Bharadwaja
An Angiras Mahayogi to whom many Vedic hymns are attributed. He was the illegitimate son of the sage Brihaspati and Mamata, wife of the sage Utathya.
Bharata
Son of Dushyanta (of the Puru dynasty) and Shakuntala.
Bharatavarsha
India
Bhargava
Brahmin arms master of Bheeshma, Drona and Karna.
Bheema
Literally, fearsome. Second of the Pandava brothers.
Bheeshma
Son of Shantanu by the river goddess Ganga. Called Greatfather in our story.
Bhojas
The Bhojas, Andakas and Vrishnis were the clans Krishna led from Mathur to Kushusthali; it was later renamed Dwaraka.
Bhoorishravas
A king of Kuruvamsa (the Kuru dynasty). Fought on the side of Duryodhana though he had been a friend of Pandu. His quarrel was with Satyaki.
Bhur, bhuvah, Suvar
Literally, the three worlds: the material world, the lifeworld and the mind-world.
Brahmacharya
Self-control, often meaning abstinence from sex. A Brahmachari is one who has renounced sensual pleasures.
Brahmaloka
The world of Brahma.
Brahmashira-astra
Another name for Shiva’s favourite weapon, the spear Pashupata, with which he killed the Daityas and with which he will destroy the universe at the end of the cosmic aeon.
Brahmin, Brahmana
The priestly caste in Hinduism. Brahmin is an anglicized version.
Brihannala
The name adopted by Arjuna, as a dancing teacher, when the Pandavas were in disguise in Panchala.
Brihaspati
Guru of the Devas.
Chaitriya, Chaitra
The last month of the Hindu year (March-April).
Chaityaka
A mountain, situated near Girivraja, the capital of Magadha.
Chakora
The Indian red-legged partridge which according to legend is supposed to be in love with moonlight and drinks moondrops.
Chakra
Literally, wheel. Krishna’s serrated weapon. Military formation in the shape of a circle.
Chakravarthy
Literally, emperor, universal sovereign.
Champak
Scented flower with cream petals and yellow centres.
Chandan
Sandalwood.
Chedi
Name of a country and its people. They occupied the banks of the Narmada.
Chitrangada
Daughter of King Chitravahana; wife of Arjuna in Manipura and mother of Babhruvahana.
Chitrasena
A chief of the Gandarvas who became Arjuna’s close friend and taught him music and dancing in Indra’s heaven.
Chitravahana
A king who ruled Manipura during Puranic times.
Dakshina
The fee paid to a teacher. Also the offering made to a Brahmin who conducts a sacrifice.
Dantavaktra
King of Karusha.
Darshan
Literally, seeing. An occasion when a spiritual person in India allows himself to be seen.
Daruka
Krishna’s charioteer.
Deva
God or deity. A celestial power; the deification or personification of natural forces and phenomena, each distinguished by name and by particular attributes.
Devadatta
Literally, given by a god. The name of Arjuna’s conch shell which came from a lake north of Kailasa. It originally belonged to Varuna, deity of the waters.
Devaki
Wife of Vasudeva; and mother of Krishna.
Devavrata
The name of the son of Shantanu before he made his awesome vow and became Bheesma.
Dhananjaya
He who has conquered wealth. One of Arjuna’s titles.
Dharma
Literally, stable, steady; to hold firm. Law of Truth. Code of good conduct, pattern of noble living, religious rules and observances.
Dharmaraj
A just or righteous king; appellation of Yudhishthira.
Dhaumya
Family priest of the Pandavas.
Dhobiman
Washerman
Dhrishtadyumna
Twin brother of Draupadi. As leader of the Pandava armies he killed Drona, who had slain his father Drupada.
Dhritarashtra
Literally, he who has taken possession of the nation. Brother of Pandu; and blind Ruler of Hastinapura.
Dhruva
Pole Star. A month in the Hindu calendar.
Draupadi
The beautiful dark-skinned daughter of King Drupada of Panchala, and wife of the five Pandava brothers.
Dravida
Collective name for the five tribes of southern India.
Drona, Dronacharya
Literally, bucket. The Brahmin Acharya, teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas, is so called because he was born in a bucket.
Drupada
King of Panchala. Father of Draupadi and Dhrishtadyumna.
Duhshala
The only daughter of Dhritarashtra, wife of Jayadratha.
Duhshasana
Literally, hard-to-rule. The second of Dhritarashtra’s hundred sons.
Durga
Literally, hewho drives away evil. The goddess of the universe. Durga possesses many forms and aspects. Parvati, spouse of Shiva, is a form of Durga.
Durgadasa
Servant of Durga.
Durvasa
Literally, ill-dressed. An irritable sage.
Duryodhana
Literally, difficult to conquer. Eldest son of Dhritarashtra.
Dvaitavana
A forest in which the Pandavas lived for part of their exile.
Dwaraka
Literally, many-gated. The capital of Krishna’s kingdom.
Ekalavya
He was abandoned in infancy but was found and raised by members of a Nishada tribe and later became their king.
Ekarishi
The Sole Seer, an appellation of Pushan. God of the sun and protector of journeys.
Eldest
Yudhishthira, eldest of the Pandava brothers.
Gada
Krishna’s younger brother. The weapon of Bheema, the mace.
Gajaroha
Elephant-driver.
Ganapati
The elephant-god Ganesh.
Gandhamadana
Literally, emitting intoxicating fragrance. The name of one of the four mountains enclosing the central region of the world.
Gandhara
A stretch of land in ancient Bharata, a kingdom on the west of the Indus. The Gandharitis of Herodotus, or modern Afghanistan.
Gandhari
Princess of Gandhara, wife of the blind king Dhritarashtra.
Gandharvas
Heavenly musicians. Chitrasena, a Gandharva taught Arjuna music and dancing when he was in Indra’s kingdom. They became good friends.
Gandiva
Arjuna’s bow given by Soma to Varuna who passed it on to Agni, who in turn presented it to Arjuna.
Ganga
Hinduism’s holiest river, often personified as a goddess.
Garuda
A mythical bird, vehicle of Vishnu.
Gayatri
Mantra. The most sacred verse in the Vedas.
Ghat
Steps or passage leading down to a river. The burning ghat is where cremations are usually held.
Ghatotkacha
Son of Bheema and Hidimbi, sister of the Rakshasa Hidimba.
Ghee
Clarified butter poured as an oblation in sacrifices.
Gokula
The pastoral district on the river Yamuna where Krishna passed his boyhood.
Ghora Angirasa
Krishna’s guru.
Gopas
Cowherds.
Govardhana
A mountain in Vrindavan wher
e Krishna stopped the sacrifice of cows to Lord Indra and instead instituted the sacrifice to the sacred Govardhana mountain itself.
Govinda
Herdsman, an epithet of Krishna.
Goyuta
A measure of distance, according to some it is half a yojana or four miles.
Greatfather
Bheeshma.
Gurudeva
A guide or teacher, especially one who performs the initiations (diksha) of students. ‘Deva’ is added to guru as a sign of respect.
Hanuman
The ‘monkey’ god of the Ramayana. He is the son of Vayu the wind god, and is hence able to fly. In the Mahabharata he is the brother of Bheema (mythically also the son of Vayu).
Hardikyavarman
Young son of Kritavarman. Became ruler of Martikkiavarta according to Krishna’s instructions.
Hastina, Hastinapura
Elephant City. The capital of the Kauravas; its ruins have been identified about sixty miles northeast of Delhi.
Hidimba
A demon whom Bheema defeated in the forest after their escape from the Lac Palace.
Hidimbi
Hidimba’s sister by whom Bheema fathered a son, Ghatotkacha.
Himavat
The Himalayas.
Hiranyadhanusha
A king of a forest tribe. Ekalavya, the great archer, became his adopted son.
Homa
The sacred fire.
Hotravahana
A saintly king, the grandfather of Amba.
Hotri
The priest of the sacrifice, he who calls and brings down the gods and gives them the offering.
Indra
God of heaven. Lord of the Hindu pantheon.
Indradhanush
Eldest’s elephant.
Indragopa
An insect of red colour.
Indraloka
Indra’s domain, sphere or world, to which, after death, all Kshatriya heroes go.
Indraprastha
The capital of the Pandavas; the name is still used for a section of Delhi.
Jambavati
Daughter of Jambavat, presumed to be of an aboriginal tribe, wife of Krishna.
Jarasandha
Literally, assembled by Jara. The tyrant king of Magadha, so named because he was born in two halves to the two wives of Brihadratha.
Jaya, Jayanta, Vijaya, Jayatsena, Jayadbala
All names suggesting victory. Code names of the Pandavas for emergency situations when they were in disguise in Panchala.
Jayadratha
King of Sindhu, and husband of Duhshala, Duryodhana’s only sister.
Jayatsena
King of Magadha, son of Jarasandha. One of the sons of Dritharashtra. Also a Kosala warrior on the side of Duryodhana.
Jhillin
A courtier in Indraprastha during the exile of the Pandavas, according to our story.
Jimuta
Famous wrestler killed by Bheema at the court of Virata.
Jishnu
Literally, victorious, triumphant. An epithet of Indra and of Indra’s son Arjuna.
Kailasha
A Himalayan mountain, the abode of Shiva and, in some legends, of Kubera, god of wealth.
Kali
The terrible form of the Divine Mother who blesses through chastising.
Kalikuta
The virulent poison that emerged during the churning of the primeval Ocean. It was fed to Bheema by Duryodhana.
Kalinga
Name of a country lying to the South of Odra or Orissa and extending to the mouth of the Godavari.
Kaliyuga
Literally, the age of Kali. The Kaliyuga is the fourth age of the world, when darkness, falsehood and disorder reign. Also known as the age of iron.
Kamarupa
Area on the West coast.
Kambojas
A clan.
Kamyaka
One of the forests where the Pandavas lived during their twelve years of exile.
Kampala Kampilya
An ancient town in South Panchala; the capital city of King Virata.
Kamsa
The tyrannical king of Mathura who was killed by Krishna, his nephew.
Kanika
A crafty Brahmin minister of Dhritarashtra.
Kanka
The name adopted by Yudhishthira when he spent his thirteenth year in exile at the court of Virata.
Karaputa
A container, a large vessel.
Karma
The Hindu theory of birth and rebirth, developed in philosophical terms on the basis of cause and effect.
Karna
Son of Kunti, by the sun god Surya, before her marriage to Pandu. He was abandoned by Kunti and brought up by Adhiratha the charioteer and his wife Radha.
Kartika
Month of the Hindu calendar.
Kashi
One of the seven sacred cities of India, and the earliest name of the city of Varanasi (Banaras).
Kartaveerya
The patronymic name of Arjuna. A son of Kritaveerya. An ancestor of the Pandavas.
Kashyapa
Literally, tortoise. A Vedic sage in the Mahabharata.
Kaurava
Descendants of Kuru.
Kaustubha
The jewel of Krishna which emerged from the primeval churning of the Ocean Samudramanthana.
Keechaka
Brother-in-law of the king of Virata; he was rolled into a lump of flesh by Bheema for making immoral advances towards Draupadi.
Kekayas
The people of Kekaya situated in the north between Sindh and Madra.
Kera-raja
Ruler of Kerala.
Keradesh
Present day Kerala, on the southwest coast of India.
Khandava
Indra’s forest in Kurukshetra which was burnt by Agni with the help of Krishna and Arjuna.
Khandavaprastha
The ruined city which Krishna rebuilt and renamed Indraprastha.
Kokila
Koel. The Indian cuckoo.
Kosala
One of the kingdoms of eastern India.
Kravyad
Corpse-burning fire.
Kripacharya
A son of Rishi Sharadvad by a nymph; and the brother of Kripi, Drona’s wife.
Kripi
Tradition ascribes her paternity to the Rishi Sharadvat; sister of Kripa; later she became the wife of Drona and mother of Ashwatthama.
Krishna
Literally, the Dark One. Son of Devaki and Vasudeva. Since his father Vasudeva was the brother of Kunti, wife of Pandu, Krishna is a first cousin of Yudhishthira, Beema and Arjuna.
Kritavarman
Krishna,s cousin and Satyaki’s brother who chose to fight on the side of Duryodhana. One of the three Kuru warriors who was with Ashwattama when he massacred the sleeping sons of Draupadi in their camp at night. He was killed in the drunken brawl in Dwaraka by Satyaki.
Kshatriya
The second, warrior or ruling caste of Hinduism.
Kumkum
Literally, saffron. From Sanskrit: kumkuma. Decorative red spot applied in feminine make-up in the centre of the forehead.
Kunti
Mother of Karna during her maidenhood; and mother of Yudhishthira, Bheema and Arjuna. Krishna’s father’s sister.
Kuntibhoja
King of Kuntiraj; adoptive father of Kunti. He fought on the side of Yudhishthira.
Kuru
Prince of the lunar race; ancestor of Dhritarashtra and Pandu; hence the race called the Kaurava race.
Kurujangala
A region in ancient North India of which Hastinapura was the capital.
Kurukshetra
Area to the south of the river Saraswati and north of Drishadvati; site of the Kaurava-Pandava war.
Kusha
A special kind of grass (Poa cynosuroides) used in sacred rituals.
Kushasthali
Renamed Dwaraka, it is
the city to which Krishna led his
clans when they left Mathur to escape the frequent attacks of Jarasandha.
Lakshmi
The goddess of good fortune, prosperity and beauty.
Latavesta
A mountain situated on the southern side of Dwaraka.
Leela
Play, game; the cosmic play.
Madra
An ancient kingdom of Bharata situated near the river Jhelum. Madri, the wife of Pandu, was Princess of Madra. Her brother Shalya was King of Madra and was tricked into fighting for Duryodhana against his nephews.
Madri
The Great Golden Sacrifice of the Mahabharata Page 100