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SABALASWAS
Sons of Daksha, one thousand in number, brought forth after the
loss of the Haryaswas. Like their predecessors, they were dissuaded
by Narada from begetting off-spring, and “scattered themselves
through the regions” never to return.
SACHI Wife
of Indra. See Indrani.
SADHYAS
A Gana or class of inferior deities; the personified rites and
prayers of the Vedas who dwell with the gods or in the intermediate
region between heaven and earth. Their number is twelve according to
one authority, and seven teen according to another, and the Puranas
make them sons of Dharma and Sadhya, daughter of
Daksha.
SAGARA
A king of Ayodhya, of the Solar race, and son of King Bahu, who was
driven out of his dominions by the Haihayas. Bahu took refuge in the
forest with his wives. Sagara's mother was then pregnant, and a
rival wife, wing jealous, gave her a drug to prevent her delivery.
This poison confined the child is the womb for seven years, and in
the interim Bahu died. The pregnant wife wished to ascend his pyre,
but the sage Aurva forbad her, predicting that she would give birth
to a valiant universal monarch. "When the child was born, Aurva gave
him the name of Sagara (sa, ‘with,’ and gara, ‘poison’). The child
grew up, and having heard his father's history, he vowed that he
would exterminate the Haihayas and the other barbarians, and recover
his ancestral kingdom. He obtained from Aurva the Agneyastra or fire
weapon, and, armed with this, he put nearly the whole of the
Haihayas to death and regained his throne. He would also “have
destroyed tile Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, paradas, and Pahlavas,” but
they applied to Vasishtha, Sagara's family priest, and he indeed
Sagara to spare them, but “he made the Yavanas shave their heads
entirely; the Sakas he compelled to shave (the upper) half of their
heads; the Paradas wore their hair long; and the Pahlavas let their
beards grow in obedience to his commands.” Sagara married two wives,
Su-mati, the daughter of Kasyapa, and Kesini, the daughter of Raja
Vidarbha, but having no children, he besought the sage Aurva for
this boon. Aurva promised that one wife should have one son; the
other, sixty thousand. Kesini chose the one, and her son was
Asamanjas, through whom the royal line was continued. Su-mati had
sixty thousand sons. Asamanjas was a wild immoral youth, and his
father abandoned him. The other sixty thousand sons followed the
courses of their brother, and their impiety was such that the gods
complained of them to the sage Kapila and the god Vishnu. Sagara
engaged in the performance of an Aswa-medha or sacrifice of a horse,
but although the animal was guarded by his sixty thousand sons, it
was carried off to Patala. Sagara directed his sons to recover it.
They dug their way to the infernal regions, and there they found the
horse grazing and the sage Kapila seated close by engaged in
meditation. Conceiving him to be the thief, they menaced him. with
their weapons. Disturbed from his devotions," he looked upon them
for an instant, and they were reduced to ashes by the (sacred) flame
that darted from his person. "Their remains were discovered by
Ansumat, the son of Asamanjas, who prayed Kapila that the victims of
his wrath might be raised through his favour to heaven. Kapila
promised that the grandson of AnS1lmat should be the means of
accomplishing this by bringing down the river of heaven. Ansumat
then returned to Sagara, who completed his sacrifice, and he gave
the name of Sagara to the chasm which his sons had dug, and Sagara
means ‘ocean.’ The son of Ansumat was Dilipa, and his son was
Bhagiratha. The devotion of Bhagiratha brought down from heaven the
holy Ganges, which flows from the toe of Vishnu, and its waters
having laved the ashes of the sons of Sagara, cleansed them from all
impurity. Their Manes were thus made fit for the exequial ceremonies
and for admission into Swarga. The Ganges received the name of
Sagara in honour of Sagara, and Bhagirathi from the name of the
devout king whose prayers brought her down to earth. (See
Bhagirathi) The Hari-vansa adds another marvel to the story.
Sagara's wife Su-mati was delivered of a gourd containing sixty
thousand seeds, which became embryos and grew. Sagara at first
placed them in vessels of milk, but afterwards each one had a
separate nurse, and at ten months they all ran about. The name of
Sagara is frequently cited in deeds conveying grants of land in
honour of his generosity in respect of such
gifts.
SAHA-DEV 1.
The youngest of the five Pandu princes, twin son of Madri, the
second wife of Pandu, and mythologically son of the Aswins, or more
specifically of the Aswin Dasra. He was learned in the science of
astronomy, which he had studied under Drona, and he was also well
acquainted with the management of cattle. (See
Maha-bharata.) He had a SOD named Su-hotra by his wife
Vijaya.
SAHASRAKSHA
‘Thousand -eyed.’ An epithet of lndra.
SAHITYA-DARPANA
‘The mirror of composition.’ A celebrated work on poetry and
rhetoric by Viswanatha Kavi Raja, written about the fifteenth
century. It has been translated into English for the Bibliotheca
Indica. There are several editions of the text.
SAIBYA
Wife of Haris-chandra (q.v.); wife of Jyamagha (q.v.); wife of
Sata-dhanu (q. v.).
SAINDHAVAS
The people of Sindhu or Sindh, of the country between the Indus and
the Jhilam.
SAIVA PURANA
Same as Siva Purana.
SAKA
An era commencing 78 A.D., and called the era of Salivahana.
Cunningham supposes its epoch to be connected with a defeat of the
Sakas by Salivahana.
SAKALA
The city of the Bahikas or Madras, in the Panjab. It has been
identified with the Sagala of Ptolemy on the Hyphasis (Byas),
south-west of Lahore. Cunningham says it is the Sangala of
Alexander.
SAKALYA
An old grammarian and expositor of the Vedas who lived before the
time of Yaska. He is said to have divided a Sanhita of the Veda into
five, and to have taught these portions to as many disciples. He was
also called Veda-mitra and Deva-mitra.
SAKAPUJNI,
SAKAPURNI
An author who arranged a part of the Rig-veda and appended a
glossary. He lived before the time of Yaska.
SAKAS
A northern people, usually associated with the Yavanas. Wilson says,
"These people, the Sakai and Sacre of classical writers, the
Indo-Scythians of Ptolemy, extended, about the commencement of our
era, along the West of India, from the Hindu Koh to the mouths of
the Indus." They were probably Turk or Tatar tribes, and were among
those recorded as conquered by King Sagara, who compelled them to
shave the upper half of their heads. They seem to have been
encountered and kept back by King Vikramaditya of Ujjayini, who was
called Sakari, ‘foe of the Sakas.’
SAKATAYANA
An ancient grammarian anterior to Yaska. and Panini. Part of his
work is said to have been lately discovered by Dr. Buhler.
SAKHA
‘Branch, sect.’ The Sakhas of the Vedas are the different recensions
of the same text as taught and handed down traditionally by
different schools and teachers, showing some slight variations, the
effect of long-continued oral tradition. See Veda.
SAKINlS
Female demons attendant on Durga.
SAKRA
A name of lndra.
SAKRANI Wife
of Indra. See Indrani.
SAKRA-PRASTHA
Same as Indra-prastha.
SAKTA
A worshipper of the Saktis.
SAKTI The
wife or the female energy of a deity, but especially of Siva. See
Devi and Tantra.
SAKTI, SAKTRI A
priest and eldest son of Vasishtha. King Kalmasha-pada struck him
with a whip, and he cursed the king to become possessed by a
man-eating Rakshasa. He himself became the first victim of the
momster he had evoked.
SAKUNI
Brother of Queen Gandhari, and so uncle of the Kaurava princes. He
was a skilful gambler and a cheat, so he was selected to be the
opponent of Yudhi-shthira in the match in which that prince was
induced to stake and lose his all. He also was known by the
patronymic Saubala, from Su-bala, his father.
SAKUNTALA
A nymph who was the daughter of Viswamitra by the nymph Menaka. She
was born and left in a forest, where she was nourished by birds
until found by the sage Kanwa. She was brought up by this sage in
his hermitage as his daughter, and is often called his daughter. The
loves, marriage, separation, and re-union of Sakuntala and King
Dushyanta are the subject of the celebrated drama Sakuntala. She was
mother of Bharata, the head of a long race of kings, who has given
his name to India (Bharata-varsha), and the wars of whose
descendants are sung in the Maha-bharata. The story of the loves of
Dushyanta and Sakuntala is, that while she was living in the
hermitage of Kanwa she was Been in the forest by King Dushyanta, who
fell in love with her. He induced her to contract with him a
Gandharva marriage, that is, a simple declaration of mutual
acceptance. On leaving her to return to his city, he gave her a ring
as a pledge of his love. When the nymph when back to the hermitage,
she was so engrossed with thoughts of her husband that she heeded
not the approach of the sage Dur-vasas, who had come to visit Kanwa,
so that choleric saint cursed her to be forgotten by her beloved. He
afterwards relented, and promised that the curse should be removed
as soon as Dushyanta should see the ring. Sakuntala, finding herself
with child, set off to her husband; but on her way she bathed in a
sacred pool, and there lost the ring. On reaching the palace, the
king did not recognise her and would not own her, so she was taken
by her mother to the forest, where she gave birth to Bharata. Then
it happened that a fisherman caught a large fish and in it found a
ring which he carried to Dushyanta. The king recognised his own
ring, and he soon afterwards accepted Sakuntala and her son Bharata.
Kali-dasa's drama of Sakuntala was the first translation made from
Sanskrit into English. It excited great curiosity and gained much
admiration when it appeared. There are several recensions of the
text extant. The text has been often printed, and there are many
translations into the languages of Europe. Professor Williams has
published a beautifully illustrated translation.
SALAGRAMA
A stone held sacred and worshipped by the Vaishnavas, because its
spirals are supposed to contain or to be typical of Vishnu. It is an
ammonite found in the river Gandak, and is valued more or less
highly according to the number of its spirals and perforations.
SALIVAHANA
A celebrated king of the south of India, who was the enemy of
Vikramaditya, and whose era, the Saka, dates from A.D. 78. His
capital was Prati-shthana on the Godavari. He was killed in battle
at Karur.
SALWA
Name of a country in the west of India, or Rajasthan; also the name
of its king.
SALYA
King of the Madras, and brother of Madri, second wife of Pandu. In
the great war he left the side of the panda- vas and went over to
the Kauravas. He acted as Charioteer of Karna in the great battle.
At the death of Karna he succeeded him as general, and commanded the
army on the last day of the battle, when he was slain by
Yudhi-shthira.
SAMA-VEDA
The third Veda. See Veda.
SAMA-VIDHANA
BRAHMANA
The third Brahmana of the Sama-veda. It has been edited and
translated by Burnell.
SAMAYACHARIKA
SUTRAS Rules for the usages and practices of
everyday life. See Sutras.
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