LIST OF HINDU DEITIES

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HINDU DEITIES ( A )

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HINDU DEITIES ( A ).

• Aakash Sky
• Acyutah Vishnu Avatar
• Adimurti
• Aditi Sky, Consciousness, The Past, The Future, Fertility
• Aditya
• Agni
• Amman (Mariamman)
• Ammavaru
• Anala
• Anila
• Ansa
• Anumati
• Anuradha
• Ap
• Apam Napat
• Aranyani
• Ardhanari
• Ardra (goddess)
• Arjuna
• Aruna
• Arundhati
• Aryaman
• Aslesa
• Astamatara
• Asura
• Asvayujau
• Aswini
• Ayyappan
• Ayyanar
• Ayya Vaikundar

Aakash

Akash or Aakash orAkaash is a first name in India, derived from Sanskrit आकाश (Transliteration: akasha), meaning "sky" or "aether." Akash Ganga is the Hindu term for the Milky Way. It is also commonly interpreted as "Sky". The word "Akash" has its roots deeply embedded in Hindu Philosophy. As per the philosophy, there are 5 basic elements that the human body comprises. They are - Water (Jal), Earth (Prithivi), Fire (Agni), Wind (Vaayu) and finally Space (Akash). Space or Akash is also known as Ether or Aether as mentioned above. It is that element that is not seen, felt, smelt, tasted or even heard. It is the element of our higher perceptional senses. It is the element of our astral selves. Akash gives the sense of a higher power. With space, it is implied as a 'higher being'. Akash is a well used name among Hinduism. Many people today still keep this name for its rich history and meaning.



Acyutah

In Hinduism, Acyutah is another name of Vishnu or God and appears as the 100th^[1] and 318th names in the Vishnu sahasranama. This is also the name often used in Bhagavad Gita as a personal name of Krishna, svayam bhagavan. According to Adi Sankara's commentary on the Vishnu sahasranama, Acyutah means One who will never lose His inherent nature and powers (i.e one who is infallible). The name also means One who is without the six transformations beginning with birth.



Adimurti

In Hinduism, Adimurti is one of Vishnu's avatars.Dattatreya is also called Adimurti.

Aditi

Although the Goddess Aditi is mentioned nearly eighty times in the Rig Veda, it is difficult to get a clear picture of her nature. She is usually mentioned along with other gods and goddesses, there is no one hymn addressed exclusively to her, and unlike many other vedic deities, she is not obviously related to some natural phenomenon. Compared to Usas and Prithvi, her character seems undefined. She is virtually featureless physically.

Perhaps the most outstanding attribute of Aditi is her motherhood. She is preeminently the mother of the 12 Adityas whose names are as follows: Vivasvan, Aryamah, Pusḥah, Tvasḥta, Savita, Bhaga, Dhata, Vidhata, Varuṇa, Mitra, Shakra and Urukrama ^[2]. Aditi is also said to be the mother of the great god Indra, the mother of kings , and the mother of gods (1.113.19). Unlike Prithvi, however, whose motherhood is also central to her nature, Aditi does not have a male consort in the Rig Veda. Aditi is the most important figure of all.

As a mothering presence, Aditi is often asked to guard the one who petitions her or to provide him or her with wealth, safety, and abundance . Appropriate to her role as a mother, Aditi is sometimes associated with or identified as a cow. As a cow, she provides nourishment, and as the cosmic cow, her milk is identified with the redemptive, invigorating drink soma

The name Aditi includes the root "da" (to bind or fetter) and suggests another aspect of her character. As A-diti, she is un-bound, free one, and it is evident in the hymns to her that she is often called to free the petitioner from different hindrances, especially sin and sickness. . In one hymn, she is asked to free a petitioner who has been tied up like a thief . As one who unbinds, her role is similar to her son Varuna's as guardian of rta, cosmic moral order. She is called the supporter of creatures .

Aditi is also called widely expanded and extensive, the mistress of wide stalls , and in this respect, one is reminded of Prithvi. In fact, Pritvi and Aditi become virtually identified in the brahamanas.

Aditi also is the mother of the Vamana Avatar of Vishnu. Accordingly, Vishnu was born as the son of Aditi in the month of Shravana (5th month of the Hindu Calendar, also called Avani) under the star Shravana. Many auspicioussigns appeared in the heavens, foretelling the good fortune of this child.

Aditi challenges the modern idea that the Aryan peoples were patriarchal. Aditi was regarded as both the sky Goddess, and the earth Goddess, both in one, which is very rare for a prehistoric civilisation. Most prehistoric civilisations venerated a dual principle, Sky Father and Earth Mother, like the later concept of Prithivi and Dyaus Pitar. Aditi was attributed the status of "first deity" by the Aryan culture,(although she is not the only God to be attributed this status in the Vedas). She is addressed, in the Ŗhig Ved as "Mighty."

Aditya

In Hinduism, the Ādityas are a group of solar deities, the sons of Aditi and Kashyapa.

Agni

Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun), cognate with Latin ignis (the root of English ignite), Russian огонь (ogon), Polish "ogień," Lithuanian - ugnis - all with the meaning 'fire' -, with the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root being h₁égni-. Agni has three forms: fire, lightning and the sun.

Agni is one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire^[2] and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, yet he is also immortal.

His cult survived the change of the ancient fire worship into modern Hinduism. The sacred fire-drill (agnimathana) for procuring the temple-fire by friction – symbolic of Agni's daily miraculous birth – is still used

Depictions

In Hindu art, Agni is depicted with two or seven hands, two heads and three legs. He has seven fiery tongues with which he licks sacrificial butter. He rides a ram or in a chariot harnessed by fiery horses. His attributes are an axe, torch, prayer beads and a flaming spear.

Agni is represented as red and two-faced, suggesting both his destructive and beneficent qualities, and with black eyes and hair, three legs and seven arms. He rides a ram, or a chariot pulled by goats or, more rarely, parrots. Seven rays of light emanate from his body. One of his names is Saptajihva, "having seven tongues"

In other faiths and religions

In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, he is a lokapāla guarding the Southeast. Jigten lugs kyi bstan bcos: which translates, "Make your heart in the southeast corner of the house, which is the quarter of Agni". He also plays a seizurish role in most Buddhist homa fire-puja rites. A typical praise to Agni starts "Son of Brahma, Lord of the World, King of fire gods empowered by Takki, Whose supreme wisdom burns all delusion [...]"



Amman (Mariamman)


Goddess Māri (Tamil: மாரி) is known as Mariamman, "Mother Mari" (Tamil: மாரியம்மன்), spelt also Maariamma (Tamil: மாரியம்மா), or simply Amman (Tamil: அம்மன்), meaning "mother". She is the main South Indian mother goddess, predominant in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Goddess Māri is also closely associated with the Hindu goddesses Parvati and Durga.

Origin

Māri originated as an ancient village goddess related to fertility and rain. In Tamil, māri means rain. This goddess was a local deity, connected to a specific location, close to a specific tree, a rock or a special spot, mostly in rural areas. Another theory regarding origin of the name arises from the fact that mari in Tamil also means change. Thus, the name Maria Amman would mean goddess who has changed.

Iconography

Māri is usually portrayed as a beautiful young woman with a red-hued face, wearing a red dress. Sometimes she is portrayed with many arms, representing her many powers, but in most representations she has only two or four. Her hands may display some mudra and her usual attributes are the trident or spear and the bowl, which are derived from stories told about her.

Goddess of Disease

Mariamman was the smallpox goddess before this disease was eradicated. Now she cures all so-called heat-based diseases like pox and rashes. During the summer months in South India (March to June), people walk miles carrying pots of water mixed with turmeric and neem leaves to ward off illnesses like the measles and chicken pox. In this form, goddess Māri is very similar to Sitala Devi, her counterpart in North India and the orisha Babalu Aye of the Yoruba tradition.

Fertility goddess

People also pray to Mariamman for progeny, a good spouse, etc. The most favoured offering is "pongal", a mix of rice and green gram, cooked mostly in the temple complex, or shrine itself, in terracotta pots using firewood.

Some festivals in honor of goddess Māri involve processions carrying lights. In the night, the devotees carry oil lamps in procession, which is a beautiful sight.

Main shrine to Mariamman in the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Amman Temples

Most Mariamman temples are humble shrines in villages, where non-Brahmins act as priest using non-agamic rituals. In many rural shrines, the goddess has no form and is represented by a granite stone with a sharp tip, like a spear head. This stone is often adorned with garlands made of limes and with red flowers. These shrines often have an anthill that could be the resting place of a cobra. [Milk]] and eggs are offered to propitiate the snake.

Some temples have also attained enough popularity that Brahmins do officiate at them. For example, at the Samayapuram temple near the shore of river Cauvery, rich agamic traditions are followed and all rituals are performed by Gurukkal of Brahmins.

At Punainallur, near Thanjavur (Tanjore), there is another famous Māri temple. The history says that once Goddess Mariamman appeared to the King Venkoji Maharaja Chatrapati (1676 - 1688) of Tanjore, in his dream and told him that she was in a forest of Punna trees at a distance of about 3 miles from Tanjore. The King rushed to the spot and recovered an idol from the jungle. Under the king's orders a temple was constructed, the idol installed and the place was called Punnainallur. Hence the deity of this temple is known as Punnainallur Mariamman. Mud replicas of different parts of the human body are placed in the temple as offerings by devotees pleading for cure. It is said that the daughter of Tulaja Raja of Tanjore, who lost her eyesight due to illness, regained it after worshiping at this temple.

Other important temples of Mariamman in Tamil Nadu are in the towns of Anbil, Narthamalai,Thiruverkadu, Salem, Virudhunagar and Sivakasi.

Another famous Mariamman temple is situated in the state of Karnataka, in the town of Kaup, 7 km from the famous temple town of Udipi.

Vedic Worship

Mariamman is the sister of Lord Vishnu (Sriranganathar) and called Mahamaya.

The Samayapuram Mariamman is also worshipped on the first day of the Tamil month of Vaikasi by the Iyengar/Srivaishna Brahmins of Srirangam. They claim that she is the sister of Lord Renganath (a form of Vishnu) of Srirangam. This is the second temple in Tamil Nadu, following Palani, regarding income.

Another version suggests that she is the mother of Parasurama, Renukadevi who is appeased for rains.

Outside India

There are many Mariamman Temples in locations outside of India, such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Fiji, Vietnam and South Africa, resulting from the Tamil diaspora. Some of the notable temples include the Sri Mariamman temple in Singapore, a Mariamman temple in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as one in Medan, Indonesia.

Ammavaru

Ammavaru (Kannada ಅಮ್ಮಾವರು), according to a minor Hindu belief, is an ancient goddess who laid the egg that hatched Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. In fact, "Amma" is a term meaning mother. According to other Hindus, however, Shiva is without birth or death. Similar beliefs exist for Vishnu.

Annually, the women of South India who believe in Ammavaru conduct a ritual prayer to the deity. A metal pot filled with rice is used to symbolize the goddess' body. The pot is clothed in a traditional sari. At the mouth of the pot, a painted coconut is used to symbolize the head. Varying implements are used to fashion the eyes, ears, and nose of the Goddess.

Anala

In Hinduism, Anala ("fire" in Sanskrit) is one of the Vasus, gods of the material world. He is equated with Agni, and is essentially the name usually used for Agni when listed among the Vasus.

Anila

In Hinduism, Anila (Wind in Sanskrit) is one of the Vasus, gods of the elements of the cosmos. He is equated with the wind god Vāyu, Anila being understood as the name normally used for Vāyu when numbered among the Vasus.

Ansa

• Ansa (Hinduism) or Aṃśa in Hinduism, a solar deity and one of the Adityas.

Anumati

In Hinduism, Anumati ("divine favor" in Sanskrit, Devanagari: अनुमति) is a lunar deity and goddess of wealth, intellect, children, spirituality and prosperity. Also Anumati is a type of full moon day in which the moon remains slightly cut and not fully full moon called as Chaturdashi bhiddha purnima

Anuradha


Ap

Ap (áp-) is the Vedic Sanskrit term for "water", in Classical Sanskrit occurring only in the plural, āpas (sometimes re-analysed as a thematic singular, āpa-), whence Hindi āp. The term is from PIE h_xap "water". The Indo-Iranian word survives also, as the Persian word for water, Aab, e.g. in Punjab (from pañcāpas "five waters"). In archaic ablauting contractions, the laryngeal of the PIE root remains visible in Vedic Sanskrit, e.g. pratīpa- "against the current", from *proti-h_xp-o-. The word has many cognates in archaic European toponyms (e.g. Mess-apia, perhaps also Avon).

In the Rigveda, several hymns are dedicated to "the waters" (āpas). In the oldest of these, the waters are connected with the draught of Indra (Soma, referred to as "the offspring of water", napāt apām).

In Hindu philosophy, the term refers to water as an element, one of the Panchamahabhuta, or "five great elements". In Hinduism, it is also the name of the deva, a personification of water, (one of the Vasus in most later Puranic lists).

In the Thai language, "ap" refers to a splashing of water, and "nam" is water. Therefore a showerbath is called "ap nam". Many Thai words have roots in Sanskrit.

Apam Napat


In Hinduism, Apam Napat is the god of fresh water, such as in rivers and lakes. He is sometimes (for example in Rigveda book 2 hymn 35 verse 3) described as a fire-god who originates in water: see Agni. "Apām Napat" is Sanskrit and Avestan for "grandson of waters", see Ap). This may have originally referred to flames from natural gas or oil seepages surfacing through water, as in a fire temple at Surakhany near Baku in Azerbaijan or else it may simply have been a poetic description of the bubbling of the water. There is a theory that the word naphtha came (via Greek, where it meant any sort of petroleum) from the name Apam Napat.





Aranyani

In Hinduism, Aranyani is a goddess of the forests and the animals that dwell within it.

Aranyani has the distinction of having one of the most descriptive hymns in the Rhg Ved dedicated to her. She is described as elusive, fond of quiet glades in the jungle, and fearless of remote places. Indeed the supplicant entreats her to explain, how she wanders, so far from the fringe of civilisation, without becoming afraid or lonely. She is adorned with anklets of bells and is seldom seen but more often heard as the tinkling of her anklets echos through the dark forest. Her worship has declined in modern day hinduism, and it would be rare indeed to find a temple dedicated to Aranyani, but the hymn in the Rhg Ved is so vivid, it immediately creates a sense of hushed reverence, and sounds as though it could have been written yesterday, by someone who had a direct meeting with the Goddess. She is also described as a dancer.

Ardhanari



In Hinduism, Ardhanari (Devanāgarī अर्धनारी, IAST Ardhanārī) or Ardhanarishvara (अर्धनारीश्वर, Ardhanārīśvara), is an androgynous deity composed of Shiva and his consort Shakti, representing the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies. The Ardhanari form also illustrates how the female principle of God, Shakti is inseparable from the male principle of God, Shiva. Ardhanari in iconography is depicted as half-male and half-female, split down the middle. The best sculptural depictions of Shiva as Ardhanari are to be seen in the sensuous Chola dynasty bronzes and the sculptures at Ellora and Elephanta.




Ardra (goddess)

Ardra is the name of a Nakshatra in Indian astronomy that corresponds to the star Betelgeuse.

Arudra nakshatra (Betelgeuse) In Mithuna from 6:40 to 20:00. Ardra means the goddess of fortune.

The presiding deity the Rudra, the wielder of the trident. Symbol- a teardrop. The ruling planet is Rahu.

When Surya enters Ardra the earth is said to be starting its menstrual course that is Ambobachi. Ardra means wet or surcharged with water, that is fat. From Rudra comes all suffering, persecutions and oppressions, anger, ferocity of countenance or hideousness of noise.

Rudra is another name of Siva, the Five Faced (Panchanana). In knowledge, asceticism, renunciation, as also in enjoyment, he is the supreme consummation of all desires. He is a blue-throated one, the wielder of the most tremendous powers, what could not be attempted far less achieved by other Gods, when the churned Ocean at the time of Samudra Manthan exhaled poison Siva achieved quite simply by holding the exhalation in his throat. On one side he is the symbol of the most perfect placidity and serenity, on the other hand he is the symbol of all that is terrible. He holds the great serpent on his head and on his forehead crescent Chandra with his sweet-soft light. He is at the same time the most peaceful and also the most terrible. And in all these are to be traced the intrinsic characteristics of Ardra.

Those born in the Ardra star are sharp, stable minded, strong, earning by sacrifice, afflicted by sickness, fear and angry. They suffer due to hunger, hard bodied, lovable, forget the help rendered by others, experts in trade and commerce, cruel, having many relatives, ill advisers and hate all. Those born in Ardra are with pride, of lower levels and do jobs, which are forbidden. They are bereft of money and corns. Such people are poets, little learned, long lived, and little interested in things.

In Tamil, Ardra is referred to as Thiruvathirai.

• Arjuna
• Aruna
• Arundhati
• Aryaman
• Aslesa
• Astamatara
• Asura
• Asvayujau
• Aswini
• Ayyappan
• Ayyanar
• Ayya Vaikundar

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HINDU DEITIES ( Y)

[edit] Y

• Yama
• Yami
• Yellamma
• Yudhisthira

HINDU DEITIES ( V )

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V

• Vaishnodevi
• Vamana
• Varaha
• Varuna
• Vasu
• Vayu
• Veerabhadra
• Veer Mhaskoba
• Venkateshwara
• Vijaydurga
• Vishnu
• Vithoba
• Vishwakarma
• Vivasvat

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HINDU DEITIES ( U )

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U

• Uma (goddess)
• Ushas

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HINDU DEITIES ( T )

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T

• Tara (Devi)
• Tejaji
• Tirupati Thimmappa
• Tripura Sundari
• Tvashtr

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HINDU DEITIES ( S )

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S

• Saraswati
• Saranyu
• Sarwan
• Sati
• Savitr
• Savitri
• Sesha
• Shakti
• Shakti Peethas
• Shantadurga
• Shilai Devi
• Shirdi SAI
• Shiva
• Sita
• Skanda
• Soma
• Subrahmanya
• Surya
• Svaha
• Swaminarayan

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