Mahayogi

An epithet for the Hindu god Shiva where he is represented as an ascetic, sitting with his legs crossed and meditating, with matted hair in a jatamukha and featuring the crescent moon. He is shown dressed in tiger skin. The representation It may also include Mount Kailasa in the background. A popular sculptural representation of Mahayogi Shiva is present in the Elephanta Caves. From the Sanskrit words maha, meaning “great” and yogi, meaning “one who practices yoga.

More Definitions

Skanda Purana

The largest of the eighteen major Puranas, it comprises over eighty-one thousand verses written honour of Skanda, the son of…

Gita Govinda

A Sanskrit poetic epic that describes the love between the Hindu god Krishna, his chief consort Radha and the gopikas…

Tripura Bhairavi

Also called Bhairavi, meaning “terror” or “awe-inspiring,” she is one of the ten mahavidyas or forms of the mother goddess…

Jataka

A large collection of approximately 550 stories about the Buddha’s former lives in both human and animal form. The stories…

Quran

The primary religious scripture of Islam, containing the word of God as revealed by the archangel Jibrail (Gabriel) to the…

Pushtimarg

A Vaishnavite devotional cult that revolves around the worship of the Hindu deity Krishna as a child, in the form…

Shatananda

In Hindu epic and Puranic literature, a sage who is the son of the sage Gautama and Ahilya. In the…

Palden Lhamo

A wrathful female deity in Tantric Buddhism who is considered to be a dharmapala (protector of dharma) and the protector…