• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/136

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

136 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Adharma

-Jain


-one of the six substances of Jain physics (alongside souls, matter, space, dharma, and time); ‘the quality of space is to give room, of dharma to cause motion, of adharma to cause rest’

Arjuna

-Hindu


-Third of the Pandava brothers; protagonist of Mahabharata with Krishna, and of Bhagavad Gita; Learnt how to wield a bow and arrow under Drona’s tutelage;


-Was overcome by deep spiritual despondency when faced with relatives and friends on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna then convinced him that he would be committing a sin if he did not perform his own duty as a warrior; ‘for a kshatriya there does not exist another greater good than war enjoined by dharma

Aryan

-Hindu


-Invaded India from the northwest about 1500 B.C; Brought religious concepts consisting of a pantheon of naturalistic gods, and ritualistic sacrifice of fire and soma; this religion was embodied in a collection of hymns called the Veda

Artha

-Hindu


-One of the four ends of man; when the object of one’s activity is some material gain, it is called artha. While material gain and pleasure are necessary for life they should however be controlled by considerations of dharma. While dharma insists on righteousness of both means and ends, Artha concerns itself primarily with the attainment of ends irrespective of means

Ashoka

-Buddhist


-Ashoka was part of the Mauryan dynasty and became a Buddhist. He was so moved by remorse at the carnage cause by his own war that he embraced Buddhism; In his reign the message of Buddhism was spread over the whole of India; Ashoka had a reaction to the ways of Artha Shastra and preferred the ways of dharma

Atman

-Hindu/Jain


-the innermost reality of a person, the animate, spiritual principle of life


Hindu: =brahman, brahman is underlying substance of the cosmos


-Jain: soul is jiva, souls are in animals, plants, and elements

Babur

-Islam


-First Mughal Ruler


-Just as the macrocosm is viewed universally as an extension of Vedic mythological concepts, specifically brahman, the microcosmic nature of the human self or soul, atman, is explained. Brahman = Atman (one of the most significant equations of the Upanishads); Brahman is seen as the substance underlying the whole cosmos, and as identical with the atman, the universal self which the yogic element of the Indian tradition had sought deep within the mind

Bhajan

-Hindu devotional song

Bhagavad Gita

-Hindu


-Hindu scripture part of the Hindu Epic of the Mahabharata


-based on dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna


-sometimes considered the greatest of the Hindu Upanishads

Bhakti

-devotion according to the Bhagavad Gita


-various ways that god is worshipped


-in the Gita, devotion is a discipline (bhaktiyoga) involving the performance of disciplined action (karmayoga) without personal attachment and with dedication of the fruits to Krishna


-devotion enables one to engage in the world with spiritual freedom

Bhishma

-Eight son of Kuru King Shantanu


-vowed not to have children of his own for his father


-great archer and warrior

Brahmacharya

-Hindu


-First stage to attaining religious salvation in the Upanishads


-student of sacred knowledge

BrahmAn

-Hindu


-He who recites Brahmanas


-The magical power inherent in the sacrificial prayers developed into spells called brahman, he who recited them was a pray-er, or one related to prayer. from this concept developed the brahman, or priestly caste

Brahmanas

-Metrical hymns and chants of the Vedas gave rise to ritualistic prose interpretations called Brahmanas, and so are ritual expository texts that are attached to the Vedas. He who recited them was a ‘pray-er’ (brahmAn) ;

Brahman

-In the Gita: “infinite spirit,” “absolute.” In Vedic literature it means “prayer” or the power for the ritual word. In Vedanta it comes to mean the ultimate reality underlying phenomenal existence; It is vast, unqualified, and imperishable. in the Gita, the macrocosmic infinite spirit (brahman) corresponds to the microcosmic self (atman) within each individual. When the self has achieved identification with the infinite spirit, one has found “the pure calm of infinity.” In the Gita, the infinite spirit is superseded by Lord Krishna, who says that he is the very foundation of the infinite.

Buddhism

-nontheistic religion


-based on teachings of the Siddhartha Gautma


-two main groups Theravada, and Mahayana


Buddha

-Siddharthata Gautma


-Was a member of the Shakya tribe, and gained enlightenment under a sacred pipal tree at Gaya


-Lived between 6th and 4th centuries BC

Dara Shikoh

-Islam


-Shah Jahan’s son; represented the eclecticism of Akbar but was defeated by his brother Aurangzeb who climbed to the throne; tolerant of un-Islamic ideas and practices; Dara Shikoh represented the mingling of the two seas of Muslim mystical pantheism and Hindu pantheism to the dislike of the orthodoxy

Drona

-Hindu


-Taught Arjuna how to wield a bow and arrow; character in the Mahabharata

Dhritarashtra

-Hindu


-Blind king of Hastinapur at the time of Kurukshetra and was the patriarch of the Karuavas; was Duryodhana’s father

Devanagari

-script used to write sanskrit, Hindi, and Nepali

Dharma

-in the Gita: sacred duty, order, law; basic meaning is “that which sustains,” i.e., the moral order that sustains the individual, the society, and the cosmos


-generally refers to religiously ordained duty in the Gita, as in other Hindu texts, this means the rules of conduct appropriate to the various diverse groups in a hierarchically ordered society, articulated in terms of class, stage of life and kinship structures


-The general notion exists that if each unit/group in the complex universe performs its own function correctly, the whole (the individual, the society, and the cosmos) will be harmonious and ordered.

Duryodhana

-Hindu


-Son of Dhritarashtra; chief antagonist of the epic after the return of the Pandavas from the forest of exile

Fatehpur Sikri

-Akbar constructed this city and moved his capital there. Notable sites there include the Hall of Worship where all faith traditions of India would gather for an audience with Akbar and discuss religion

Four Castes

-Brahman (priest)


-Kshatriya (noble)


-Vaishya (the bourgeois)


-Shudra (serf)

Four Types of Vedas

-Rig Veda


-Yajur Veda


-Sama Veda


-Atharva Veda

Four Noble Truths

-Truth of Sorrow: Birth is sorrow, age is sorrow...all five components of individuality are sorrow


-Truth of Arising of Sorrow: It arises from craving which leads to rebirth, which brings delights and passions that seek pleasure here and now, such as sensual pleasure


-Truth of Stopping Sorrow: It is the complete stopping of that craving, so that no passion remain


-Truth of Noble Path which Leads to Stopping of Sorrow: Eightfold Path

Five Pillars of Islam

-Ritual purification


-Prayer


-Alms


-Fasting


-Pilgirmage

Ganges

-Holy river in india


-worshipped as the goddess Ganga

Gaya

-holy city for Jainism, Hiduism, and Budhdism


Gokul

Location of Krishna's foster parents

Gobind Singh

-Sikh


-Tenth guru was founder of the khalsa, the sworn brotherhood of fighting sikhs

Granth Sahib

-sikhs


Gobind Singh made his obeisance and offering to the Granth Sahib and made it the guru after him.

Guru Nanak

-Sikh


-Nanak was a Hindu and a kshatriya; his personal working faith proclaims the majesty and unity of God, the insignificance of prophets and the fleeting vanity of worldly life


-His teachings have come down in Adi Granth are in the form of hymns

Hadith

-Islam


-This is the name given to the corpus of canonical tradition about Muhammad; it became a report of what the Prophet, his Companions and followers would have said or done if they had been obliged to do so; They are secondary to the Quran in terms of authority

Ijtihad

-Islam


-Legal interpretation whereby student of Sharia arrives at determinations of the Holy Law in circumstances not already covered by previous decisions; this is the sole manner in which Sharia can be adapted to changing social circumstances

Individuality (ahamkara)

-The ego, “I-maker,” the subjective sense of individual identity. The empierical world cannot emerge before an individual consciousness (aham) has evolved. Implicitly this means that liberation from empirical existence involves the negation of individuality.

Jainism

-indian religion


-path of nonviolence towards all living beings

Jnana

-wisdom


-aim of upanishadic teachings


-one of the themes of the Gita, the knowledge that the eternal soul cannot be slain

Kabir

-He was a lower caste weaver in Banaras, and was the pioneer of the Hindi devotional verse; Though his fundamental concepts are Hindu, Muslim influence is reflected in his holding to a strict theism; reflects strong Sufi influences; Was very anti-Brahmin and anti-rituals

Kalinga

-city important in the mahabharata

Kama

-(Desire) - sensuous love, emotional feeling of attachment. In ancient Indian thought it is recognized as the stimulus of action and personified as the god of erotic love. in the Gita- as in Buddhism, it is the source of attachment to the world and the great impediment to spiritual freedom.

Karma

-(Action) - the force of one’s actions in determining what one is and will be, to one’s role in making one’s own destiny. Karma is a store of good and bad actions accumulated over many lives, and it is this store of actions that binds one to phenomenal existence. In the Gita--Only when one acts without concern for the consequences, or fruits, of one’s action can one escape the bondage of action. Krishna’s teaching that action is inescapable is central to the entire Gita

Kashi

-varanasi


-holy city

Kauravas

-Losing family in the Mahabharata; they were led by Duryodhana and were descended (like the Pandavas) from Kuru

Khalsa

-Army of sorts gathered together by Gobind Singh [10th Guru] in face of opposition from the Mughal rule of the time

Krishna

-avatar of vishnu


-friend of arjuna


-born, and king wanted him killed, parents smuggled him out of jail, grew up a cowherd

Kshatriya

-Part of the castes of Hindu society, each of which have to fulfil their own duties


-Protection of the people, giving away of wealth, performance of sacrificial rites, study and non-attachment to sensual pleasures are the duties of a kshatriya

Kurukshetra

Battlefield of Mahabharata between Pandavas and Kauravas

Mahabharata

-hinud epic


-ancient saga

Mahavira

-Jain


Both major traditions (Digambara [sky clad]; Svetambara [white cloth clad]) agree that age 30 certain gods appeared and urged him to renounce the world;


The Great Renunciation: According to Digambara tradition he removed clothing and pulled out his hair by hand; Svetambara tradition holds that Mahavira isolated himself and fasted for two days, then put on a divine cloth


Mahavira’s Austerities: Jains point with pride that Buddha gave up extreme austerities for the middle path, and this led the buddhist order to fall eventually into various sorts of laxity


The Enlightenment: Attainment of kevalajnana took place twelve years, six months, and fifteen days after he set out on the mendicant’s path

Moksha

-freedom; from the Sanskrit root muc, “to release.” in the Gita, liberation from bondage of worldly action based on detachment and freedom within oneself

Mughals (birth order)

-Babur


-Hamayun


-Akbar


-Jehangir


-Shah Jahan


-Aurangzeb [brother was Darashikoh whom he killed]

Nirvana

-buddhism: transcendent state where there is no suffering, desire, or sense of self


-moksha

Noble Eightfold Path

-It is the Middle Way which allows man to escape the base and common desires which lead to rebirth and ignoble things


-Namely they are: Right Views; Right Resolve; Right Speech; Right Conduct, Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right Mindfulness; and Right Concentration [Need to concoct an easy way to remember these]

Om

-most sacred mantra


-appears at beginning and end of most Sanskrit recitations, prayers, and texts

Pali

-language used in the Theravada teachings

Pandava

Brothers who fought and won in the epic Mahabharta against the Kauravas; their father was Pandu; Yudhisthira gambles away the kingdom during a rigged game of dice;

pandit

-scholar and teacher in the sanskrit language


-mastered the four vedic scriptures


-tutored under a guru

Pataliputra

-buddhist holy site


-site of the early buddhist councils


-one of the largest cities under Emperor Ashoka


Purusha

The “cosmic man”; Offered himself as an oblation in the primeval sacrifice

Samanas

Buddhist/ Jain


Were wandering philosophers; rejected the Vedic tradition and wandered free of family ties; sought to find a basis of true and lasting happiness in a changing and insecure world

Samaj

-hindu reform movement to promote Vedas

Samsara

-Vedas: the world, course/passage


-cycle of birth, life, death, reincarniation

Samskara

-hindu rituals

Sanskrit

-classical language of Inidan and liturgical language of hindusm, buddhism, and jainism

Sannyasa

-Renunciation


-“to cast down” - (in the Gita)- surrendering all actions to Krishna, being without hate and desire, giving up actions based on desire. Disciplined action and relinquishment are spiritually more effective than renunciation

Soma

Hallucinogenic drink used by Aryans


magical drink


whole hymn devoted to it


nectar of immortality


amrita

Shiva

-one of the supreme gods


-the destroyer

Shruti

-what is heard; Orthodox Hindus believe that the ultimate truth in matters of religion is to be found in the Veda, which is called shruti tradition.

Shudra

-Lower Caste Hindu; Fourth caste; workers, artisans, serfs;


-Shudras were denied all access to the Veda, the Vedic sacrifices, and the Aryan sacraments; ‘The lord has prescribed only one occupation [karma] for a shudra, namely, service without malice of even these other three castes’

Smrti

-what is remembered; Later scriptures from the Veda represent interpretations or codifications of the truth in the Vedas and are therefore called Smriti (human) tradition

Theravada

Main body of Buddhism that claimed to maintain the true tradition transmitted from the days of the founder took to calling their system Theravada; from the third century the doctrines have remained the same that everything in the universe is in a constant state of flux and resistance to the cosmic flux of phenomena and craving for permanence lead to inevitable sorrow

Tirthankara

24 enlightened jain teachers of which Mahavira was one

Tripitaka

-Conduct (vinaya); Rules of conduct of monks and nuns


-Discourses (sutta): most important; contains discourses attributed to Buddha


-Supplementary Doctrines (Abhidamma): systematization of ideas contained in the discourses

Tyaga

-to relinquish or to abandon. In the Gita - “relinquishing all fruit of action” in contrast with renunciation. Relinquishment means that action is to be performed but without concern for the fruit

Upanishad

-vedanta


-end of the veda


-wisdom


-authority


-attached to each of the Vedas

Varinasi

-Buddhism: After Buddha gained knowledge under the tree of wisdom at Gaya, he proceeded to Varanasi where he found five ascetics, in the presence of whom he ‘set in motion the Wheel’ by preaching the sermon that outlined the Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way and the Eightfold Path; it is basically the city where Buddha gave his first sermon


-Kabir: He was a lower caste weaver in Banaras, and was the pioneer of the Hindi devotional verse;

Varuna

-one who sees everything we do


-described like monotheistic god


-soverign of the world


-one who sees and upholds our integrety

Vishnu

-supreme deity


-preserver or protector


-krishna is an avatar

Yogi

-practitioner of yoga

Yamana

-sacred river

Yudhisthira

-eldest son on king pandu and kunti


-son of dharma


-rightful king?

Dham

a dwelling place of the deity

Tirtha

-A crossing place


-A ford

Yatra

a journey

Pitha

a seat of the deity

Tirthayatra


-A trip to tirtha


-a pilgrimage

Aryan Migraiton theory

-aryans came into into from outside


-interacted with, superceded indus civilizaiton

Cultural migration theory

-aryan civilization is transformation of Indus civilization

Out of India Theory

-Aryans were ancient, indigenous to india

Samhitas

the collections

Sarasvati

-river


-wisdom

Indra

-Warrior


-drinker of soma


-stretched out the heavens


-released the waters of heaven

Agni

-God of fire


-fire alter ritual


-no temples in vedic period


-messenger of the gods

katenotheism

-worship of one god at a time


-each fills the horizon of consciousness


-max muller

Brahmanda

-the universe


-the whole cosmos


-brahma's egg

Srishthi

-the act of creation


-pouring forth

asat

what is not


non being

Kama

desire

prana

atman


breath

Purusha

person


transcendent and immanent

Yajna

cosmic ritual


sacrifice

Shamanas

renunciants


spiritual strivers

Kshatriyas


kings as seekers and teachers

Anitya

impermanence

Anatma

no self


Duhka

suffering

bodhi

enlightenment

Siddhartha Gautma

became the buddha

buddha

awakened one


nirvana

going out


as a fire goes out

Lumbini

birthplace of the buddha

bodh gaya

site of buddha's enlightenment

sarnath

place of the buddha's first teaching

kushinara

place of the buddha's death

Ashoka

indian emperor who adopted buddhism

Dharma/dhamma

teachings of the buddha

Four noble truths

-suffering exists


-there is an origin to suffering


-there is a cessation of suffering


-suffering can be ended though the eightfold path

Seven Tattvas

realities of the jain tradition

Jiva

jain


lifeforce or soul of each being

ashrava

jain


influx of karma

bandha

jain


bidning of karma to the jiva

samvara

jain


stopping of karmic influx

Nirjara

jain


destroying of karmic accretion

Moksha

jain


freedom

Karma (jain)

jain


action and the results of action


a kind of matter


stains, clouds the jiva


encrusts the jiva


influx of karma on jiva weight it down

ahimsa

non harm


five vows

five vows of jainism

non-violence


truth


non-stealing


chasitiy


non-attachment

Three Jewels of Jainism

-right faith or vision


-right knowledge or understanding


-right conduct

Anekantavada

jain


relativity of views


intellectual ahimsa

Digambaras

sky clad jain monks

Svetambara

white clad jain monks and nuns

Saguna

with qualities

nirguna

without qualities

Guru Nanak

Sikh founder