A Classical Dictionary Of India

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ajita—Unconquered ; unexcelled.—1, The proper name of several gods and persons, viz., Vishnu, Siva ; 2, One of the seven Rishis who preside during the reigu of the fourteenth Manu ; 8, A 11:i1:i11 of Maitreya or a future Bnddha ; 4, The second of the Arhats or Jaina saints of the present Avasarpini ; 5, The attendant of the ninth Jaina Arhat; 6, A descendant of Iksh- vuku and a son of Jitasatru by Vijaya. Ajitas—A class of deities whose history is thus given. In the beginning of the Kalpa twelve gods named Jayas were createdby Brahma, as his deputies and assistants in the creation. They, lost in meditation, neglected his commands ; on which he cursed them to be repeatedly born in each Manwantara till the seventh. In the first they became Ajitas. Ajnana—A technical term used in the Viddnta system, meaning " ignorance," which the Vedantists declare is a somewhat that is not to be called positively either entity or non-entity— not a mere negation but the opponent of knowledge, consisting of the three fetters. According to the Naiyayikas ajndna is merely the non-existence, or negation, (abhdva) of jnana. To deny this the writer calls it bhdva, implying that it is not abhdva. Akali—(Immortals). Zealots of the Sikh religion, soldiers of God, who with their blue dress and bracelets of steel, claimed for themselves a direct institution by Govindh Singh. They combined warlike activity with the relinquishment of the world, and became the armed gnardians of Amritsir. It cost Ranjit Singh much time and trouble to reduce them to order. Akanithaka—The name of the twenty-second heaven of Bnddhism. Akasa—Ether, the medinm of sound. A very important ' element' in the philosophy of the Puranas. See V. P., p. 16, 17- Akasavani—A divine manifestation, in which the deity is heard bu...