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Great White Fleet

The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the group of United States Navy battleships that completed a journey around the globe from December 16, 1907, to February 22, 1909, by order of President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various small escorts, and earned its moniker for the stark white paint on its hulls.

The fleet's primary mission was to make friendly courtesy visits to numerous countries while displaying new U.S. naval power to the world; Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military prowess and blue-water naval capabilities. Another goal was to deter a threatened war with Japan amid growing tensions around 1907. The voyage helped familiarize the 14,500 officers and sailors with the logistical and planning needs for extended fleet action far from home.

After long neglecting the Navy, Congress started generous appropriations in the late 1880s. Beginning with just 90 small ships, over one-third of them wooden and obsolete, the Navy quickly added new steel fighting vessels. The fleet's capital ships were already obsolete compared to the British dreadnoughts in 1907. Nevertheless, it was by far the largest and most powerful fleet that had ever circled the globe; the mission was a success at home and in every country that was visited, including in Europe (which was visited only briefly).

Background and purpose

United States President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched 16 U.S. Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet on a worldwide voyage of circumnavigation from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909. The hulls were painted white, the Navy's peacetime color scheme, and decorated with gilded scrollwork with a red, white, and blue banner on their bows. The superstructures were painted buff. These ships later came to be known as the Great White Fleet.

The purpose of the fleet deployment was multifaceted. Ostensibly, it served as a showpiece of American goodwill, as the fleet visited numerous countries and harbors. In this, the voyage was not unprecedented. Naval courtesy calls, many times in conjunction with the birthdays of various monarchs and other foreign celebrations, had become common in the 19th century. Port calls showcased pomp, ceremony, and militarism during a period of rising prewar nationalism. In 1891, a large French fleet visited Kronstadt, Russia, in conjunction with negotiations between the two nations. Although France and Russia had been hostile to each other for at least three decades prior, the significance of the call was not lost on Russia, and Tsar Nicholas II signed a treaty of alliance with France in 1894. As navies grew larger, naval pageants grew longer, more elaborate, and more frequent. The United States began participating in these events in 1902, when Roosevelt invited Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to send a squadron for a courtesy call to New York City. Invitations for U.S. Navy ships to participate in fleet celebrations in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany followed.

Additionally, the voyage of the Great White Fleet demonstrated both at home and on the world stage that the U.S. had become a major sea power in the years after its triumph in the Spanish–American War, with possessions that included Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. This was not the first demonstration of U.S. naval power; during the Algeciras Conference in 1906, which was convened to settle a diplomatic crisis between France and Germany over the fate of Morocco, Roosevelt had ordered eight battleships to maintain a presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Since Japan had arisen as a major sea power with the 1905 annihilation of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, the deployment of the Great White Fleet was therefore intended, at least in part, to send a message to Tokyo that the American fleet could be deployed anywhere, even from its Atlantic ports, and would be able to defend American interests in the Philippines and the Pacific.

The most serious tensions between the United States and Japan came in 1907, leading to widespread speculation among experts that war was imminent between the two. The main cause was intense Japanese resentment against the mistreatment of Japanese in California. Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Henry Pringle states that sending Great White Fleet so dramatically to Japan in 1908 was, "the direct result of the Japanese trouble." Tensions rapidly de-escalated after the fleet's very friendly reception in Yokohama. Thus, the gesture neutralized the diplomatic trouble that had resulted from anti-Japanese riots in San Francisco. Those problems had been resolved by the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 and the fleet visit was a friendly gesture to Japan. The Japanese welcomed it. Roosevelt saw the deployment as one that would encourage patriotism, and give the impression that he would teach Japan "a lesson in polite behavior", as historian Robert A. Hart phrased it. After the fleet had crossed the Pacific, Japanese statesmen realized that the balance of power in the East had changed.

The voyage also provided an opportunity to improve the sea- and battle-worthiness of the fleet. While earlier capital-ship classes such as the Kearsarge-class battleship, Illinois-class battleship and Maine-class battleship were designed primarily for coastal defense, later classes such as the Virginia-class battleship and Connecticut-class battleship incorporated lessons learned from the Spanish–American War and were conceived as ships with "the highest practicable speed and the greatest radius of action", in the words of the appropriation bills approved by the United States Congress for their construction. They were intended as modern warships capable of long-range operations. Nevertheless, the experience gained in the recent war with Spain had been limited.

Concerns and preparations
Roosevelt's stated intent was to give the Navy practice in navigation, communication, coal consumption, and fleet maneuvering; Navy professionals maintained, however, that such matters could be served better in home waters. In light of what had happened to the Russian Baltic Fleet, they were concerned about sending their own fleet on a long deployment, especially since part of the intent was to impress a modern, battle-tested navy that had not known defeat. The fleet was untested in making such a voyage, and Tsushima had proven that extended deployments had no place in practical strategy. The Japanese Navy was close to coaling and repair facilities; while American ships could coal in the Philippines, docking facilities were far from optimal. An extended stop on the West Coast of the United States during the voyage for overhaul and refurbishment in dry dock would be a necessity. Planning for the voyage, however, showed a dearth of adequate facilities there, as well. The main sea channel of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard near San Francisco was too shallow for battleships, which left only the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington, for refit and repair. The Hunter's Point civilian yard in San Francisco could accommodate capital ships, but had been closed due to lack of use and was slated for demolition. President Roosevelt ordered that Hunter's Point be reopened, facilities be brought up to date, and the fleet to report there.

Also, the question of adequate resources for coaling existed. This was not an issue when the Atlantic Fleet cruised the Atlantic or Caribbean, as fuel supplies were readily available. However, the United States did not enjoy a worldwide network of coaling stations like that of Great Britain, nor did it have an adequate supply of auxiliary vessels for resupply. During the Spanish–American War, this lack had forced Admiral George Dewey to buy a collier-load of British coal in Hong Kong before the Battle of Manila Bay to ensure his squadron would not run out of steam at sea. The need had been even more pressing for the Russian Baltic Fleet during its long deployment during the Russo-Japanese War, not just for the distance it was to steam, but also because, as a belligerent nation in wartime, most neutral ports were closed to it due to international law. While the lack of support vessels was pointed out and a vigorous program of building such ships suggested by Rear Admiral George W. Melville, who had served as chief of the Bureau of Equipment, his words were not heeded adequately until World War II.

Federal regulations that restricted supply vessels for Navy ships to those flying the United States flag, complicated by the lack of an adequate United States Merchant Marine, proved another obstacle. Roosevelt initially offered to award Navy supply contracts to American skippers whose bids exceeded those of foreign captains by less than 50%. Many carriers declined this offer because they could not obtain enough cargo to cover the cost of the return trip. Two months before the fleet sailed, Roosevelt ordered the Navy Department to contract 38 ships to supply the fleet with the 125,000 tons of coal it would need to steam from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to San Francisco. Only eight of these were American-registered; most of the other 30 were of British registry. This development was potentially awkward, since part of the mission was to impress Japan with the perception of overwhelming American naval power. Britain had become a military ally of Japan in 1902 with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which obliged it to aid Japan should a foreign power declare war against it. Technically, the list of potential combatants included the United States. The British government decided to play both sides of the political fence with the intent of moderating any Japanese-American friction that might arise.

Prior to the ships’ departure, Congress raised concerns about funding. According to the Naval Historical Center, Maine Senator Eugene Hale made his intention known to withhold funding for the effort. The President's response was that if Congress was unwilling to fund the trip, he already had the funds to send the fleet out into the Pacific. If Congress wanted the fleet to return home, though, they would have to fund the other half of the trip. As noted by Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris, the President would not be deterred. He stated "I am Commander-in-Chief, and my decision is absolute in the matter."

Voyage

As the Panama Canal was not yet complete, the fleet had to pass through the Straits of Magellan. The scope of such an operation was unprecedented in U.S. history, as ships had to sail from all points of the compass to rendezvous points and proceed according to a carefully orchestrated, well-conceived plan. It involved almost the entire operational capability of the U.S. Navy. During the crossing of the Straits of Magellan, the U.S. ships were escorted by the Chilean Navy cruiser, Chacabuco.

Unlike the formidable obstacles that had faced the Russian fleet on its voyage from the Baltic to the Pacific, which eventually led to its destruction by the Japanese in 1905, the U.S. effort benefited from a peaceful environment, which aided the coordination of ship movements.

After taking nearly four months to round South America, the fleet made several stops in American waters on the Pacific Ocean. In port after port, thousands of citizens turned out to see and greet the fleet. In April 1908, 16 battleships anchored off of Coronado, California, in the San Diego area, and thousands of sailors and marines took part in a parade through San Diego's streets. The fleet also stopped in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. In May 1908, the fleet visited Monterey, California; the nearby Hotel Del Monte in Del Monte, California, hosted a grand ball for the officers of the fleet. After arriving in San Francisco on 6 May, most of the fleet took a side trip to Seattle and Tacoma, then returned to San Francisco.

On 7 July, the entire fleet left San Francisco for Honolulu, New Zealand, and Australia. In Australia, the arrival of the Great White Fleet on 20 August 1908 was used to encourage support for the forming of Australia's own navy. In Sicily, sailors helped in recovery operations after the 1908 Messina earthquake.

Fleet composition

The 14-month-long voyage was intended to be a grand pageant of American naval power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43000 nmi and made 20 port calls on six continents. The fleet was impressive, especially as a demonstration of American industrial prowess (all 18 ships had been constructed since the Spanish–American War), but already the battleships represented the suddenly outdated predreadnought type of capital ship, as the first battleships of the revolutionary Dreadnought-class battleship had just entered service, and the U.S. Navy's first dreadnought, USS South Carolina (BB-26), was already fitting out. The two oldest ships in the fleet, USS Kearsarge (BB-5) and USS Kentucky (BB-6), were already obsolete and unfit for battle; two others, USS Maine (BB-10) and USS Alabama (BB-8), had to be detached at San Francisco because of mechanical troubles and were replaced by the USS Nebraska (BB-14) and the USS Wisconsin (BB-9). After repairs, Alabama and Maine completed their "own, more direct, circumnavigation of the globe" via Honolulu, Guam, Manila, Singapore, Colombo, Suez, Naples, Gibraltar, the Azores, and finally back to the United States, arriving on 20 October 1908, four months before the remainder of the fleet, which had taken a more circuitous route.

The battleships were accompanied during the first leg of their voyage by a "Torpedo Flotilla" of six early destroyers, and by several auxiliary ships. The destroyers and their tender did not actually steam in company with the battleships, but followed their own itinerary from Hampton Roads to San Francisco, California. Also, the armored cruiser USS Washington (ACR-11) preceded the fleet itinerary for its first and second legs by about a month, perhaps making arrangements to later receive the fleet.

General fleet itinerary

With USS Connecticut (BB-18) as flagship under the command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads on 16 December 1907 for Trinidad, British West Indies, thence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Punta Arenas, Chile; Callao, Peru; Magdalena Bay, Mexico, and north along the West Coast, arriving at San Francisco on 6 May 1908.

At San Francisco, Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry assumed command of the fleet, owing to the poor health of Admiral Evans. Also at San Francisco, the squadrons were slightly rearranged, bringing the newest and best ships in the fleet up to the First Squadron. USS Glacier (AF-4) was detached and later became the supply ship of the Pacific Fleet. At this time also, Nebraska, under Captain Reginald F. Nicholson, and Wisconsin, under Captain Frank E. Beatty, were substituted for Maine and Alabama. In San Francisco, USS Minnesota (BB-22) was brought forward into First Squadron, First Division, and USS Louisiana (BB-19) took her place as flagship, Second Squadron.

Leaving that port on 7 July 1908 the U.S. Atlantic Fleet visited Honolulu; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Melbourne, and Albany, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Yokohama, Japan; and Colombo, Ceylon; then arriving at Suez, Egypt, on 3 January 1909.

While the fleet was in Egypt, word was received of an earthquake in Sicily, thus affording an opportunity for the United States to show its friendship to Italy by offering aid to its victims. Connecticut, USS Illinois (BB-7), USS Culgoa (AF-3), and USS Yankton (1893) were dispatched to Messina, Italy, at once. The crew of Illinois recovered the bodies of the American consul, Arthur S. Cheney, and his wife, entombed in the ruins. USS Scorpion (PY-3), the fleet's station ship at Constantinople, and USS Celtic (AF-2), a refrigerator ship fitted out in New York, were hurried to Messina, relieving Connecticut and Illinois, so that they could continue on the cruise.

Leaving Messina on 9 January 1909, the fleet stopped at Naples, Italy, thence to Gibraltar, arriving at Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909. There, President Roosevelt reviewed the fleet as it passed into the roadstead.

First leg
From Hampton Roads to San Francisco, 14556 nmi.

Ships
The Fleet, First Squadron and First Division, were commanded by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans. First Division consisted of four ships of the 1906 Connecticut class: Connecticut, the fleet's flagship, Captain Hugo Osterhaus; USS Kansas (BB-21), Captain Charles E. Vreeland; USS Vermont (BB-20), Captain William P. Potter; and Louisiana, Captain Richard Wainwright.

Second Division was commanded by Rear Admiral William H. Emory. Second Division consisted of four ships of the 1904 Virginia class: USS Georgia (BB-15), the division flagship, Captain Henry McCrea; USS New Jersey (BB-16), Captain William H. H. Southerland; USS Rhode Island (BB-17), Captain Joseph B. Murdock; and USS Virginia (BB-13), Captain Seaton Schroeder.

Second Squadron and Third Division were commanded by Rear Admiral Charles M. Thomas. Third Division consisted of one Connecticut-class ship and the three ships of the 1902 Maine class: Minnesota, the squadron flagship, Captain John Hubbard; Maine, Captain Giles B. Harber; USS Missouri (BB-11), Captain Greenlief A. Merriam; and USS Ohio (BB-12), Captain Charles W. Bartlett.

Fourth Division was commanded by Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry. Fourth Division consisted of two ships of the 1901 Illinois class and the two 1900 Kearsarge class ships: Alabama, the division flagship, Captain Ten Eyck De Witt Veeder; Illinois, Captain John M. Bowyer, Kearsarge, Captain Hamilton Hutchins; and Kentucky, Captain Walter C. Cowles.

The fleet auxiliaries consisted of Culgoa (a storeship), Lieutenant Commander John B. Patton; Glacier (a storeship), Commander William S. Hogg; USS Panther (1889) (a repair ship), Commander Valentine S. Nelson; Yankton (a tender), Lieutenant Walter R. Gherardi; and USS Relief (1896) (a hospital ship).

The "Torpedo Flotilla" of destroyers consisted of USS Hopkins (DD-6), Lieutenant Alfred G. Howe; USS Stewart (DD-13), Lieutenant Julius F. Hellweg; USS Hull (DD-7), Lieutenant Frank McCommon; USS Truxton (DD-14), Lieutenant Charles S. Kerrick; USS Lawrence (DD-8), Lieutenant Ernest Friedrick; USS Whipple (DD-15), Lieutenant Hutch I. Cone; and USS Arethusa (AO-7) (a tender), Commander Albert W. Grant.

Itinerary
The second leg of the voyage was from San Francisco to Puget Sound and back. On 23 May 1908 the 16 battleships of the Great White Fleet steamed into Puget Sound where they separated to visit six Washington state ports: Bellingham, Bremerton, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Seattle and Tacoma. The fleet arrived in Seattle on 23 May and departed 27 May 1908.

Ships
The Fleet, First Squadron, and First Division were commanded by Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry. First Division consisted of Connecticut, the Fleet's flagship, Captain Hugo Osterhaus; Kansas, Captain Charles E. Vreeland; Minnesota, Captain John Hubbard; and Vermont, Captain William P. Potter.

Second Division was commanded by Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright. Second Division consisted of Georgia, the Division flagship, Captain Edward F. Qualtrough; Nebraska, Captain Reginald F. Nicholson, replacing her sister Virginia; New Jersey, Captain William H.H. Southerland; and Rhode Island, Captain Joseph B. Murdock.

Second Squadron and Third Division were commanded by Rear Admiral William H. Emory. Third Division consisted of Louisiana, the Squadron's flagship, Captain Kossuth Niles; Virginia, Captain Alexander Sharp; Missouri, Captain Robert M. Doyle; and Ohio, Captain Thomas B. Howard.

Fourth Division was commanded by Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder. Fourth Division consisted of Wisconsin, the Division flagship, Captain Frank E. Beatty, which replaced her sister Alabama; Illinois, Captain John M. Bowyer; Kearsarge, Captain Hamilton Hutchins; and Kentucky, Captain Walter C. Cowles.

The Fleet Auxiliaries were Culgoa (a storeship), Lieutenant Commander John B. Patton; Yankton (a tender), Lieutenant Commander Charles B. McVay; Glacier (a storeship), Commander William S. Hogg; Relief (a hospital ship), Surgeon Charles F. Stokes; and Panther (a repair ship), Commander Valentine S. Nelson.

Third leg
From San Francisco to Manila, 16336 nmi.

Ships
The Fleet, First Squadron, and First Division were commanded by Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry. First Division consisted of Connecticut, the Fleet's flagship, Captain Hugo Osterhaus; Kansas, Captain Charles E. Vreeland; Minnesota, Captain John Hubbard; and Vermont, Captain William P. Potter.

Second Division consisted of Georgia, the Division flagship, Captain Edward F. Qualtrough; Nebraska, Captain Reginald F. Nicholson; New Jersey, Captain William H.H. Southerland; and Rhode Island, Captain Joseph B. Murdock.

The Second Squadron and Third Division were commanded by Rear Admiral William H. Emory. Third Division consisted of Louisiana, the Squadron flagship, Captain Kossuth Niles; Virginia, Captain Alexander Sharp; Missouri, Captain Robert M. Doyle; and Ohio, Captain Thomas B. Howard.

Fourth Division was commanded by Rear Admiral Seaton Schroeder. Fourth Division consisted of Wisconsin, the Division flagship, Captain Frank E. Beatty; Illinois, Captain John M. Bowyer; Kearsarge, Captain Hamilton Hutchins; and Kentucky, Captain Walter C. Cowles.

The Fleet Auxiliaries were Culgoa (a storeship), Lieutenant Commander John B. Patton; Yankton (a tender), Lieutenant Commander Charles B. McVay; Glacier (a storeship), Commander William S. Hogg; Relief (a hospital ship), Surgeon Charles F. Stokes; and Panther (a repair ship), Commander Valentine S. Nelson.

Final leg
The final leg ran from Manila to Hampton Roads, 12455 nmi.

Experience gained
The cruise of the Great White Fleet provided practical experience for US naval personnel in sea duty and ship handling. It also showed the viability of US warships for long-range operations as no major mechanical mishaps occurred. However, while the cruise uncovered design flaws, it did not test the abilities to engage in battle fleet action. In fact, the success of the deployment might have helped obscure design deficiencies that were not addressed until World War I. These included excessive draft, low armor belts, large turret openings and exposed ammunition hoists.

According to Mark Albertson:"Theodore Roosevelt's battleships captured the imagination of the world. The cruise proved an immense public relation success for the Navy. Relations were fostered with nations that hitherto had been little more than names on a map; while relations with the familiar capitals were enhanced. The cruise highlighted such deficiencies in American battleship design as the placement of armor and ammunition hoists. The lack of American logistical support was also laid bare, ramming home the lesson that without an adequate homegrown merchant marine, control of the seas was all but impossible....It demonstrated America's ability to transfer power from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Valuable lessons learned in the projection of sea power would later pay handsome dividends in two global conflicts. But of greater importance is that Roosevelt's gambit elevated the United States to the ranks of a global powers."

The Times of London editorialized regarding the extremely enthusiastic reception in Australia: "A spectacular display has valuable uses in impressing the masses, who will remember the sight for years, and draw important political deductions therefrom."

Effects on US capital ship design
The South Carolina-class battleship was laid down in 1906 and entered service in 1910 as the first American dreadnought. It was coal fired. While the capital ships of the Great White Fleet were already obsolete in light of the "big gun" revolution ushered in by the construction of HMS Dreadnought (1906), their behavior at sea furnished valuable information that affected future construction. For instance, in terms of seaworthiness, all the capital ships in the fleet proved wet in all but the calmest seas, which led to the flared bows of subsequent U.S. battleships, increased freeboard forward and such spray-reducing measures as the elimination of billboards for anchors and gun sponsons. Increased freeboard was needed; this and related considerations demanded increases in beam and overall size. Between the Florida-class battleships, the last American capital ships completed before data from the cruise became available, and the Wyoming-class battleship, the first designed after this data was received, displacement (and, as a result, cost) per ship increased by one third.

Deficiencies in seaworthiness in turn reduced the battle-worthiness of the fleet. Turret heights for main armament proved too low and needed to be raised. Secondary armament was useless at speed and especially in tradewind conditions (with the wind moving over the sea at 10 kn or greater) and needed to be moved much higher in the hull. Improved placement began with the Wyoming-class battleships and was further refined in the Nevada-class battleship. Casemates for the bow 3-inch guns in the newer pre-dreadnoughts were untenable due to wetness and were removed. Another discovery was that, even when fully loaded, the bottom of the battleships' side armor was visible—and the ships thus vulnerable to shells that might hit beneath it to reach their machinery and magazines—in smooth to moderate seas. The profile of crests and troughs in some ships contributed to this problem. Admiral Evans concluded that the standard 8 ft width of belt armor was inadequate.

One other necessity the cruise outlined was the need for tactical homogeneity. Before the cruise, critics such as then-Captain William Sims (to whom President Roosevelt listened) had argued that American warship design had remained too conservative and precluded the level of efficiency needed for the fleet to function as an effective unit. The cruise proved the charge true. This would eventually lead to the building of standard-type battleships in the U.S. Navy. When President Roosevelt convened the 1908 Newport Conference of the Naval War College, he placed responsibility for U.S. battleship design on the General Board of the United States Navy. This gave line officers and planners direct input and control over warship design, a pattern which has persisted to the present day.

Effects on fleet operations
Experience gained by the cruise led to improvements in formation steaming, coal economy and morale. Gunnery exercises doubled the fleet's accuracy. However, the mission also underlined the fleet's dependence on foreign colliers and the need for coaling stations and auxiliary ships for resupply.

Similar voyages

 * Squadron of Evolution — US 19th century squadron touring Europe, nicknamed "White Squadron"
 * Cruise of the Special Service Squadron — UK naval circumnavigation tour after the Great War
 * Operation Sea Orbit — World cruise by U.S. nuclear-powered vessels without replenishment, inspired by the Great White Fleet

title: Great White Fleet


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Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy is a Muppet character known for her breakout role in the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show. She is notable for her temperamental diva superstar personality, her tendency to use French phrases in her speech, and practicing karate. The character is also known for her on-again/off-again relationship with Kermit the Frog which never ends permanently. Frank Oz performed the character from 1976 to 2002 and was succeeded by Eric Jacobson in 2001.

Since her debut in 1976, Miss Piggy has been a celebrity fixture in international pop culture, with a distinguished career in film, television, fashion, recording, and publishing. She has been widely identified as a feminist icon. In 1996, TV Guide ranked her number 23 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll in the UK, Miss Piggy was ranked 29th on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In 1996, a cook book entitled In the Kitchen With Miss Piggy: Fabulous Recipes from My Famous Celebrity Friends by Moi was released. In 2015, she was honored by the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art for her achievements and contributions to breaking gender roles in the entertainment industry.

A Lady Liberty-inspired Miss Piggy statue stands as the centerpiece of a fountain in front of Rizzo the Rat's PizzeRizzo restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Miss Piggy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a member of the collective The Muppets, which they received on March 20, 2012 in the category of Motion Pictures. The star is located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard.

Origins and description
In a 1979 interview with The New York Times, performer Frank Oz outlined Piggy's biography: "She grew up in a small town (most likely Keystone, Iowa); her father died when she was young and her mother wasn't that nice to her. She had to enter beauty contests to survive. She has a lot of vulnerability which she has to hide, because of her need to be a superstar". During development of The Muppet Show, Oz assigned a hook for each Muppet he performed; Miss Piggy's hook was a "truck driver wanting to be a woman". Oz has also stated that while Fozzie Bear is a two-dimensional character and Animal has no dimensions, Miss Piggy is one of the few Muppet characters to be fully realized in three dimensions.

Piggy, truly a diva in a class of her own, is convinced she is destined for stardom, and nothing will stand in her way. She has a capricious nature, at times determined to (and often succeeding in) conveying an image of feminine charm, but suddenly flying into a violent rage (accompanied by her trademark karate chop and "hi-yah!") whenever she thinks someone has insulted or thwarted her. Kermit the Frog has learned this all too well; when she is not smothering him in kisses, she is sending him flying through the air with a karate chop.

She loves wearing long gloves; Hildegarde, who used to wear them, once said, "Miss Piggy stole the gloves idea from me”. Miss Piggy was also inspired by jazz singer Peggy Lee.

Relationship with Kermit
Since the debut of The Muppet Show, the romantic relationship between Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog has been subject to substantial coverage and commentary by the media. Throughout The Muppet Show 's run, Miss Piggy's romantic pursuit for Kermit was consistently expressed. Kermit, however, constantly rebuffed Piggy's feelings. Eventually, in the films, Kermit began returning her affections and even (unwittingly) marries her in The Muppets Take Manhattan. However, subsequent events suggest that the marriage was simply fictional. It is mentioned by Miss Piggy, however, in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) that Kermit was a happily married frog. This marriage isn't referenced in Muppets Most Wanted.

Miss Piggy and Kermit formally ended their romantic relationship on May 10, 1990. The decision was made by Jim Henson Productions and a publicity campaign titled "The Pig of the Nineties" was scheduled to follow. An autobiography of Piggy was expected to be published as part of the effort. However, shortly after the announcement on May 16, Jim Henson died and the campaign was dropped altogether. The two eventually resumed their relationship.

In 2015, Miss Piggy and Kermit ended their romantic relationship for a second time.

Performers
Frank Oz was Miss Piggy's principal performer from her early appearances on The Muppet Show until his departure from the cast in 2000; his last known performance as Piggy was an appearance on The Today Show. Oz's earliest known performance as Piggy was actually in a 1974 appearance on The Tonight Show. Richard Hunt occasionally performed Miss Piggy during the first season of The Muppet Show, alternating with Oz. In 2002, Eric Jacobson was cast as the new performer of Miss Piggy, and his first public debut as the character was performed via satellite at the 2001 MuppetFest. Jacobson has remained Piggy's principal performer since then, openly describing the role as "one of the most famous drag acts in the business."

During Oz's tenure as the character, other performers would step in. Jerry Nelson performed Piggy in 1974 for a brief appearance on Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Fran Brill performed Piggy for The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, a pilot for The Muppet Show. Kevin Clash and Peter Linz puppeteered Piggy for most of the filming of Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets from Space, respectively, with Oz dubbing Piggy's voice in post-production. Victor Yerrid briefly performed Piggy in Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 stage show for the Disney Cruise Line. In Muppet Babies, Piggy's voice was provided by voice actress Laurie O'Brien. Voice actor Hal Rayle provided her voice for a short-lived spin-off series, Little Muppet Monsters. Melanie Harrison voices Baby Piggy on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.

History
The first known appearance of Miss Piggy was on the Herb Alpert television special Herb Alpert and the TJB, broadcast on October 13, 1974, on ABC. Miss Piggy's voice was noticeably more demure and soft, singing with Herb, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love." The first draft of the puppet was an unnamed blonde, beady-eyed pig who appeared briefly in the 1975 pilot special The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, in a sketch called "Return to Beneath the Planet of the Pigs." She was unnamed in that show, but by the time The Muppet Show began in 1976, she had assumed something resembling her classic look—a pig with large blue eyes, a flowing silver gown, satin white long gloves, blue sheer shawl, and a hopelessly romantic persona.

The Muppet Show
Miss Piggy began as a minor chorus pig on The Muppet Show but gradually developed into one of the central characters of the series, as the writers and producers of The Muppet Show recognized that a lovelorn pig could be more than a one-note running gag. She spawned a huge fad during the late 1970s and early 1980s and eclipsed Kermit and the other Muppets in popularity at that time, selling far more merchandise and writing a book entitled Miss Piggy's Guide to Life that, unlike any of Kermit's books, wound up on top of the New York Times Bestseller List.

Films and television series
Miss Piggy has appeared in all the Muppet films and television series following The Muppet Show. In The Muppet Movie (1979), she has just won a beauty contest when she first meets Kermit and joins the Muppets. In The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Miss Piggy plays an aspiring fashion model who gets caught up in a screwball-comedy misunderstanding involving a gang of jewel thieves. 1984's The Muppets Take Manhattan ends with a climactic wedding between Kermit and Miss Piggy. In 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol, Miss Piggy plays Mrs. Cratchit to Kermit's Bob Cratchit. Miss Piggy takes on the gender-flipped role of Benjamina Gunn in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), and she plays an eager news reporter in Muppets From Space (1999).

In The Muppets (2011), Miss Piggy is shown to be residing in Paris, having become the plus-size editor for Vogue after the Muppets disbanded, and after she left Kermit in Los Angeles. In Muppets Most Wanted (2014), having rejoined the Muppets on a global tour, she nearly marries Constantine in London, after he poses as Kermit.

In the TV series The Muppets, Miss Piggy hosts the late-night talk show Up Late with Miss Piggy.

In the 2020 Disney+ series, Muppets Now, Miss Piggy hosted a segment called Lifesty(le) with Miss Piggy.

Other appearances
Miss Piggy has made multiple appearances in various Academy Awards ceremonies. In 1980, Miss Piggy and Johnny Carson introduced the performance of Best Original Song nominee "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie. In 1982, Miss Piggy and Kermit performed the nominated song, "The First Time It Happens" from The Great Muppet Caper, during the 54th Academy Awards

Miss Piggy had a spoof luxury brand featured on QVC, "Moi by Miss Piggy". The name had previously been used by a perfume released in 1998. She also appeared as a presenter at the 68th and 84th Academy Awards, in 1996 and 2012, respectively.

On Friday, March 15, 2013, Miss Piggy appeared on the UK telethon Comic Relief to reveal the cash total and introduce boy band One Direction. She was in Dream House 2013. On December 6, 2013, she performed 'Somethin' Stupid' alongside Robbie Williams at the London Palladium. In 2015, Miss Piggy received a Sackler Center First Award from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. An essay was subsequently released by The Muppets Studio (in the guise of Miss Piggy) for Time magazine, titled "Why I Am a Feminist Pig", explaining why she deserved the award.

On May 7, 2023, Miss Piggy and Kermit were invited to the Coronation Concert of King Charles III. She flirted with the host Hugh Bonneville.

She was interviewed by Michelle Miller on CBS Saturday Morning on May 25, 2024.

Albums

 * The Muppet Movie (soundtrack) (1979)
 * The Great Muppet Caper (soundtrack) (1981)
 * Miss Piggy's Aerobique Exercise Workout Album (1982)
 * The Muppets Take Manhattan (soundtrack) (1984)
 * The Muppet Christmas Carol (soundtrack) (1992)
 * Muppet Treasure Island (soundtrack) (1996)
 * It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)
 * The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (soundtrack) (2005)
 * A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (soundtrack) (2008)
 * The Muppets (soundtrack) (2011)
 * Muppets Most Wanted (soundtrack) (2014)

Filmography

 * The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
 * The Muppet Movie (1979)
 * The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
 * The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (1982) (TV)
 * The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
 * Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
 * The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Emily Cratchit
 * Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Benjamina Gunn
 * Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
 * Muppets from Space (1999)
 * It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
 * The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Herself and the Wicked Witch of the West, Good Witch of the North, Glinda the Good Witch, Wicked Witch of the East
 * A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
 * Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
 * The Muppets (2011)
 * Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
 * Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
 * The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
 * Muppet Babies (2018–2022) (TV)
 * Muppets Now (2020) (Disney+) (TV)
 * RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2021) (Paramount+) (TV)
 * Muppets Haunted Mansion (2022) (Disney+) (TV)
 * Holey Moley (2022) (Special Guest Appearance)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Miss Piggy


text:
List of group theory topics

In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces, can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and axioms. Groups recur throughout mathematics, and the methods of group theory have influenced many parts of algebra. Linear algebraic groups and Lie groups are two branches of group theory that have experienced advances and have become subject areas in their own right.

Various physical systems, such as crystals and the hydrogen atom, may be modelled by symmetry groups. Thus group theory and the closely related representation theory have many important applications in physics, chemistry, and materials science. Group theory is also central to public key cryptography.

Structures and operations

 * Central extension
 * Direct product of groups
 * Direct sum of groups
 * Extension problem
 * Free abelian group
 * Free group
 * Free product
 * Generating set of a group
 * Group cohomology
 * Group extension
 * Presentation of a group
 * Product of group subsets
 * Schur multiplier
 * Semidirect product
 * Sylow theorems
 * Hall subgroup
 * Wreath product

Basic properties of groups

 * Butterfly lemma
 * Center of a group
 * Centralizer and normalizer
 * Characteristic subgroup
 * Commutator
 * Composition series
 * Conjugacy class
 * Conjugate closure
 * Conjugation of isometries in Euclidean space
 * Core (group)
 * Coset
 * Derived group
 * Euler's theorem
 * Fitting subgroup
 * Generalized Fitting subgroup
 * Hamiltonian group
 * Identity element
 * Lagrange's theorem
 * Multiplicative inverse
 * Normal subgroup
 * Perfect group
 * p-core
 * Schreier refinement theorem
 * Subgroup
 * Transversal (combinatorics)
 * Torsion subgroup
 * Zassenhaus lemma

Group homomorphisms

 * Automorphism
 * Automorphism group
 * Factor group
 * Fundamental theorem on homomorphisms
 * Group homomorphism
 * Group isomorphism
 * Homomorphism
 * Isomorphism theorem
 * Inner automorphism
 * Order automorphism
 * Outer automorphism group
 * Quotient group

Basic types of groups

 * Examples of groups
 * Abelian group
 * Cyclic group
 * Rank of an abelian group
 * Dicyclic group
 * Dihedral group
 * Divisible group
 * Finitely generated abelian group
 * Group representation
 * Klein four-group
 * List of small groups
 * Locally cyclic group
 * Nilpotent group
 * Non-abelian group
 * Solvable group
 * P-group
 * Pro-finite group

Simple groups and their classification

 * Classification of finite simple groups

 * Alternating group
 * Borel subgroup
 * Chevalley group
 * Conway group
 * Feit–Thompson theorem
 * Fischer group
 * General linear group
 * Group of Lie type
 * Group scheme
 * HN group
 * Janko group
 * Lie group
 * Simple Lie group
 * Linear algebraic group
 * List of finite simple groups
 * Mathieu group
 * Monster group
 * Baby Monster group
 * Bimonster
 * Projective group
 * Reductive group
 * Simple group
 * Quasisimple group
 * Special linear group
 * Symmetric group
 * Thompson group (finite)
 * Tits group
 * Weyl group

Permutation and symmetry groups

 * Arithmetic group
 * Braid group
 * Burnside's lemma
 * Cayley's theorem
 * Coxeter group
 * Crystallographic group
 * Crystallographic point group, Schoenflies notation
 * Discrete group
 * Euclidean group
 * Even and odd permutations
 * Frieze group
 * Frobenius group
 * Fuchsian group
 * Geometric group theory
 * Group action
 * Homogeneous space
 * Hyperbolic group
 * Isometry group
 * Orbit (group theory)
 * Permutation
 * Permutation group
 * Rubik's Cube group
 * Space group
 * Stabilizer subgroup
 * Steiner system
 * Strong generating set
 * Symmetry
 * Symmetric group
 * Symmetry group
 * Wallpaper group

Concepts groups share with other mathematics

 * Associativity
 * Bijection
 * Bilinear operator
 * Binary operation
 * Commutative
 * Congruence relation
 * Equivalence class
 * Equivalence relation
 * Lattice (group)
 * Lattice (discrete subgroup)
 * Multiplication table
 * Prime number
 * Up to

Mathematical objects making use of a group operation

 * Abelian variety
 * Algebraic group
 * Banach-Tarski paradox
 * Category of groups
 * Dimensional analysis
 * Elliptic curve
 * Galois group
 * Gell-Mann matrices
 * Group object
 * Hilbert space
 * Integer
 * Lie group
 * Matrix
 * Modular arithmetic
 * Number
 * Pauli matrices
 * Real number
 * Quaternion
 * Quaternion group
 * Tensor

Mathematical fields and topics making important use of group theory

 * Algebraic geometry
 * Algebraic topology
 * Discrete space
 * Fundamental group
 * Geometry
 * Homology
 * Minkowski's theorem
 * Topological group

Algebraic structures related to groups

 * Field
 * Finite field
 * Galois theory
 * Grothendieck group
 * Group ring
 * Group with operators
 * Heap
 * Linear algebra
 * Magma
 * Module
 * Monoid
 * Monoid ring
 * Quandle
 * Quasigroup
 * Quantum group
 * Ring
 * Semigroup
 * Vector space

Group representations

 * Affine representation
 * Character theory
 * Great orthogonality theorem
 * Maschke's theorem
 * Monstrous moonshine
 * Projective representation
 * Representation theory
 * Schur's lemma

Computational group theory

 * Coset enumeration
 * Schreier's subgroup lemma
 * Schreier–Sims algorithm
 * Todd–Coxeter algorithm

Applications

 * Computer algebra system
 * Cryptography
 * Discrete logarithm
 * Triple DES
 * Caesar cipher
 * Exponentiating by squaring
 * Knapsack problem
 * Shor's algorithm
 * Standard Model
 * Symmetry in physics

Famous problems

 * Burnside's problem
 * Classification of finite simple groups
 * Herzog–Schönheim conjecture
 * Subset sum problem
 * Whitehead problem
 * Word problem for groups

Other topics

 * Amenable group
 * Capable group
 * Commensurability (group theory)
 * Compact group
 * Compactly generated group
 * Complete group
 * Complex reflection group
 * Congruence subgroup
 * Continuous symmetry
 * Frattini subgroup
 * Growth rate
 * Heisenberg group, discrete Heisenberg group
 * Molecular symmetry
 * Nielsen transformation
 * Reflection group
 * Tarski monster group
 * Thompson groups
 * Tietze transformation
 * Transfer (group theory)

Group theorists

 * N. Abel
 * M. Aschbacher
 * R. Baer
 * R. Brauer
 * W. Burnside
 * R. Carter
 * A. Cauchy
 * A. Cayley
 * J.H. Conway
 * R. Dedekind
 * L.E. Dickson
 * M. Dunwoody
 * W. Feit
 * B. Fischer
 * H. Fitting
 * G. Frattini
 * G. Frobenius
 * E. Galois
 * G. Glauberman
 * D. Gorenstein
 * R.L. Griess
 * M. Hall, Jr.
 * P. Hall
 * G. Higman
 * D. Hilbert
 * O. Hölder
 * B. Huppert
 * K. Iwasawa
 * Z. Janko
 * C. Jordan
 * F. Klein
 * A. Kurosh
 * J.L. Lagrange
 * C. Leedham-Green
 * F.W. Levi
 * Sophus Lie
 * W. Magnus
 * E. Mathieu
 * G.A. Miller
 * B.H. Neumann
 * H. Neumann
 * J. Nielson
 * Emmy Noether
 * Ø. Ore
 * O. Schreier
 * I. Schur
 * R. Steinberg
 * M. Suzuki
 * L. Sylow
 * J. Thompson
 * J. Tits
 * Helmut Wielandt
 * H. Zassenhaus
 * M. Zorn

title: List of group theory topics


text:
Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal

This is a list of Sufi orders (Tariqas) in Senegal and the Gambia. They are active Muslim organizations that can also be found in many other parts of Africa and the Islamic world. Their members are mainly Wolofs, Fulas and Tocouleurs.

List
The four largest Muslim brotherhoods in Senegal are:

 * The Xaadir (Qādiriyya), the oldest, founded in Baghdad by the Sufi mystic Abdul Qādir al-Jilānī in the 12th century, now pan-Islamic, spread to Senegal in the 18th century.
 * The Tijaniyyah, the largest in membership, founded in Fez, Morocco by the Algerian born Cheikh Sīdī 'Aḥmad at-Tijānī. The order is centered in the city of Tivaouane.
 * The Mourides, the richest and most active, founded by the Islamic leader Cheikh Amadou Bamba (1850–1927) of French West Africa, now Senegal. The order is centered in the city of Touba.
 * The Layene are a smaller Sufi order, centered at Yoff north of Dakar.

title: Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal


text:
Ṛta

In the Vedic religion, Ṛta (/ɹ̩t̪ɐ/; Sanskrit ऋत  "order, rule; truth; logos") is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it. In the hymns of the Vedas, Ṛta is described as that which is ultimately responsible for the proper functioning of the natural, moral and sacrificial orders. Conceptually, it is closely allied to the injunctions and ordinances thought to uphold it, collectively referred to as Dharma, and the action of the individual in relation to those ordinances, referred to as Karma – two terms which eventually eclipsed Ṛta in importance as signifying natural, religious and moral order in later Hinduism. Sanskrit scholar Maurice Bloomfield referred to Ṛta as "one of the most important religious conceptions of the Rigveda", going on to note that, "from the point of view of the history of religious ideas we may, in fact we must, begin the history of Hindu religion at least with the history of this conception".

Etymology
Vedic and its Avestan equivalent aṣ̌a both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hr̥tás "truth", which in turn continues Proto-Indo-European * "properly joined, right, true", from a presumed root *, making it a distant cognate of Latin ordo and thus English order. The derivative noun ṛta is defined as "fixed or settled order, rule, divine law or truth".

As Mahony (1998) notes the term can be translated as "that which has moved in a fitting manner". Although this meaning is not actually cited by authoritative Sanskrit dictionaries it is a regular derivation from the verbal root ṛ, "to move" with ta, the suffix which forms the past participle, so it can be regarded as the putative origin of the word. More abstractly, it is translated as "universal law" or "cosmic order", or simply as "truth". The latter meaning dominates in the Avestan cognate to Ṛta, aṣ̌a.

The proper Sanskrit pronunciation of the word is ṛta, the ṛ being a vocalic r, like that in pert or dirt, when pronounced with a rhotic r, e.g. as in American, followed by a short a. The most common pronunciation of speakers of modern Indian languages is "rita", with short i and short a, due to the loss of the vocalic r by the successor languages to Sanskrit, the prakrits and modern Indo-Aryan languages.

The term appears in Vedic texts and in post-Vedic texts, both as Ṛta and derivatives of the term. For example, in the 2nd-century BCE text Mahābhāṣya of Patanjali, he explains Ṛtaka to be the grammatically correct form of name for a son, where then the name would mean "truthling".

Origins
In scholarship there is no common position about the origin of the concept of Ṛta. Similar concepts exist in many Indo-European cultures and the names can in addition be derived from an identical root word *. This is why some scholars take the position that the concepts in the Indo-European daughter cultures have a common ancestor in the Proto-Indo-European culture.

In contrast Hermann Oldenberg (1894) surmised that the concept of Ṛta originally arose in the Indo-Aryan period from a consideration of the natural order of the world and of the occurrences taking place within it as doing so with a kind of causal necessity. Both Vedic Ṛta and Avestan aša were conceived of as having a tripartite function which manifested itself in the physical, ethical and ritual domains. In the context of Vedic religion, those features of nature which either remain constant or which occur on a regular basis were seen to be a manifestation of the power of Ṛta in the physical cosmos. In the human sphere, Ṛta was understood to manifest itself as the imperative force behind both the moral order of society as well as the correct performance of Vedic rituals. The notion of a universal principle of natural order is by no means unique to the Vedas, and Ṛta has been compared to similar ideas in other cultures, such as Ma'at in Ancient Egyptian religion, Moira and the Logos in Greek paganism, and the Dao.

Vedas
Due to the nature of Vedic Sanskrit, a term such as Ṛta can be used to indicate numerous things, either directly or indirectly, and both Indian and European scholars have experienced difficulty in arriving at fitting interpretations for Ṛta in all of its various usages in the Vedas, though the underlying sense of "ordered action" remains universally evident. In the Rigveda, the term Ṛta appears as many as 390 times, and has been characterized as "the one concept which pervades the whole of Ṛgvedic thought". The cosmic order, Ṛta, has three features:
 * Gati, the continuous movement or change.
 * Samghatna, a system based on interdependent parts.
 * Niyati, an inherent order of interdependence and movement.

Ṛta appears most frequently as representing abstract concepts such as "law", "commandment", "order", "sacrifice", "truth", and "regularity", but also occasionally as concrete objects such as the waters, the heavens or the sun as manifestations of the operation of Ṛta in the physical universe. Ṛta is also frequently used in reference to various Vedic deities. Thus, Bṛhaspati is referred to as possessing a powerful bow with "Ṛta as its string" and as one prepared to "mount the chariot of Ṛta"; Agni is described as one who is "desirous of Ṛta", one who is "Ṛta-minded" and as he who "spread Heaven and Earth by Ṛta"; the Maruts are referred to as "rejoicing in the house of Ṛta" and as "knowers of Ṛta"; Ushas is described as having been "placed at the root of Ṛta"; Varuna is praised as "having the form of Ṛta" and, along with Mitra as Mitra-Varuna, as "destroying the foes by Ṛta" and as "professing Ṛta by Ṛta". Epithets such as "born of Ṛta" and "protector of Ṛta" are frequently applied to numerous divinities, as well as to the sacrificial fire and the sacrifice itself.

Despite the abundance of such references, the gods are never portrayed as having command over Ṛta. Instead, the gods, like all created beings, remain subject to Ṛta, and their divinity largely resides in their serving it in the role of executors, agents or instruments of its manifestation. As Day (1982) notes, the gods "do not govern Ṛta so much as immanentalize it through the particularities of divine ordinances and retributions concerning both rewards and punishments. In this sense they do not "govern" Ṛta; they serve it as agents and ministers".

Varuna
While the concept of Ṛta as an abstract, universal principle generally remained resistant to the anthropomorphic tendencies of the Vedic period, it became increasingly associated with the actions of individual deities, in particular with those of the god Varuna as the omniscient, all-encompassing sky. Although the Adityas as a group are associated with Ṛta, being referred to as "the charioteers of Ṛta, dwelling in the home of Ṛta", it is Varuna in particular who is identified as the "friend of Ṛta". The connection of Varuna and Ṛta extended beyond the physical realm and into the sphere of ritual worship, with the sacrificial fire itself being lauded as that which "harnesses the steeds and holds the reins of Ṛta, becoming Varuna when he strives for Ṛta". As James (1969) notes, Varuna attained the position of "universal Power par excellence maintaining Ṛta" and is celebrated as having "separated and established heaven and earth, spreading them out as the upper and lower firmaments, himself enthroned above them as the universal king, ordering the immutable moral law, exercising his rule by the sovereignty of Ṛta.

Dharma
Already in the earliest Vedic texts, Ṛta as an ethical principle is linked with the notion of cosmic retribution. A central concept of the Ṛgveda is that created beings fulfil their true natures when they follow the path set for them by the ordinances of Ṛta, and failing to follow those ordinances was thought to be responsible for the appearance of various forms of calamity and suffering. Committing one's actions to the governance of Ṛta, referred to as its "Dharma", was therefore understood as imperative in ensuring one's own well-being. In this vein, the individual who follows the ordinances of nature can be described as one who acts according to the "Dharma of Ṛta". Dharma, then, was originally conceived of as a "finite or particularized manifestation of Ṛta inasmuch as it represents that aspect of the universal Order which specifically concerns the mundane natural, religious, social and moral spheres as expressed in ritualistic regulations, public laws, moral principles and laws of nature".

Though originally understood as a subordinate component of the essentially metaphysical concept of Ṛta, Dharma eventually grew to overshadow Ṛta in prominence in later Vedic and early Hindu literature. According to Day (1982), the concept of Dharma, "...became so useful for framing religious, moral and social regulations, that interest in it and discussion of its applications to social and moral order eclipsed all discussions of metaphysical and theological ideas. Since, moreover, Dharma was made the central subject of a literary tradition which was to become vast and extensive throughout India, while the conception of Ṛta remained largely confined to the Vedas and their commentaries, it naturally took possession of brāhmaṇical thinking even at the expense of older, exalted concepts and conceptions."

Karma
As the notion of Dharma shifted emphasis away from the gods as executors of Ṛta and towards the individual as upholding Ṛta through their actions, the ethical responsibility and culpability of the individual received an increasing amount of emphasis towards the end of the Vedic period. Central to the discussion of such culpability is the notion of Karma. Karma (lit. "action") refers to the works one performs, which can occur either in congruence with or in opposition to Dharma – and thus, to Ṛta – and which are posited to stand in a causal relationship to the pains and pleasures one experiences in life.

The emergence of Karma as a central doctrine of the late Vedic and early Hindu tradition is due in part to the problem of theodicy. Given the inherent goodness of Ṛta and its absolute power over the operation of the universe, the presence of gross inequality and injustice in the world represented a serious religious, philosophical and ethical dilemma. The notion of Karma helped to overcome this problem as it was conceived as a "law of moral causation" which effectively excused the gods and Ṛta from the appearance of evil in the world, placing the responsibility for the same squarely upon the individual.

Being an extension of Ṛta, Karma was conceived of as operating with the same absolute efficiency. As Day (1982) notes, "acts are causally determinative in accordance with their good or evil nature, and their out-workings are inexorable; there is no intrusive or arbitrary factor which might overcome their potentiality for causing retributional effects, or otherwise interfering with the strictly mechanical efficiency of Karma. Since, moreover, an individual's fortunes and misfortunes are solely the outcome of his past actions, he has no ground for believing that life is kindlier or harsher than is deserved. He has no cause either for praising God's benevolence nor for lamenting God's wrath."

In proper names
Ṛta- or arta- sometimes appears as an element in Vedic and Indic personal names, as with Iranian.

In India the vocalic 'ṛ' of Sanskrit is transformed into the modern 'ri', or in South India, 'ru'. Indian names include:
 * Rita
 * Ruta
 * Ritambhar
 * Ritik
 * Ritwik
 * Ritesh

Mitanni (non-Indian, Vedic) names include:
 * Artatama I
 * Artashumara
 * Artamanya, leader of Ziribashani

title: Ṛta


text:
Abarimon

Abarimon or antipode in mythology are people whose feet are reversed, however, in spite of this disability, were able to run at extreme speeds.

This majestic tribe was first described in Europe by Pliny the Elder, in his book, Natural History (VII 11), who believed them to be native to India. A tale that is alike is depicted by Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights.

They coexisted with wild animals and any endeavor to capture them was unsuccessful because they were so ferocious and barbarian. In his book, Pliny points out information that derives from Baiton, Alexander the Great's Land Surveyor. Because of the special quality of air, the abarimons were only able to breathe the air of their own domestic valleys, according to Baiton. If the special quality of air was breathed for a long period of time, breathing any other type of air would be impossible. Because of this, the inhabitants were not able to depart from the valley and live elsewhere in the world. Therefore, it was impossible to entrap them and shepard them to the courts of a distant ruler, or to the great Macedonian conquest.

It is very feasible that this is an overly designed ethnographic description of a prehistoric wildlife strain in the areas near Himalayas.

As stated by a different legend, Abarimon is referred to as a landscape found in Scythia, a valley of Mount Imaus, (which may be indistinguishable to Hindukush or the Himalayan Mountains).

Later, Abarimon has been summarized in Thomas Cooper's Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, as a tribe in the country Tataria. Throughout the Middle Ages, after a familiar heliocentric view, some map drawers made creatures in the shape of Abarimon people and positioned them at the outermost border of the world.

title: Abarimon


text:
Adimurti

Adimurti (आदिमूर्ति) is a form of the Hindu deity Vishnu. It is regarded to be similar to his form of Narayana. In this form, Vishnu is depicted to be seated upon the coils of his serpent, Shesha.

Iconography
Adimurti is a four-armed representation of Vishnu, portraying his primordial form. He is seated in the sukhasana pose upon the coils of a snake, with his left leg folded over the serpent, and the right leg hanging sideways. Five or seven heads of Shesha form a canopy over his head, and hold the symbols of the deity. He is accompanied by his two consorts.

title: Adimurti


text:
Agastya

Agastya was a revered Indian sage of Hinduism. In the Indian tradition, he is a noted recluse and an influential scholar in diverse languages of the Indian subcontinent. He is regarded in some traditions to be a Chiranjivi. He and his wife Lopamudra are the celebrated authors of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 in the Sanskrit text Rigveda and other Vedic literature.

Agastya is considered to be the father of Siddha medicine. Agastya appears in numerous itihasas and Puranas including the major Ramayana and Mahabharata. He is one of the seven most revered rishis (the Saptarishi) in the Vedic texts, and is revered as one of the Tamil Siddhar in the Shaivism tradition, who invented an early grammar of the Old Tamil language, Agattiyam, playing a pioneering role in the development of Tampraparniyan medicine and spirituality at Saiva centres in proto-era Sri Lanka and South India. He is also revered in the Puranic literature of Shaktism and Vaishnavism. He is one of the Indian sages found in ancient sculpture and reliefs in Hindu temples of South Asia, and Southeast Asia such as in the early medieval era Shaiva temples on Java Indonesia. He is the principal figure and Guru in the ancient Javanese language text Agastyaparva, whose 11th century version survives.

Agastya is traditionally attributed to be the author of many Sanskrit texts such as the Agastya Gita found in Varaha Purana, Agastya Samhita found embedded in Skanda Purana, and the Dvaidha-Nirnaya Tantra text. He is also referred to as Mana, Kalasaja, Kumbhaja, Kumbhayoni and Maitravaruni after his mythical origins.

Etymology and nomenclature
Several different etymologies have been suggested for "Agastya". One theory states that the root is Aj or Anj, which connotes "brighten, effulgent one" and links Agastya to "one who brightens" in darkness, and Agastya is traditionally the Indian name for Canopus, the second most brilliantly shining star found in skies in the Indian sub-continent, next to Sirius. A third theory links it to Indo-European origins, through the Iranian word gasta which means "sin, foul", and a-gasta would mean "not sin, not foul". The fourth theory, based on folk etymology in verse 2.11 of the Ramayana states that Agastya is from aga (unmoving or mountain) and gam (move), and together these roots connote "one who is mover-of-mountains", or "mover-of-the-unmoving". The word is also written as Agasti and Agathiyar.

Biography
Agastya is the named author of several hymns of the Rigveda. These hymns do not provide his biography. The origins of Agastya - Pulastya, one of the Rig Vedic Saptarishis is his father. His miraculous rebirth follows a yajna being done by gods Varuna and Mitra, where the celestial apsara Urvashi appears. They are overwhelmed by her extraordinary sexuality, and ejaculate. Their semen falls into a mud pitcher, which is the womb in which the fetus of Agastya grows. He is born from this jar, along with his twin sage Vashistha in some mythologies. This mythology gives him the name kumbhayoni, which literally means "he whose womb was a mud pot".

Agastya is a Tamil Brahmin (Maraiyar) who leads an ascetic life, educates himself, becoming a celebrated sage. His unknown origins have led to speculative proposals that the Vedic-era Agastya may have been a migrant whose ideas influenced the south.

According to inconsistent legends in the Puranic and the epics, the ascetic sage Agastya proposed to Lopamudra, a princess born in the kingdom of Vidarbha. Her parents were unwilling to bless the engagement, concerned that she would be unable to live the austere lifestyle of Agastya in the forest. However, the legends state that Lopamudra accepted him as her husband, saying that Agastya has the wealth of ascetic living, her own youth will fade with seasons, and it is his virtue that makes him the right person. Therewith, Lopamudra becomes the wife of Agastya. In other versions, Lopamudra marries Agastya, but after the wedding, she demands that Agastya provide her with basic comforts before she will consummate the marriage, a demand that ends up forcing Agastya to return to society and earn wealth.

Agastya and Lopamudra have a son named Drdhasyu, sometimes called Idhmavaha. He is described in the Mahabharata as a boy who learns the Vedas listening to his parents while he is in the womb, and is born into the world reciting the hymns.

Agastya ashram
Agastya had a hermitage (ashram), but the ancient and medieval era Indian texts provide inconsistent stories and location for this ashram. Two legends place it in Northwest Maharashtra, on the banks of the river Godavari, near Nashik in small towns named Agastyapuri and Akole. Other putative sites mentioned in Northern and Eastern Indian sources is near Sangli in Ainwadi (Agastinagar) (Tal-khanapur) village (Western ghats at Maharashtra), or near Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh), or in Agastyamuni village near Rudraprayag (Uttarakhand), or Satpura Range (Madhya Pradesh). In Southern sources and the North Indian Devi-Bhagavata Purana, his ashram is based in Tamil Nadu, variously placed in Tirunelveli, Pothiyal hills, or Thanjavur. Facing east, he penanced upon a rock at Kanyakumari immediately after the beginning of Kali Yuga. It is also considered that his final resting place is in Agastyarkoodam in Thiruvananthapuram.

Vedas
Agastya is mentioned in all the four Vedas of Hinduism, and is a character in the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, epics, and many Puranas. He is the author of hymns 1.165 to 1.191 of the Rigveda (~1200 BCE). He ran a Vedic school (gurukul), as evidenced by hymn 1.179 of the Rigveda which credits its author to be his wife Lopamudra and his students. He was a respected sage in the Vedic era, as many other hymns of the Rigveda composed by other sages refer to Agastya. The hymns composed by Agastya are known for verbal play and similes, puzzles and puns, and striking imagery embedded within his spiritual message.

His Vedic poetry is particularly notable for two themes. In one set of hymns, Agastya describes a conflict between two armies led by gods Indra and Maruts, which scholars such as G. S. Ghurye have interpreted as an allegory of a conflict between Arya (Indra) and Dasa (Rudra). Agastya successfully reconciles their conflict, makes an offering wherein he prays for understanding and loving-kindness between the two. Twenty one out of the twenty seven hymns he composed in Mandala 1 of the Rigveda have his signature ending, wherein he appeals, "may each community know refreshment (food) and lively waters". These ideas have led him to be considered as a protector of both the Arya and the Dasa. However, some scholars interpret the same hymns to be an allegory for any two conflicting ideologies or lifestyles, because Agastya never uses the words Arya or Dasa, and only uses the phrase ubhau varnav (literally, "both colors"). The theme and idea of "mutual understanding" as a means for lasting reconciliation, along with Agastya's name, reappears in section 1.2.2 of the Aitareya Aranyaka of Hinduism.

The second theme, famous in the literature of Hinduism, is a discussion between his wife Lopamudra and him about the human tension between the monastic solitary pursuit of spirituality, versus the responsibility of a householder's life and raising a family. Agastya argues that there are many ways to happiness and liberation, while Lopamudra presents her arguments about the nature of life, time and the possibility of both. She successfully seduces Agastya, in the simile filled Rigvedic hymn 1.179.

Agastya is mentioned in both the oldest and the youngest layers of the Rigveda (c. 1500–1200 BCE), such as in hymn 33 of mandala 7, which is older than mandala 1. He is also mentioned in other three Vedas and the Vedanga literature such as in verses 5.13–14 of the Nirukta. Agastya and his ideas are cited in numerous other Vedic texts, such as section 7.5.5 of Taittiriya Samhita, 10.11 of Kathaka Samhita, 2.1 of Maitrayani Samhita, 5.16 of Aitareya Brahmana, 2.7.11 of Taittiriya Brahmana, and 21.14 of Pancavimsati Brahmana.

Ramayana
Sage Agastya is mentioned in the Hindu epic Ramayana in several chapters with his hermitage described to be on the banks of river Godavari.

In the Ramayana, Agastya and Lopamudra are described as living in Dandaka forest, on the southern slopes of Vindhya mountains. Rama praises Agastya as the one who can do what gods find impossible. He is described by Rama as the sage who asked Vindhya mountains to lower themselves so that Sun, Moon and living beings could easily pass over it. He is also described as the sage who used his Dharma powers to kill demons Vatapi and Ilwala after they had jointly misled and destroyed 9,000 men.

Agastya, according to the Ramayana, is a unique sage, who is short and heavy in build, but by living in the south he balances the powers of Shiva and the weight of Kailasha and Mount Meru. Agastya and his wife meet Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. He gives them a divine bow and arrow, describes the evil nature of Ravana and, according to William Buck, B. A. van Nooten and Shirley Triest, bids them goodbye with the advice, "Rama, demons do not love men, therefore men must love each other".

Mahabharata
The story of Agastya is mirrored in the second major Hindu epic Mahabharata. However, instead of Rama, the story is told as a conversation between Yudhishthira and Lomasa starting with section 96 of Book 3, the Vana Parva (the Book of Forest).

He is described in the epic as a sage with enormous powers of ingestion and digestion. Agastya, once again, stops the Vindhya mountains from growing and lowers them and he kills the demons Vatapi and Ilvala much the same mythical way as in the Ramayana. The Vana Parva also describes the story of Lopamudra and Agastya getting engaged and married. It also contains the mythical story of a war between Indra and Vritra, where all the demons hide in the sea, gods requesting Agastya for help, who then goes and drinks up the ocean thereby revealing all the demons to the gods.

Puranas
The Puranic literature of Hinduism has numerous stories about Agastya, more elaborate, more fantastical and inconsistent than the mythologies found in Vedic and Epics literature of India. For example, chapter 61 of the Matsya Purana, chapter 22 of Padma Purana, and seven other Maha Puranas tell the entire biography of Agastya. Some list him as one of the Saptarishi (seven great rishi), while in others he is one of the eight or twelve extraordinary sages of the Hindu traditions. The names and details are not consistent across the different Puranas, nor in different manuscript versions of the same Purana. He is variously listed along with Angiras, Atri, Bhrigu, Bhargava, Bharadvaja, Visvamitra, Vasistha, Kashyapa, Gautama, Jamadagni and others.

Agastya is reverentially mentioned in the Puranas of all major Hindu traditions: Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism. Many of the Puranas include lengthy and detailed accounts of the descendants of Agastya and other Saptarishis.

Tamil texts
In Tamil traditions, Agastya is considered as the father of the Tamil language and the compiler of the first Tamil grammar, called Agattiyam or Akattiyam. Agastya has been a culture hero in Tamil traditions and appears in numerous Tamil texts. Agastya learnt the Tamil language from god Murugan when he arrived in the southern Tamil country from north India.

There are similarities and differences between the Northern and Southern (Tamil) traditions about Agastya. According to Iravatham Mahadevan, both traditions state that Agastya migrated from north to south. The Tamil text Purananuru, dated to about the start of the common era, or possibly about 2nd century CE, in verse 201 mentions Agastya along with many people migrating south.

In the northern legends, Agastya's role in spreading Vedic tradition and Sanskrit is emphasized, while in southern traditions his role in spreading irrigation, agriculture and augmenting the Tamil language is emphasized. In the north, his ancestry is unknown with mythical legends limiting themselves to saying that Agastya was born from a mud pitcher. In southern traditions, his descent from a pitcher is a common reference, but two alternate southern legends place him as the Caṅkam (Sangam) polity and is said to have led the migration of eighteen Vēlir tribes from Dvārakā to the south.

The northern traditional stories, states Mahadevan, are "nothing more than a collection of incredible fables and myths", while the southern versions "ring much truer and appear to be a down to earth account of a historical event". Others disagree. According to K.N. Sivaraja Pillai, for example, there is nothing in the early Sangam literature or any Tamil texts prior to about the mid 1st millennium CE that mentions Agastya. The earliest mention of the role of Agastya in Tamil language, according to Richard Weiss, can be traced to the Iraiyanar Akapporul by 8th century Nakkirar. However, in medieval era stories of the Tamil tradition, Agastya pioneered the first sangam period that lasted 4,440 years, and took part in the second sangam period that lasted another 3,700 years.

The Tirumantiram describes Agastya as an ascetic sage, who came from the north and settled in the southern Pothigai mountains because Shiva asked him to. He is described as the one who perfected and loved both Sanskrit and Tamil languages, amassing knowledge in both, thus becoming a symbol of integration, harmony and learning, instead of being opposed to either. According to the Skanda Purana, the whole world visited the Himalayas when Shiva was about to wed Parvati. This caused the earth to tip to one side. Shiva then requested Agastya to go to the southern region to restore the equilibrium. Thus, Agastya migrated south at Shiva's behest.

Siddhar
Agastya, in Tamil Hindu traditions, is considered as the first and foremost Siddhar (Tamil: cittar, Sanskrit: siddha). A siddhar is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root sidh which means "to accomplish or succeed". As the first Siddhar, Agastya is deemed as the first master, accomplished, the sage who perfected his knowledge of the natural and spiritual worlds. This Tamil concept has parallels to Tibetan mahasiddhas, Sri Lankan Buddhist, and Nath Hindu yogi traditions of north India. Agastya, along with Tirumular, is considered a siddhar in both philosophical and practical domains, unlike most other siddhar who are revered for their special domain of knowledge. Agastya is also unique for the reverence he has received in historic texts all over the Indian subcontinent.

According to Venkatraman, the Siddhar-related literature about Agastya is late medieval to early modern era. In particular, all medicine and health-related Tamil text, that include Agastya as the Siddhar, have been composed in and after the 15th-century. According to Hartmut Scharfe, the oldest medicine siddhar Tamil text mentioning Agastya were composed no earlier than the 16th century.

His named is spelled as Agathiyar or Agasthiyar in some Tamil texts, and some consider the writer of the medical texts to be a different person.

According to Kamil Zvelebil, the sage Agastya, Akattiyan the Siddhar, and Akatthiyar, the author of Akattiyam, were three or possibly four different persons of different eras, who over time became fused into one single person in the Tamil tradition.

Buddhist texts
Several Buddhist texts mention Agastya. Just like early Buddhist texts such as Kalapa, Katantra and Candra-vyakarana adapting Panini, and Asvaghosa adopting the more ancient Sanskrit poetic methodology as he praises the Buddha, Agastya appears in 1st millennium CE Buddhist texts. In Tamil texts, for example, Akattiyan is described as the sage who learnt Tamil and Sanskrit grammar and poetics from Avalokitan (another name for Buddha-to-be Avalokiteśvara).

According to Anne E. Monius, the Manimekalai and Viracoliyam are two of many South Indian texts that co-opt Agastya and make him a student of the Buddha-to-be.

Agastya elsewhere appears in other historic Buddhist mythologies, such as the Jataka tales. For example, the Buddhist text Jataka-mala by Aryasura, about the Buddha's previous lives, includes Agastya as the seventh chapter. The Agastya-Jataka story is carved as a relief in the Borobudur, the world's largest early medieval era Mahayana Buddhist temple.

Javanese and Indian texts
Agastya is one of the most important figures in a number of medieval era Southeast Asian inscriptions, temple reliefs and arts. He was particularly popular in Java due to his teaching of

Saiva Siddhanta which was easily accepted into the Javanese society. He introduced the Vedic science and the Pallavan Grantha script, his popularity declined when Islam started to spread throughout the islands of Indonesia. He is also found in Cambodia, Vietnam and other regions. The earliest mentions of Agastya is traceable to about the mid 1st millennium CE, but the 11th-century Javanese language text Agastya-parva is a remarkable combination of philosophy, mythology and genealogy attributed to sage Agastya.

The Agastya-parva includes Sanskrit verse (shlokas) embedded within the Javanese language. The text is structured as a conversation between a Guru (teacher, Agastya) and a Sisya (student, Agastya's son Drdhasyu). The style is a mixture of didactic, philosophical and theological treatise, covering diverse range of topics much like Hindu Puranas. The chapters of the Javanese text include the Indian theory of cyclic existence, rebirth and samsara, creation of the world by the churning of the ocean (samudra manthan), theories of the Samkhya and the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, major sections on god Shiva and Shaivism, some discussion of Tantra, a manual like summary of ceremonies associated with the rites of passage and others.

While the similarities between the Agastya-parva text and classical Indian ideas are obvious, according to Jan Gonda, the Indian counterpart of this text in Sanskrit or Tamil languages have not been found in Indonesia or in India. Similarly other Agastya-related Indonesian texts, dated to be from the 10th to 12th centuries, discuss ideas from multiple sub-schools of Shaivism such as theistic Shaivasiddhanta and monistic Agamic Pashupata, and these texts declare these theologies to be of equal merit and value.

Agastya is common in medieval era Shiva temples of southeast Asia, such as the stone temples in Java (candi). Along with the iconography of Shiva, Uma, Nandi and Ganesha who face particular cardinal directions, these temples include sculpture, image or relief of Agastya carved into the southern face. The Shiva shrine in the largest Hindu temple complex in southeast Asia, Prambanan, features four cellae in its interior. This central shrine within Prambanan group of temples dedicates its southern cella to Agastya.

The Dinoyo inscription, dated to 760 CE, is primarily dedicated to Agastya. The inscription states that his older wooden image was remade in stone, thereby suggesting that the reverence for Agastya iconography in southeast Asia was prevalent in an older period. In Cambodia, the 9th-century king Indravarman, who is remembered for sponsoring and the building of a large number of historic temples and related artworks, is declared in the texts of this period to be a descendant of sage Agastya.

Agastya Samhita
Agastya Saṁhitā (literally: "Agastya's Compendium") is the title of several works in Sanskrit, attributed to Agastya.

One of those works is the Agastya Samhita, sometimes called the Sankara Samhita, a section embedded in Skanda Purana. It was probably composed in late medieval era, but before the 12th-century. It exists in many versions, and is structured as a dialogue between Skanda and Agastya. Scholars such as Moriz Winternitz state that the authenticity of the surviving version of this document is doubtful because Shaiva celebrities such as Skanda and Agastya teach Vaishnavism ideas and the bhakti (devotional worship) of Rama, mixed in with a tourist guide about Shiva temples in Varanasi and other parts of India.

Agastimata
Agastya is attributed to be the author of Agastimata, a pre-10th century treatise about gems and diamonds, with chapters on the origins, qualities, testing and making jewellery from them. Several other Sanskrit texts on gems and lapidary are also credited to Agastya in the Indian traditions.

Others
Other mentions of Agastya include:
 * Bṛhaddevatā in section 5.134.
 * The Lalita sahasranama of Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, which describes the 1000 names of the goddess Lalita is a part of the Brahmanda Purana. It is presented as a teaching from Hayagriya (an avatar of Viṣṇu) to Agastya.
 * Agastya is credited as the creator of the Āditya Hṛdayam (literally, "heart of the sun"), a hymn to Sūrya he told Rama to recite, so that he may win against Ravana. Scholars such as John Muir questioned this hymn since the need for a such a hymn by Rama implies doubts about his divine nature.
 * Lakshmi Stotram and Saraswati Stotram.
 * The Tamil text Pattuppattu states Agastya to be master of icai (music, song).
 * Kalidasa, in his Raghuvaṃśa (6.61) states that Agastya officiated the horse sacrifice of a Pandya king of Madurai.
 * One of the authors of Nadi Shastra / Nadi astrology

Temples
Temples for Agastya are found in Tamil Nadu. They include the Sri Agasthiyar Temple at Agasthiyar Falls (Kalyana Theertham) in Papanasam (Thirunelveli District) and the Sri Lobamudra Samedha Agasthiyar Temple in the Arulmigu Chidambara Vinayagar Thirukoil at A. Vellalapatti (Madurai District) (7 km from Alagarkovil).

Agastya statues or reliefs feature in numerous early medieval temples of north India, south India and southeast Asia. One famous Agastya temple is also located in Uttarakhand in the town of Agastyamuni. The town derived its name on the name of Sage Agastya. The Dasavatara temple in Deogarh (Uttar Pradesh, near Madhya Pradesh border) features a 6th-century Gupta Empire era Agastya carving. In Karnataka similarly, he is reverentially shown in several 7th-century temples such as the Mallikarjuna temple in Mahakuta and the Parvati temple in Sandur. He is a part of many Chalukya era Shaivism temples in the Indian subcontinent peninsula.

The artistic iconography of South Asian and Southeast Asian temples show common themes such as he holding a pitcher, but also differences. For example, Agastya is featured inside or outside of the temple walls and sometimes as guardian at the entrance (dvarapala), with or without a potbelly, with or without a receding hairline, with or without a dagger and sword. Rock cut temples and caves, such as the 8th-century Pandya rock temples group, show Agastya.

Literature
The shrine to Agastya at the Pothigai hill source of the river is mentioned in both Ilango Adigal's Silappatikaram and Chithalai Chathanar's Manimekhalai epics.

Similarly, the Sanskrit plays Anargharāghava and Rajasekhara's Bālarāmāyaṇa of the ninth century refer to a shrine of Agastya on or near Adam's Peak (Sri Pada), the tallest mountain in Sri Lanka (ancient Tamraparni), from whence the river Gona Nadi/Kala Oya flows into the Gulf of Mannar's Puttalam Lagoon.

Martial arts
Maharishi Agastya is regarded as the founder of Silambam, an Indian martial art from Tamil Nadu, and varmam, an ancient science of healing using varmam points for varied diseases which is also utilized by practitioners of the southern form of Kalaripayattu, an Indian martial art from Kerala. Murugan, the son of Shiva, is said to have taught varmam to Agastya, who then wrote treatises on it and passed it on to other siddhar.

title: Agastya


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Aghora

Aghora may refer to:
 * The Hindu god Bhairava, a form of Shiva
 * Aghori, a particular school of Hindu Tantra
 * Aghor Yoga, subsect of the Aghora lineage
 * Aghora (band), a Floridian progressive metal band
 * Aghora (album), an album by Aghora

title: Aghora