PARIJATA The tree produced at the churning of the ocean, “and the delight of the nymphs of heaven, perfuming the world with its blossoms.” It was kept in Indra’s heaven, and was the pride of his wife Sachi, but when Krishna visited Indra in Swarga, his wife Satya-bhama induced him to carry the tree away, which led to a great fight between the two gods and their adherents, in which Indra was defeated. The tree was taken to Dwaraka and planted there, but after Krishna's death it returned to Indra's heaven.

PARIKSHIT Son of Abhimanyu by his wife Uttari, grandson of Arjuna, and father of Janamejaya. He was killed by Aswatthaman in the womb of his mother and was born dead, but he was brought to life by Krishna, who blessed him and cursed Aswatthaman. When Yudhi-shthira retired from the world, Parikshit succeeded him on the throne of Hastina-pura. He died from the bite of a serpent, and the Bhagavata Purana is represented as having been rehearsed to him in the interval between the bite and his death. Also written Parikshit.

PARIPATRA The northern part of the Vindhya range of mountains. According to the Hari-vansa, it was the scene of the combat between Krishna and Indra, and its heights sank down under the pressure of Krishna's feet. Also called Pariyatra.

PARISHAD A college or community of Brahmans associated for the study of the Vedas.

PARISISHTA A supplement or appendix. A series of works called Parisishtas belong to the Vedic period, but they are the last of the series, and indicate a transition state. They A supply information on theological or ceremonial points which had been passed over in the Sutras, and they treat everything in a popular and superficial manner, as if the time was gone when students would spend ten or twenty years of their lives in fathoming the mysteries and mastering the intricacies of the Brahmana literature."-Max Muller.

PARIVRAJAKA A religious mendicant. A Brahman in the fourth stage of his religious life. See Brahman.

PARJANYA 1. A Vedic deity, the rain-god or rain personified. Three hymns in the Rig-veda are addressed to this deity, and one of them is very poetical and picturesque in de- scribing rain and its effects. The name is sometimes combined with the word vata (wind), parjanya-vata, referring probably to the combined powers and effects of rain and wind. In later times he is regarded as the guardian deity of clouds and rain, and the name is applied to Indra. 2. One of the Adityas.

PARSHADA Any treatise on the Vedas produced in Parishad or Vedic college.

PARTHA A son of Pritha or Kunti. A title applicable to the three elder Pandavas, but especially used for Arjuna.

PARVATI 'The mountaineer.' A name of the wife of Siva. See Devi

PASU-PATI  'Lord of creatures.' A name of Rudra or of one of his manifestations. See Rudra.

PATALA The infernal regions, inhabited by Nagas (serpents), naityas, Danavas, Yakshas, and others. They are seven in number, and their names, according to the Vishnu Purina, are Atala, Vitala, Nitala, Gabhastimat, Mahitala, Butala, and Patala, but these names vary in different authorities. The Padma Purana gives the names of the seven regions and their respective rulers as follow: -(1.) Atala, subject to Maha-maya; (2.) Vitala, ruled by a form of Biva called Hitakeswara; (3.) Butala, ruled by Bali; (4.) Talatala, ruled by Maya; (5.) Mahatala, where reside the great serpents; (6.) Rasatala, where the Daityas and Dinavas dwell; (7.) Patala, the lowermost, in which Vasuki reigns over the chief Nagas or snake-gods. In the Siva Purana there are eight: Patala, Tala, Atala, Vitala, Tala, Vidhi-patala, Sarkari-bhumi, and Vijaya. The sage Narada paid a visit to these regions, and on his return to the skies gave a glowing account of them, declaring them to be far more delightful than Indra's heaven, and abounding with every kind of luxury and sensual gratification.

PATALI-PUTRA The Palibothra of the Greek writers, and described by them as being situated at the confluence of the Erranaboas (the Bone river) with the Ganges. It was the capital of the Nandas, and of the Maurya dynasty, founded by Chandra- gupta, which succeeded them as rulers of Magadha. The city has been identified with the modern Patna; for although the Bone does not now fall into the Ganges there, the modern town is smaller in extent than the ancient one, and there is good reason for believing that the rivers have changed their courses.

PATANJALA The Yoga philosophy. See Darsana.

PATANJALI The founder of the Yoga philosophy. (See Darsana.) The author of the Maha-bhashya, a celebrated commentary on the Grammar of Panini, and a defence of that work against the criticisms of Katyayana. He is supposed to have written about 200 B.C. Rim Krishna Gopal Bhandarkar, a late inquirer, says, "He probably wrote the third chapter of his Bhashya between 144 and 142 B.C. Weber, however, makes his date to be 25 A.D. He is also called Gonardiya and Gonikaputra. A legend accounting for his name represents that he fen as a small snake from heaven into the palm of Panini (pata, 'fallen;' anjali, 'palm ').

PATHA 'Reading.' There are three forms, called rathas, in which the Vedic text is read and written :-(1.) Sanhita- patha, the ordinary form, in which the words coalesce according to the rules of Sandhi; (2.) pada-patha, in which each word stands separate and independent; (3.) Krama-patha, in which each word is given twice, first joined with the word preceding and then with the word following.

PATTANA 'City.' Several great places have been known as Pattan or 'the city.' Soma-natha was Pattan; Anhalwara is still known as Pattan, and there is also Patna.

PAULOMAS Kasyapa by his wife Puloma had many thousand "distinguished Danavas called Paulomas, who were powerful, ferocious, and cruel." They were killed by Arjuna.

PAUNDRA, PAUNDRAKA Belonging to the country of Pundra. The conch-shell of Bhishma.

PAUNDRAKA A pretender who, on the strength of being a Vasudeva, or descendant of one named Vasu-deva, set himself up in opposition to Krishna, who was son of Vasu-deva, and assumed his style and insignia. He was supported by the king of Kasi (Benares), but he was defeated and killed by Krishna, and Benares was burnt.

PAURAVAS Descendants of Puru of the Lunar race. See Puru.

PAVAN 1. A. 'Wind.' The god of the wind. See vayu.

PHALGUNA 1. A name of Arjuna. 2. Name of a month.

PINDARAKA A watering-place on the coast of Gujarat, near Dwaraka, resorted to occasionally by Krishna. It still survives as a village, and is held in veneration. It is about twenty miles from the north-west extremity of the Peninsula.

PINGALA 1. The great authority on the Chhandas or Prosody of the Vedas. He is supposed to have written about two centuries B.C. 2. Name of one of the serpent kings some times identified with the foregoing.

PIPPALADA A school of the Atharva-veda, founded by a sage of that name. 

PISACHAS (mas.), PISACHI (fem.). Fiends, evil spirits, placed by the Vedas as lower than Rakshasas. The vilest and most malignant (order of malevolent beings. Accounts differ as to their origin. The Brahmana and the Maha-bharata say that they were created by Brahma, together with the Asuras and Rakshasas, from the stray drops of water: which fell apart from the drops out of which gods, men, gandharvas, &c., had been produced. According to Manu they spring from the Prajapatis. In the puranas they are represented as the offspring of Kasyapa by his wife Krodhavasa, or Pisacha, or Kapisa. 

PISACHA-LOKA See Loka. 

PISITASINAS, PISITASINS Carnivorous and cannibal imps descended from Nikasha. 

PITA-MAHA A paternal grandfather. A name of Brahma as the great father of all. 

PITAMBARA 'Clothed in yellow garments.' A name of Vishnu.  

PITHA-STHANA ' Seat,' or lit. 'place of a seat.' "Fifty- one places where, according to the Tantras, the limbs of Sati fell when scattered by her husband Siva, as he bore her dead body about and tore it to pieces after she had put an end to her existence at Daksha's sacrifice. This part of the legend seems to be an addition to the original fable, made by the Tantras, as it is not in the Puranas. (See Daksha.) It bears some analogy to the Egyptian fable of Isis and Osiris. .At the Pitha-sthanas, however, of Jwala-mukhi, Vindhya- vasini, Kali-ghat, and others, temples are erected to the different forms of Devi or Sati, not to the phallic emblem of Maha-deva, which, if present, is there as an accessory, not as a principal; and the chief object of worship is a figure of the goddess-a circumstance in which there is an essential difference between the temples of Durga and the shrines of Osiris."-Wilson.

PITRIS Patres; the fathers; the Manes. This name is applied to three different classes of beings:- 1. The Manes of departed forefathers, to whom pindas (balls of rice and flour) and water are offered at stated periods. 2. The ten Prajapatis or mythical progenitors of the human race. 3. "According to a legend in the Hari-vansa and in the vayu purana, the first Pitris were the sons of the gods. The gods having offended Brahma by neglecting to worship him, were cursed by him to become fools; but, upon their repentance, he directed them to apply to their sons for instruction. Being taught accordingly the rites of expiation and penance by their Sons, they addressed them as fathers; whence the Sons of the gods were the first Pitris. "The account given of the Pitris is much the same in all the Puranas. "They agree in distinguishing them into seven classes, three of which are without form, or composed of intellectual, non elementary substance, and assuming what forms they please; and four are corporeal. When the puranas come to the enumeration of the particular classes, they somewhat differ, and the accounts in all the works are singularly imperfect." The incorporeal Pitris, according to one enumeration, are the Vairajas, Agnishwattas, and Barhishads. The first of these seem also to be called Subhaswaras, Somasads, and Saumyas. The corporeal are the Sukalas or Su-kalins, Angirasas, Su-swadhas, and Somapas. The Sukalas are also called Manasas; the Somapas are also called Ushmapas; the Angirasas seem also to be called Havishmats, Havirbhujas, and Upahutas; and the Su-swadhas are apparently the same as the Ajyapas and Kavyas or Kavyas. The Vairajas are the Manes of great ascetics and anchorites, the Agnishwattas are the Pitris of the gods, the Barhishads of demons, the Somapos of Brahmans, the Havishmats of Kshatriyas, the Ajyapas of Vaisyas, and the Su-kalins of the Sudras; but one authority, the Hari-vansa, makes the Somapas belong to the Sudras, and the Su-kalins to the Brahmans, and there appears to be good reason for this. Other names are given by Dr. F. Hall from various authorities (Vishnu Purana, ai. 339): Rasmipas, Phenapas, Sudhavats, Girhapatyas, Ekasringas, Cha-turvedas, and Kalas. Besides these there are the Vyamas, ‘fumes,' the Pitris of the barbarians. The Rig-veda and Manu make two independent classes, the Agni-dagdhas and the An agni-dagdhas, those ‘who when alive kept up (or did not keep up) the household flame,' and presented (or did not present) oblations with fire. The Vishnu purana makes the Barhishads identical with the former, and the Agnishwattas with the latter. Yama, god of the dead, is king of the Pitris, and Swadha, ‘oblation,' is sometimes said to be their mother, at others their wife. – Wilson, Vishnu Purana, ai. 157,339. See Manu, ai. 192.

PITRI-LOKA See Loka.

PITRI-PATI 'The lord of the Manes.' Yama, judge of the dead.

PIYADASI See Asoka.

PRABHASA 1. A place of pilgrimage on the coast of Gujarat. near to Dwaraka:, and also near to the temple of Soma-natha.

PRABHAVATl Wife of Pradyumna (q.v.).

PRAJ3ODHA-CHANDRODAYA 'The rise of the moon of knowledge.' A philosophical drama by Krishna Misra, who is supposed to have lived about the twelfth century. It has been translated into English by Dr. Taylor, and into German by Rosenkranz and by Hirzel.

PRACHANDA-PANDAVA 'The incensed Pandavas.' A drama in two acts by Raja Sekhara, the main incident in which is the outrage of Draupadi by the assembled Kaurava princes.

PRACHETAS 1. One of the Prajapatis 2. An ancient sage and lawgiver. 3. The ten Prachetasas were sons of Prachina-barhis and great-grandsons of Prithu, and, according to the Vishnu purana, they passed ten thousand years in the great ocean, deep in meditation upon Vishnu, and obtained from him the boon of becoming the progenitors of mankind. They took to wife Marisha: daughter of Kandu, and Daksha was their son. See Daksha.

PRACHYAS The people of the east; those east of the Ganges; the Prasa of the Greeks.

PRADHANA Matter. Primary matter, or nature as opposed to spirit.

PRADYUMNA A son of Krishna by Rukmini. When a child only six days old, he was stolen by the demon Sambara and thrown into the ocean. There he was swallowed by a fish, which was afterwards caught and carried to the house of Sambara. When the fish was opened, a beautiful child was discovered, and Maya-devi or Maya-vati, the mistress of Sambara's household, took him under her care. The sage Narada informed her who the child was, and she reared him carefully. When he grew up she fell in love with him, and informed him who he was .and how he had been carried off by Sambara. He defied the demon to battle, and after a long conflict slew him. Then he flew through the air with Mayavati, and alighted in the inner apartments of his father's palace. Krishna presented him to his mother Rukmini "with the virtuous Mayavati his wife," declaring her really to be the goddess Ratio Pradyumna also married Kakudmati, the daughter of Rukmin, and had by her a son named Aniruddha. Pradyumna was killed at Dwaraka: in the presence of his father during a drunken brawl Though Pradyumna passed as the son of Krishna, he was, according to the legend, a revival or resuscitation of Kama, the god of love, who was reduced to ashes by the fiery glance of Siva, and so the name Pradyumna is used for Kama. (See Kama.) The Vishnu Purana puts the following words into the mouth of Narada when he presented Pradyumna to Rukmini :- “When Manmatha (the deity of love) had perished, the goddess of beauty (Rati), desirous to secure his revival, assumed a delusive form, and by her charms fascinated the demon Sambara, and exhibited herself to him in various illusory enjoyments. This thy son is the descended Kama; and this is (the goddess) Rati, his wife. There is no occasion for any uncertainty; this is thy daughter-in-law." In the Hari-vansa he has a wife named Prabhavati, daughter of King Vajra-nabha. When he went to see her for the first time, he changed himself into a bee and lived in a garland of flowers, which had been prepared for her. According to the Maha-bharata, he was Sanat-kumara, the son of Brahma.  

PRADYUMNA-VIJAYA ‘Pradyumna victorious.' A drama in seven acts upon the victory of Pradyumna over the Daitya Vajra-nabha, written by Sankara Dikshita about the middle of the last century. “The play is the work of a Pandit, not of a poet.”-Wilson. 

PRAGJYOTISHA A city situated in the east, in Kama-rupa on the borders of Assam. See Naraka.