Eastern Religions in Credo: Hinduism

From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
The creator of the universe and sustainer of the world, according to late–Vedic and subsequent traditions. Brahma is a member of the trimurti, the triad consisting of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.

From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
One of the aspects of Devi, Durga is a deity in which various village goddesses and supernatural beings connected to forests and mountains eventually coalesced.

Hindu god of prophecy, son of Shiva and Parvati; he is represented as elephant-headed and is worshipped as a remover of obstacles.

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Indra is the king of the gods in the Vedic pantheon. He is a symbol of strength and has the character of a warrior. He is associated with the thunderstorm and is said to hold a lightning bolt in his hand.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Hindu mythology, the goddess of destruction and creation. She is the wife of Shiva. Kali feeds herself on blood, but produces life and destroys ignorance.

Eighth avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The devotion of the bhakti movement is usually directed towards Krishna.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Hindu goddess of wealth, beauty, and good fortune, consort of Vishnu, and mother of the world; her festival is Diwali.

In Hinduism, the third chief god (with Brahma and Vishnu) making up the Trimurti. As Mahadeva (great lord), he is the creator, symbolized by the phallic lingam, who restores what as Mahakala he destroys. He is often sculpted as Nataraja, performing his fruitful cosmic dance.

From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
Originally a minor Vedic deity, personifying solar energy, described as encompassing the whole universe in three strides, Vishnu acquired new attributes and slowly became one of the most important Hindu deities, along with Shiva and Brahma.

[Skt.,=song of the Lord], Sanskrit poem incorporated into the Mahabharata, one of the greatest religious classics of Hinduism.

Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. The Mahabharata, comprising more than 90,000 couplets, usually of 32 syllables, is the longest single poem in world literature.

From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
A collection of ancient myths concerning the creation of the world, its destruction and re–creation, and the genealogies of the gods and the patriarchs.

Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed in the 3d cent. B.C. Based on numerous legends, "The Story of Rama" is traditionally the work of Valmiki, one of the minor characters.

From The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
A group of ancient Hindu philosophical texts, or the esoteric sacred doctrines contained in them. ‘Upanishad’ includes the notion of the student “sitting near” the guru.

The term Veda, derived from the root vid, “to know,” means “knowledge.” The Veda functions in Hindu traditions as an authoritative category that is ascribed the status of transcendent knowledge and has both textual and supratextual dimensions.

Hindu religious and political leader and social reformer; advocate of passive resistance; leader of Indian self-government movement. Gandhi’s significance as a twentieth-century philosopher, pilgrim, world leader, and writer lies in his uncompromising reliance on ahimsa—the Hindi and Buddhist doctrine of nonviolence and restraint from harming all forms of life—as a moral force for reforming and transforming unjust established authority. Mobilized the largest nonviolent mass movement known in world history under the banner of satyagraha—the active pursuit of truth through love and nonviolence (ahimsa). Gandhi’s ideas of truth and justice have contributed immensely to the development of moral and political thought, and his demonstrations of the positive and revolutionary power of nonviolence had worldwide impact.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Hindu mystic. He was born of a poor Brahman family in Bengal, and his given name was Gadadhar Chatterjee.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Tamil (southern Indian) sage. Following an early experience in which he believed he was dying, he gained a deep insight into the nature of the self and of the spirit which transcends the body.

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Sankara was born at Kalati, Kerala in southern India. He became a philosopher-monk, teaching the Hindu VEDANTA philosophy, which emphasises the realisation of a supposed fundamental reality.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Hindu mystic, major exponent of Vedanta philosophy. He was born of a well-to-do family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and his given name was Narendra Nath Datta.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Dasaswamedeh Ghat, in the holy city of Varanasi (Benares), India.

Major river of India and Bangladesh; length 2,510 km/1,560 mi. It drains a fertile and densely populated basin, approximately a quarter of the total area of India, and is the most sacred river for Hindus. The Ganges River flows eastward along the border separating the Himalayan complex and the flat expanse of the Indian subcontinent.

Capital of West Bengal state in India, on the River Hooghly, the westernmost mouth of the River Ganges, some 130 km/80 mi north of the Bay of Bengal; population (2001 est) 4,580,500; metropolitan area (2001 est) 13,216,500. It is chiefly a commercial and industrial centre.

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Hinduism
In ancient Indian cosmology Mount Meru is a golden mountain, supporting the heavens, located at the center of the known universe. Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu are understood to reside on the summit of Mount Meru, accompanied by sages praising the gods, apsarases (celestial dancers), and gandharvas (celestial musicians). The pole star is seen to shine directly over the summit of Meru.

From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
One of the most famous and the wealthiest Vaishnava places of pilgrimage, Tirumala (Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh) is part of a small range of seven hills.

State of north India, bordered by Nepal and Uttarakhand to the northeast, with Madhya Pradesh to the south, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan to the west, and Bihar in the east.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
City in Uttar Pradesh, India, one of the seven holy cities of Hinduism, on the River Ganges; population (2001 est) 1,211,700. There are 1,500 golden shrines, and a 5 km/3 mi frontage to the Ganges with sacred stairways (ghats) for purification by bathing.