu, was so called because the waters (nara) were his first ayana or place of motion. The name is found for the first time in the Satapatha Brahmana. The name as commonly used applies to Vishnu, and is that under which he was first worshipped.

NARMADA The Nerbudda river, which is esteemed holy. The personified river is variously represented as being daughter of a Rishi named Mekala (from whom she is called Mekala and Mekala-kanya), as a daughter of the moon, as a ‘mind-born daughter’ of the Somapas, and as sister of the Nagas. It was she who brought Purukutsa to the aid of the Nagas against the Gandharvas, and the grateful snake-gods made her name a charm against the venom of snakes. According to the Vishnu Purana, she had a son by Purukutsa who has named Trasadasyu. The Matsa Purana gives Duh-saha as the name of her husband. The Hari-vansa is inconsistent with itself. In one place it makes her wife of Purukutsa and mother of Trasadasyu; in another it makes her the wife of Trasadasyu. She is also called Reva and Purva-ganga, and, as a daughter of the moon, Indu-ja and Somodbhava.

NASATYA Name of one of the Aswins. It is also used in the plural for both of them.

NAVA-RATNA The nine-gems: pearl, ruby, topaz, diamond, emerald, lapis lazuli, coral, sapphire, and one not identified called Go-meda. The nine gems of the court of Vikrama, probably meaning Vikramaditya, whose era the Samvat begins in 56 B.C. A verse gives their names as Dhanwantari, Kshapanaka, Amara Sinha, Sanku, Vetala-bhatta, Ghata-karpara, Kali-dasa, Varaha-mihira, and Vararuchi. The date of Vikramaditya is by no means settled. Bhau Daji endeavours to identify Vikrama with Harsha Vikramaditya, who lived in the middle of the sixth century.

NIDAGHA A Brahman, son of Pulastya, who dwelt “at Vira-nagara, a large handsome city on the banks of the Devika river” (the Gogra). He was a disciple of the sage Ribhu, and when Ribhu went to visit his disciple, Nidagha entertained him reverentially. Ribhu instructed him in divine knowledge until he learned to “behold all things as the same with himself, and, perfect in holy knowledge, obtained final liberation.”

NIDANA-SUTRA An old work upon the metres of the Vedas .

NIDHI ‘A treasure.’ Nine treasures belonging to the god Kuvera. Each of them is personified or has a guardian spirit, which is an object of worship among the Tantrikas. The nature of these Nidhis is not clearly understood. See a note by Wilson on verse 534 of the Megha-duta, collected works, iv. 372. Their names are Kachchhapa, Mukunda, Nanda (or Kunda), Kharba, Makara, Nila, Sankha, Padma, and Maha-padma. The Nidhis are called also Nidhana, Nikara, and Sevadhi.

NIDRA ‘Sleep.’ Sometimes said to be a female form of Brahma, at others to have been produced at the churning of the ocean.

NIGHANTU, NIGHANTUKA A glossary, especially of synonyms and obsolete and obscure Vedic terms. There was at least one work of this kind before the days of Yaska. See Nirukta.

NIKASHA A female demon, the mother of Ravana. The mother of carnivorous imps called Pisitasanas, or by their metronymic Naikusheyas and Nikashatmajas.

NIKUMBHA 1. A Rakshasa who fought against Rama He was son of Kumbha-karna. 2. An Asura who, according to the Hari-vansa, received the boon from Brahma that he should die only by the hands of Vishnu. He was king of Shat-pura and had great magical powers, so that he could multiply himself into many forms, though he commonly assumed only three. He carried off the daughters of Brahma-datta, the friend of Krishna, and that hero attacked him and killed him under different forms more than once, but he was eventually slain outright by Krishna, and his city of Shat-pura was given to Brahma-datta.

NlLA ‘Blue.’ 1. A mythic range of mountains north of Meru. 2. A mountain range in Orissa. 3. A monkey ally of Rama. 4. A Pandava warrior killed by Aswatthaman.

NILA-KANTHA  'Blue throat.' An epithet of Siva. See Siva.

NIMI Son of Ikshwaku, and founder of the dynasty of Mithila. He was cursed by the sage Vasishtha to lose his corporeal form, and he retorted the imprecation upon the sage. Both abandoned the bodily condition Vasishtha was born again as the issue of Mitra and Varuna, but "the corpse of Nimi was preserved from decay by being embalmed with fragrant oils and resins, and it remained as entire as if it were immortal." The gods were willing to restore him to bodily life but Nimi declined, declaring that the separation of soul and body was so distressing that he would never resume a corporeal shape and become liable to it again." To this desire the god assented, and Nimi was placed by them in the eyes of al living creatures, in consequence of which their eyelids are ever opening and shutting."-Vishnu Purana. A wink of the eye is called nimisha, and the legend was probably built upon the resemblance of the two words.

NIRNAYA-SINDHU A work on religious ceremonies and law by Kamalakara. It has been printed at Bombay and Benares.

NIRRITI 'Death, decay.' Death personified as a goddess; sometimes regarded as the wife and sometimes as the daughter of A-dharma. One of the Rudras.

NIRUKTA 'Etymology, glossary.' One of the Vedangas. The Nirukta is devoted to the explanation of difficult Vedic words. The only work of the kind now known to us is that of Yaska, who was a predecessor of Panini; but such works were no doubt numerous, and the names of seventeen writers of Niruktas are mentioned as having preceded Yaska. The Nirukta consists of three parts :-(1.) Naighantuka, a collection of synonymous words; (2.) Naigama, a collection of words peculiar to the Vedas; (3.) Daivata, words relating to deities and sacrifices. These are mere lists of words, and are of themselves of little value. They may have been compiled by Yaska himself, or he may have found them ready to his hand. The real Nirukta, the valuable portion of the work, is Yaska's commentary, which follows. In this he explains the meaning of words, enters into etymological investigations, and quotes passages of the Vedas in illustration. These are valuable from their acknowledged antiquity, and as being the oldest known examples of a Vedic gloss. They also throw alight upon the scientific and religious condition of their times, but the extreme brevity of their style makes them obscure and difficult to understand. The text of the Nirukta has been published by Roth.

NISHADA A mountain tribe dwelling in the Vindhya Mountains, said to have been produced from the thigh of Vena; the Bhils or foresters, and barbarians in general (See Vena.) Any outcast, especially the offspring of a Brahman father and Sudra mother.

NISHADHA 1. A mythic range of mountains lying south of Meru, but sometimes described as on the east. It is north of the Himalaya. 2. The country of Nala, probably the Bhil country.

NISHTIGRI In the Rig-veda, the mother of Indra.

NISUMBHA An Asura killed by Durga. See Sumbha.

NITI-MANJARI A work on ethics by Dya Dwiveda, exemplified by stories and legends with special reference to the Vedas. Some specimens are given in the Indian Antiquary, vol v.

NlTI-SASTRAS Works on morals and polity, consisting either of proverbs and wise maxims in verse, or of stories and fables inculcating some moral precept and illustrating its effects. These fables are generally in prose interspersed with pithy maxims in verse.

NIVATA-KAVACHAS 'Clothed in impenetrable armour.' A class of Daityas descended from Prahlada, “whose spirits were purified by rigid austerity." According to the Maha-bharata they were 30,000,000 in number, and dwelt in the depths or the sea. They were destroyed by Arjuna.

NRI-SINHA The Nara-sinha or man-lion incarnation. See Avatara.

NRI-SINHA PURANA See Purana.

NRI-SINHA TAPANI An Upanishad in which Vishnu is worshipped under his form Nri-sinha. Published with the commentary of Sankaracharya in the Bibliotheca Indica.

NYAYA The logical school of philosophy. See Darsana.

NYAYA-DARSANA, NYAYA-SUTRA-VRITTI Works of Gotama on the Nyaya philosophy. They have been printed.