The ten incarnations of the Adi Sakti or the divine primeval force are known as Dasa Mahavidya. Tara Mahavidya is placed second in the order. The Daksa-yajna legend conceived in the Mahabharata is of major importance in regard to the origin of Dasa-Mahavidya. According to the versions of Matsya and Padma Purana, Sati, one of the daughters of Daksa, happened to be the spouse of Lord Sadasiva.

The Brahmin said, 'O son! Describe in detail about hell.' Sumati said, 'O father! Yamadutas carry and lynch those people who eat inedible things, who deceive and dishonour their friends, who indulge in illicit relationships, who desert their wife, and who destroy public properties like gardens, water sources, etc. Yamadutas tie the hands and legs of such people and throw them into the fire. On their way to hell, such people are bitten by crows, storks, wolves, vultures, etc.

Airavata is the white elephant who carries Lord Indra. According to the Ramayana, Airavata's mother was Iravati, the daughter of Kadru and granddaughter of Kasyapa. According to the Matangalila, Airavata was born when Lord Brahma sang sacred hymns over the halves of the egg shell from which Garuda hatched. He was followed at birth by seven more male and eight female elephants.

President Obama greets the Hindu community on the auspicious occassion of Diwali.

The king's coronation, mundane ceremony, royal wedding, first ploughing ceremony etc. were among the important events at which the Thai Brahman priests officiated. The Ploughing Ceremony, the first of the traditional agrarian festivals, is basically of Brahman origin. The Royal Brahman astrologers set the auspicious day and time for the Ploughing Ceremony held in the sixth lunar month, usually mid-May.

Our ancient literature was essentially pan-Indian in character. As such, all Indian languages descend from only two sources: the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian. Obviously, both Oriya and Assamese share their common origin from the Indo-Aryan stream. Further, as Dr. Grierson argues, Oriya, Bengali and Assamese are the three languages that have emerged from one common source: the Magadhan element, called Magadhi Apabhramsa. As Grierson asserts:

I worship Lord Hari, whose feet are endowed with the 19 great opulences of, on the left foot, the halfmoon, water-pot, triangle, bow, sky, cow's hoofprint, fish, conch, and on the right foot, the eight-pointed star, svastika, wheel, parasol, barleycorn, elephant-goad, flag, thunderbolt, jambu fruit, urdhva-rekha, and lotus.

The expression "Mahari" is a derivative of two Oriya words, 'Mahan' and 'Nari', meaning 'divine damsels'. They were a professional group, a class of sevayats of Lord Jagannath. The Mahari's consisted of different categories of sevikas, being assigned different sevas as follows:

Describing how a brahmin should earn his livelihood, Lord Brahma said to Narad: "Alms, which a brahmin gets without making any demand for it is called Vritta. 'Unchhavritti' is even better than Vritti, and it means collecting food grains which are scattered in places like fields, granaries, the market-place, etc.

Hamsa (or hansa) is the Sanskrit term for a transcendentally situated swan or goose. Considered by scholars to be either the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) or the Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus), the Hamsa is best known and loved as the vahana (sacred carrier) of Lord Brahma and the Goddess Saraswati.

There are a number of other Brahmins in current day Tulu nadu, distinguished by their own different spoken languages and forms of worship. They migrated in later centuries by land and sea. These include Chitpavana, Karadi, Konkanastha and Sarasvatha Brahmins. Marathi Brahmins, Chitpavana and Karadi Brahmins, who are Advaita followers, migrated to Tulu nadu from Ratnagiri and Karad in Maharashtra.

Prithvi is one of several Sanskrit names for the Earth Mother, more commonly known as Mother Bhumi Devi. Prithvi is the personification of the Earth, and is therefore also known as Prithivi Tattwa, the essence of the element earth. Prithvi is also called Dhra, Dharti, or Dhrithri, meaning 'that which holds everything'.

Scholars generally agree that before the advent of Zarathushtra, the religion of the devas was current in Iran. For want of a better term, some have called the pre-Zoroastrian religion Persian paganism. But here we argue that to do so is to obscure its connections with the Vedic religion.

The ancient Tulu nadu extended from Gokarna in the north, all along coastal Karnataka down to Kasargod in the south. This included both coastal Uttara Kannada district as well as all of Dakshina Kannada district. Over many centuries, the principal language of Tulu nadu was Tulu, which today is spoken only south of the River Kalyanpur in Udupi and in the Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka. This is the heartland of Tulu nadu today.

In the following passage, excerpted from the book, "The Caste System of the Hindus", by Rajah Comm (Varanasi, 1963), we find an interesting description of how the line of brahmans was regenerated in Bengal around 940 or 990 A.D.

The non-brahmins in Bengal were almost all formally classified as being in from 36 to 41 subcastes of sudras, in three categories. The exact enumeration varies somewhat, but the list in Vrhaddharma Purana is presented here as an example. The top subcaste (from whom the brahmins can drink water, and for whom they can be priests) consist of the following.

While formally there are four castes in Vedic culture: brahmins, ksatriyas, vaishyas and sudras, the social reality of this structure is very different in certain parts of India.

The Kanyakubja kingdom is known as the modern day Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh. During the reign of King Drupada of southern Panchala, this territory formed a part of the southern Panchala.

Drona defeated Drupada, by means of his disciple Arjuna, to settle his old scores. Drona spoke as follows to the captive Drupada: 'Thou toldest me before that none who was not a king could be a king’s friend. Therefore is it, O Yajnasena (Drupada), that I retain half thy kingdom.

Panchala Kingdom extended from the Himalayas in the north to the River Charmanwati in the south during the period of Mahabharata. The Kuru, Surasena and Matsya kingdoms were to the west, and the forest of Naimisha was to the east. Later, Panchala was divided into Southern Panchala (Panchala proper ruled by King Drupada, the father-in-law of the Pandavas) and Northern Panchala (ruled by Ashwathama, the son of Drona.