INTRODUCCIÓN

Adipurana

The Adipurana is an important SANSKRIT text of the DIGAMBARA Jains (see JAINISM). It records the lives of the 63 great men of Jain history and myth (which are also recorded later in the larger compendium of HEMACHANDRA, The History of the 63 Famous Men).

It was begun in Karnataka state by JINASENA around the ninth century C.E. and completed by one of his students, GUNABHADRA, whose addition bears the separate name of Uttarapuranam.

The Adipurana was the first major Jain text that openly integrated elements of Hinduism into the Jain philosophical framework. Jinasena pro-vides for Jain BRAHMINS (who are not, however, allowed the haughtiness and privilege of Hindu Brahmins), the caste system (which in the Jain view is a political institution, not a birthright), various Hindu life transition rituals, and elements of Hindu temple ritual, which are given differ-ent philosophical interpretations. For example, Jinasena provided the first Jain fire rituals, which are clearly Vedic, Brahmanical rituals revalorized for the Jain context. Jinasena also establishes a set of “traditional” Jain MANTRAs to mirror the Hindu tradition.

See also JAINISM.

Further reading: P. S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979); ———, “Jaina Pura-nas: A Puranic Counter Tradition.” In Purana Perennis:

Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts.

Edited by Wendy Doniger (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993); George Ralph Strohl, “The Image of the Hero in Jainism: Rsabha, Bharata and Bahubali in the Adipurana of Jinasena” (Diss., Univer-sity of Chicago, 1984); Moriz Winternitz, History of Indian Literature (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967).

Adishesha

Adishesha, the divine thousand-headed ser-pent, is the couch for Lord VISHNU as he sleeps between eras on the vast ocean of milk. When the MILK OCEAN was churned by the demons and gods to produce the nectar of immortality, Adishesha 7 J

Adishesha was the churning rope, according to some versions of the story. It is also said that, when time begins again in a new era, the world sits on the head of Adishesha; whenever he stirs, earthquakes result. At the end of each cosmic era he vomits out the fire of destruction, which incinerates the universe.

In the story of PRAHLADA and HIRANYAKASHIPU, Prahlada prays to Adishesha when forced by his father to eat poison and is saved. Other stories associate Adishesha with cosmic poison in differ-ent ways.

Many different personages in Indian tradition have been said to be incarnations of Adishesha, most notably BALARAMA, the brother of Lord KRISHNA. Adishesa is usually described as the son of a rishi, a seer. However, as is common in Indian mythology many contradictory stories exist, and some say that he was born of SHIVA. He has even been identified with the eternal, all-encompassing

BRAHMAN itself.

Further reading: Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978); E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986).

Aditi

Aditi (she who has no limit) is one of the few goddesses mentioned by name in the RIG VEDA, the earliest extant Indian text. There she is said to be the mother of the ADITYAS, a group of seven (sometimes eight or 12) important divinities, including VARUNA and MITRA. However, the list of her children varies in other texts; SURYA, the Sun God; AGNI, the god of fire; or even INDRA, the king of the gods, is referred to as aditya, that is, “hav-ing Aditi as mother.” Aditi is said to have sprung from the RISHI DAKSHA (although in Rig Veda, Daksha is also simultaneously her son). There is no iconography of Aditi (see ICONS).

Further reading: Joel Peter Brereton, The Rgvedic Adityas (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Soci-ety, 1981); Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978);

E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986); M. P. Pandit, Aditi and Other Deities in the Veda (Pondicherry: Dipti, 1970); W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (Calcutta: Rupa, 1973).

Adityas

Aditya means “whose mother is ADITI,” the Vedic goddess. The father of the Adityas is usually said to be the RISHI Kashyapa, a famous Vedic rishi.

The Adityas are sometimes referred to as seven, sometimes eight, and sometimes 12 in number.

The Vedic list is seven or eight. The list of seven includes VARUNA, MITRA, ARYAMAN, BHAGA, DAK

-SHA, ANSHA, and SURYA or SAVITRI. The list of eight sometimes includes Martanda, who is said to have been excluded by his mother.

When 12 Adityas are listed, in later times, they represent the 12 months of the year;

they are Dhatri, MITRA, ARYAMAN, RUDRA, SURYA, Bhaga, VIVASVAT, PUSHAN, SAVITRI, TVASHTRI, and VISHNU. In some lists AGNI, the god of fire, or even INDRA, the king of the gods, is referred to as an “Aditya.”

Further reading: Joel P. Brerton, The Rg Vedic Adityas (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1981);

Pravesh Saxena, Aditya from Rgveda to the Upanisads (Delhi: Parimal, 1992); W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (Calcutta: Rupa, 1973).

adrishta

Adrishta literally means the “unseen,” a category in MIMAMSA and VAISHESHIKA traditions.

In Mimamsa the term refers to any invisible result of a ritual act that accrues to a person; it K 8 Aditi

bears fruit upon that person’s death. Adrishta has lent itself to extensive commentary in the Mimamsa literature. It is intangible and ineffable, but also the instrument through which Vedic rites come to fruition.

In Vaisheshika, the term is sometimes synony-mous with adharma, the equally invisible negative karmic accrual. In a larger sense in Vaisheshika, adrishta is the unknown quality of things and of the soul; it brings about the cosmic order and arranges for souls according to their merits and demerits.

Further reading: Arthur B. Keith, The Karma-Mimamsa (London: Oxford University Press, 1921); S. N. Klos-termaier and K. Klaus, A Survey of Hinduism (Albany:

State University of New York Press, 1989); Karl H.

Potter, Indian Metaphysics and Epistemology: The Tradi-tion of Nyaya-Vaisesika Up to Gangesa (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977).

advaita

Advaita (non-dual, from the root dvi, or two) is a term used to describe the unitary philosophies and religious movements in India. Rather than a definition of these schools of thought as unitary or monist, the negative description is generally used. Advaita is usually translated as “non-dual.”

Duality would imply that there is more than one reality; non-duality implies that there is nowhere a second to the one reality.

A number of philosophies in Indian tradition are conventionally called advaita. Their character-istics vary considerably. Best known is “absolute advaita,” formulated by the Vedanta founder SHANKARA, in which the individual self, and all apparently separate selves, are understood to be nothing but the ultimate Self, that is, non-dual with it; there are no distinctions between selves. A further aspect of Shankara’s advaita system is that the world is false or MAYA, illusion. Only the one

BRAHMAN is true.

The views of RAMANUJA and VALLABHA are also technically referred to as advaita or non-dualistic,

as both their systems maintain that individual selves are nothing but the ultimate Self. However, they both also include qualifying language to show that they do not hold Shankara’s absolute view. In their understanding, the highest Self or brahman is God and therefore has certain inherent characteristics that distinguish it from any other self. No individual self can possess the power and supremacy of the divinity; in fact, both Ramanuja and Vallabha see the individual selves as being distinct from each other. Similarly, Ramanuja and Vallabha qualify their advaita belief that the world or universe is in fact nothing but the divinity:

from another perspective the world is different from the divinity.

Many other Vedantins similarly could be called advaita with these sorts of reservations.

They sometimes use terms like Dvaitadvaita (non-dualist and (non-dualist) or BHEDABHEDA (both different and non-different). Philosophically they are quite similar to Ramanuja and Vallabha.

Finally, most TANTRIC philosophical systems are also termed advaita or non-dual. In these cases, the individual self is understood as being precisely brahman, God or Goddess, with no reservations.

The power inherent in the divinity is understood to belong to any individual, at the highest level of realization. The world too is understood to be non-dual with the divinity.

Further reading: M. M. Agarwal, The Philosophy of Nim-barka (Varanasi: Chaukhamba Surbharati Prakashan, 1983); Surendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian Phi-losophy, 5 vols. (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975);

Julius J. Lipner, The Face of Truth: A Study of Mean and Metaphysics in the Vedantic Theology of Ramanuja (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1986); Unmesha Mishra, Nimbarka School of Vedanta (Allahabad: Tirabhukti, 1966); G. V. Tagare, Brahma-vada Doctrine of Sri Val-labhacarya (New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1998); Swami Tapasyananda, Bhakti Schools of Vedanta (Lives and Philosophies of Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Madhva, Vallabha and Chaitanya) (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1990);

P. B. Vidyarthi, Divine Personality and Human Life in advaita 9 J

Ramanuja (New Delhi: Oriental, 1978); Ramnarayan Vyas, The Bhagavata Bhakti Cult and the Three Acaryas, Sankara, Ramanuja and Vallabha (Delhi: Nag, 1977).