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Devaki

Devaki (Sanskrit: देवकी, IAST: Devakī) is a character in Hindu literature, most noted for being the mother of the god Krishna. She is one of the seven daughters of Devapa or Devaka, a king of the Yadu dynasty, and has four brothers. She is one of the wives of Vasudeva. Her cousin is Kamsa, the king of Mathura, a cruel tyrant who had been told by Narada that he had been an asura killed by Vishnu in his previous life (Kalanemi), exacerbating his wickedness. According to popular tradition, Devaki is considered to be an incarnation of Aditi, a mother goddess who was the daughter of Daksha and the wife of Kashyapa.

Marriage
During the nuptials of Vasudeva and Devaki following the former's wedding with his bride's six older sisters, Vishnu picked a lock of hair from his mount Shesha as well as his own, proclaiming that they would take be born as Devaki's seventh and eighth children, respectively. After the marriage ceremony, Kamsa volunteered to escort the newly-weds to Mathura and drove their chariot. A celestial voice, an aśarīrī, prophesied that the eighth child of Devaki would become Kamsa's death, and deliver the land from his wickedness. Angered, Kamsa rose to kill Devaki, but was stopped by Vasudeva, who promised to give each child to Kamsa, whom he would subsequently kill.

Imprisonment
Devaki and Vasudeva were imprisoned by Kamsa due to the paranoia that had taken root in the tyrant's mind. Her six children were killed, while the seventh Balarama survived after being transferred by divine will into the uterus of Rohini, one of the other wives of Vasudeva.

Devaki's six dead sons were named Kírttimat, Sushena, Udayin, Bhadrasena, Rijudasa, and Bhadradeha. According to the Harivamsa, these were the reincarnations of the sons of the asura Kalanemi. They had performed intense austerities to worship the creator deity Brahma, unbeknownst to their own grandfather, Hiranyakashipu. The latter, furious at their actions, cursed them to be born on earth and be slain by Kamsa, who himself was a form of their father.

Devaki soon mothered Balarama through the surrogacy of Rohini.

When Devaki delivered Krishna, he revealed his divine form to his parents, and ordered Vasudeva to take him to Gokulam, placing all the prison guards under a spell of slumber, so that Kamsa would not realise that his prophesied killer had been born. Vasudeva swapped Krishna with Yogamaya, the daughter who had been born to Nanda and Yashoda on the very same day, and returned to the cell.

When Kamsa stormed into the chamber after the spell had worn out, he deduced that Devaki had given birth to a girl. Devaki protested against the killing of the daughter of Nanda and Yashoda, but Kamsa hurled her against a rock, recognising that the gender of his prophesied slayer had not been specified. Yashoda's daughter transformed into an eight-armed goddess, and stated, "Fool, your destroyer has already been born elsewhere." She subsequently vanished into the heavens.

Devaki and Vasudeva's imprisonment came to an end after Kamsa's death.

Salvation to the Sadgarbhas
Devaki, upon hearing how Krishna restored his Guru Sandipani's son, wished to see her own children. Krishna acceded her request and brought the children to Devaki from Patala. She nursed them with her milk and they attained heaven.

Death
After the passing of Vasudeva after the Yadu massacre, Devaki cremated herself on Vasudeva's pyre, performing sati, along with his other wives, Rohini, Bhadra, and Madira.

Worship
In the state of Goa, Devaki Krishna Sansthan temple is a unique temple, perhaps is the only temple in India where Krishna is worshiped alongside mother Devaki. The main deity Devakikrishna and affiliate deities of Bhumika Devi, Laxmi Ravalnath, Mallinath, Katyayani, Chodaneshwar and Dhada Shankar were originally located at Choodamani island (Chorão island of today). To avoid persecution during the Goa Inquisition they were taken to Mayem in Bicholim and from there shifted to the present location at Mashel. The garbhagriha (inner sanctum) of the temple has an idol of Devaki and Krishna. The idol of Devaki is in standing posture holding baby Krishna with her left hand.

title: Devaki


text:
Vasudeva

Vasudeva (Sanskrit: वसुदेव, IAST: Vasudeva), also called Anakadundubhi (anakas and dundubhis both refer to drums, after the musicians who played these instruments at the time of his birth), is the father of the Hindu deities Krishna (Vāsudeva, i.e. "son of Vasudeva"), Balarama, and Subhadra. He was a king of the Vrishnis. The son of the Yadava king Shurasena, he was also the second cousin of Nanda, the foster-father of Krishna. His sister Kunti was married to Pandu.

The patronymic  (with a pronounced ā) is a popular name of Krishna, the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. "Vāsudeva" is a vṛddhi, a derivative of the short form "Vasudeva", a linguistic pragmatic in Sanskrit signifying "of, belonging to, descended from". "Vasudeva" as an object of worship in Hinduism usually refers to the son (Krishna), rather than his father Vasudeva.

Family
Vasudeva was born to the Rajput king Shurasena in the Surasena kingdom. Vasudeva had many brothers such as Devashrava and Devabhaga, and sisters such as Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), Shrutasravas (mother of Shishupala), and others. According to the Harivamsa Purana, Vasudeva and Nanda, the Kshatriya chief of Gokula, were brothers or cousins.

Wives and children
Vasudeva married Devaki, and also had other wives such as Pauravi Rohini, Madira, Vaishakhi, Bhadra, Sunama, Sahadeva, Shantideva, Shrideva, Devarakshita, Vrikadevi, Upadevi and Badarva. Rohini bore several sons, namely, Balarama, Sarana and Shatha. Vrikadevi gave birth to Avagaha and Nandaka. By Devaki, he had eight sons – six of whom were killed by Kamsa and the other two being Balarama (transferred into the womb of Rohini) and Krishna. He also had a daughter – Subhadra from Rohini. In some versions of the Bhagavata Purana, Vasudeva also married Sutanu, the princess of Kasi, and they had a son named Paundraka.

Descendants
Vasudeva traced a number of descendants through his sons. Sarana had many sons like Satyadhriti and Marsti, and Shatha had a son called Sarthi. Balarama married Revati and had two sons – Nishatha and Ulmuka & a daughter – Vatsala/Shashirekha. Krishna had eight principal wives, and he begat many children from them, such as Pradyumna, Samba, Bhanu etc., and they also had many children. Vasudeva's daughter Subhadra married Pandava prince Arjuna, and they had a son Abhimanyu. Ultimately, it was Abhimanyu's son Parikshit who ascended the Kuru throne after Yudhishthira.

Many of the Yadavas killed themselves in the Yadava fratricide. Krishna, Balarama and Vasudeva later gave up their lives, and the Pandavas collected the remaining Yadava children and ladies with them to Indraprastha, where Pradyumma's grandson Vajra was crowned as king of Mathura, and some other survivors also were crowned as kings of different places (See Mausala Parva).

The sons of Vasudeva were related to Bhagavatism that was largely formed by the 1st-millennium BCE where Vāsudeva (Krishna, the son of Vasudeva) was worshiped as supreme ultimate reality. This is evidenced by texts and archaeological evidence. As textual evidence, the Mahanarayana Upanishad records the verse:

"नारायाणाय विद्महे वासुदेवाय धीमहि तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात्

nārāyāṇāya vidmahē vāsudēvāya dhīmahi tannō viṣṇuḥ pracōdayāt

We endeavor to know Narayana, we meditate on Vāsudeva and Vishnu bestows wisdom on us."

- Mahanarayana Upanishad

This verse asserts that Narayana, Vāsudeva (Krishna), and Vishnu are synonymous. The author and the century in which the above Mahanarayana Upanishad was composed is unknown. The relative chronology of the text, based on its poetic verse and textual style, has been proposed by Parmeshwaranand to the same period of composition as Katha, Isha, Mundaka and Shvetashvatara Upanishads, but before Maitri, Prashna and Mandukya Upanishad. Feuerstein places the relative composition chronology of Mahanarayana to be about that of Mundaka and Prashna Upanishads. These relative chronology estimates date the text to second half of 1st millennium BCE. Srinivasan suggests a later date for the composition of the Mahanarayana Upanishad, one after about 300 BCE and probably in the centuries around the start of the common era.

Other evidence is from archeological inscriptions, where Bhagavan is documented epigraphically to be from around 100 BCE, such as in the inscriptions of the Heliodorus pillar. An Indo-Greek ambassador from Taxila named Heliodorus, of this era, visited the court of a Shunga king, and addresses himself as a Bhagavata on this pillar, an epithet scholars consider as evidence of Vāsudeva worship was well established in 1st millennium BCE. A popular short prayer for worshipping Vāsudeva is Dwadashaakshar.

Kashyapa incarnated as Vasudeva
Sage Kashyapa is said to have incarnated as Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, due to a curse of the deities Varuna or Brahma.

Once, the sage is said to have performed a yajna (a ritual sacrifice) in his hermitage. Kashyapa sought the help of the god Varuna for the offerings of milk and ghee. Varuna lent the sage a divine cow that would provide him the required offerings. After completing the sacrifice, Kashyapa delayed in returning the cow back to the deity. Varuna cursed the sage and his wife, Aditi, to be born on earth as Vasudeva and Devaki, the parents of Vishnu in his avatar of Krishna.

In other iterations, Kashyapa is stated to have stolen a divine cow from Varuna for the performance of a ritual sacrifice. The deity requested Brahma for his intervention. For his theft of a cow, Brahma cursed Kashyapa to be born on earth as a cowherd. Since his wives, Aditi and Surasa, had assisted him in concealing the cows in his hermitage, they were also born on earth as his two wives, Devaki and Rohini.

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

title: Vasudeva


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Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig (28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world.

Zweig was raised in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He wrote historical studies of famous literary figures, such as Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky in Drei Meister (1920; Three Masters), and decisive historical events in Decisive Moments in History (1927). He wrote biographies of Joseph Fouché (1929), Mary Stuart (1935) and Marie Antoinette (Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, 1932), among others. Zweig's best-known fiction includes Letter from an Unknown Woman (1922), Amok (1922), Fear (1925), Confusion of Feelings (1927), Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman (1927), the psychological novel Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity, 1939), and The Royal Game (1941).

In 1934, as a result of the Nazi Party's rise in Germany and the establishment of the Standestaat regime in Austria, Zweig emigrated to England and then, in 1940, moved briefly to New York and then to Brazil, where he settled. In his final years, he would declare himself in love with the country, writing about it in the book Brazil, Land of the Future. Nonetheless, as the years passed Zweig became increasingly disillusioned and despairing at the future of Europe, and he and his wife Lotte were found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their house in Petrópolis on 23 February 1942; they had died the previous day. His work has been the basis for several film adaptations. Zweig's memoir, Die Welt von Gestern (The World of Yesterday, 1942), is noted for its description of life during the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under Franz Joseph I and has been called the most famous book on the Habsburg Empire.

Biography
Zweig was born in Vienna, the son of Ida Brettauer (1854–1938), a daughter of a Jewish banking family, and Moritz Zweig (1845–1926), a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer. He was related to the Czech writer Egon Hostovský, who described him as "a very distant relative"; some sources describe them as cousins.

Zweig studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and in 1904 earned a doctoral degree with a thesis on "The Philosophy of Hippolyte Taine". Religion did not play a central role in his education. "My mother and father were Jewish only through accident of birth", Zweig said in an interview. Yet he did not renounce his Jewish faith and wrote repeatedly on Jews and Jewish themes, as in his story Buchmendel. Zweig had a warm relationship with Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, whom he met when Herzl was still literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse, then Vienna's main newspaper; Herzl accepted for publication some of Zweig's early essays. Zweig, a committed cosmopolitan, believed in internationalism and in Europeanism, as The World of Yesterday, his autobiography, makes clear: "I was sure in my heart from the first of my identity as a citizen of the world." According to Amos Elon, Zweig called Herzl's book Der Judenstaat an "obtuse text, [a] piece of nonsense".

Zweig served in the Archives of the Ministry of War and supported Austria's effort for war through his writings in the Neue Freie Presse and frequently celebrated in his Diaries the capture and massacre of opposing soldiers (for instance, writing about the innumerable citizens killed at gunpoint under the suspicion of espionage that "what filth has made ooze must be cauterized with scalding iron".) Zweig judged Serbian soldiers as "hordes" and stated that "one feels proud to talk German" when thousands of French soldiers were captured in Metz. Conversely, in his memoirs, The World of Yesterday, Zweig portrays himself in the role of pacifist at the time of the First World War, states that he refused "to participate in those rabid calumnies against the enemy" (although, through his work in the official Neue Freie Presse, Zweig promoted the war propaganda issued from the Austrian crown) and affirms that among his intellectual friends he was "alone" in his stance against the war.

Zweig married Friderike Maria von Winternitz (born Burger) in 1920; they divorced in 1938. As Friderike Zweig she published a book on her former husband after his death. She later also published a picture book on Zweig. In the late summer of 1939, Zweig married his secretary Elisabet Charlotte "Lotte" Altmann in Bath, England. Zweig's secretary in Salzburg from November 1919 to March 1938 was Anna Meingast (13 May 1881, Vienna – 17 November 1953, Salzburg).

As a Jew, Zweig's high profile did not shield him from the threat of persecution. In 1934, following Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the establishment of the Ständestaat, an authoritarian political regime now known as "Austrofascism", Zweig left Austria for England, living first in London, then from 1939 in Bath. Because of the swift advance of Hitler's troops westwards, and the threat of arrest or worse – as part of the preparations for Operation Seelöwe a list of persons to be detained immediately after conquest of the British Isles, the so-called Black Book, had been assembled and Zweig was on page 231, with his London address fully mentioned – Zweig and his second wife crossed the Atlantic to the United States, settling in 1940 in New York City; they lived for two months as guests of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, before renting a house in Ossining, New York.

On 22 August 1940, they moved again to Petrópolis, a German-colonized mountain town 68 kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro. There, he wrote the book Brazil, Land of the Future and developed a close friendship with Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Zweig, feeling increasingly depressed about the situation in Europe and the future for humanity, wrote in a letter to author Jules Romains, "My inner crisis consists in that I am not able to identify myself with the me of passport, the self of exile". He had been despairing at the future of Europe and its culture. He wrote: "I think it better to conclude in good time and in erect bearing a life in which intellectual labour meant the purest joy and personal freedom the highest good on Earth". On 23 February 1942, the Zweigs were found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their house in the city of Petrópolis, holding hands. The Zweigs' house in Brazil was later turned into a cultural centre and is now known as Casa Stefan Zweig.

Work
Zweig was a prominent writer in the 1920s and 1930s, befriending Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud. He was extremely popular in the United States, South America and Europe, and remains so in continental Europe; however, he was largely ignored by the British public. His fame in America had diminished until the 1990s, when there began an effort on the part of several publishers (notably Pushkin Press, Hesperus Press, and The New York Review of Books) to get Zweig back into print in English. Plunkett Lake Press has reissued electronic versions of his non-fiction works. Since that time there has been a marked resurgence and a number of Zweig's books are back in print.

Critical opinion of his oeuvre is strongly divided between those who praise his humanism, simplicity and effective style, and those who criticize his literary style as poor, lightweight and superficial. In a review entitled "Vermicular Dither", German polemicist Michael Hofmann scathingly attacked the Austrian's work. Hofmann opined that "Zweig just tastes fake. He's the Pepsi of Austrian writing." Even the author's suicide note, Hofmann suggested, induces "the irritable rise of boredom halfway through it, and the sense that he doesn't mean it, his heart isn't in it (not even in his suicide)".

Zweig is best known for his novellas (notably The Royal Game, Amok, and Letter from an Unknown Woman – which was filmed in 1948 by Max Ophüls), novels (Beware of Pity, Confusion of Feelings, and the posthumously published The Post Office Girl) and biographies (notably of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Ferdinand Magellan, and Mary, Queen of Scots, and also the posthumously published one on Balzac). At one time his works were published without his consent in English under the pseudonym "Stephen Branch" (a translation of his real name) when anti-German sentiment was running high. His 1932 biography of Queen Marie Antoinette was adapted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a 1938 film starring Norma Shearer.

Zweig's memoir,  The World of Yesterday, was completed in 1942 one day before he died by suicide. It has been widely discussed as a record of "what it meant to be alive between 1881 and 1942" in central Europe; the book has attracted both critical praise and hostile dismissal.

Zweig acknowledged his debt to psychoanalysis. In a letter dated 8 September 1926, he wrote to Freud, "Psychology is the great business of my life". He went on explaining that Freud had considerable influence on writers such as Marcel Proust, D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, giving them a lesson in "courage" and helping them to overcome their inhibitions. "Thanks to you, we see many things. – Thanks to you we say many things which otherwise we would not have seen nor said." He claimed autobiography, in particular, had become "more clear-sighted and audacious".

Zweig enjoyed a close association with Richard Strauss and provided the libretto for Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman). Strauss famously defied the Nazi regime by refusing to sanction the removal of Zweig's name from the programme for the work's première on 24 June 1935 in Dresden. As a result, Goebbels refused to attend as planned, and the opera was banned after three performances. Zweig later collaborated with Joseph Gregor to provide Strauss with the libretto for one other opera, Daphne, in 1937. At least one other work by Zweig received a musical setting: the pianist and composer Henry Jolles, who like Zweig had fled to Brazil to escape the Nazis, composed a song, "Último poema de Stefan Zweig", based on "Letztes Gedicht", which Zweig wrote on the occasion of his 60th birthday in November 1941. During his stay in Brazil, Zweig wrote Brasilien, Ein Land der Zukunft (Brazil, A Land of the Future) which consisted in a collection of essays on the history and culture of his newly adopted country.

Zweig was a passionate collector of manuscripts. He corresponded at length with Hungarian musicologist Gisela Selden-Goth, often discussing their shared interest in collecting original music scores. There are important Zweig collections at the British Library, at the State University of New York at Fredonia and at the National Library of Israel. The British Library's Stefan Zweig Collection was donated to the library by his heirs in May 1986. It specialises in autograph music manuscripts, including works by Bach, Haydn, Wagner, and Mahler. It has been described as "one of the world's greatest collections of autograph manuscripts". One particularly precious item is Mozart's "Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke" – that is, the composer's own handwritten thematic catalogue of his works.

The 1993–1994 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

Zweig has been credited with being one of the novelists who contributed to the emergence of what would later be called the Habsburg Myth.

Fiction
1. The Chains (Original title: Die Kette) 2. Kaleidoscope (Original title: Kaleidoskop). Includes: Casual Knowledge of a Craft, Leporella, Fear, Burning Secret, Summer Novella, The Governess, Buchmendel, The Refugee, The Invisible Collection, Fantastic Night, and Moonbeam Alley. Kaleidoscope: thirteen stories and novelettes, published by The Viking Press in 1934, includes some of those just listed — some with differently translated titles — plus others.
 * Forgotten Dreams, 1900 (Original title: Vergessene Träume)
 * Spring in the Prater, 1900 (Original title: Praterfrühling)
 * A Loser, 1901 (Original title: Ein Verbummelter)
 * In the Snow, 1901 (Original title: Im Schnee)
 * Two Lonely Souls, 1901 (Original title: Zwei Einsame)
 * The Miracles of Life, 1903 (Original title: Die Wunder des Lebens)
 * The Love of Erika Ewald, 1904 (Original title: Die Liebe der Erika Ewald)
 * The Star Over the Forest, 1904 (Original title: Der Stern über dem Walde)
 * The Fowler Snared, 1906 (Original title: Sommernovellette)
 * The Governess, 1907 (Original title: Die Governante)
 * Scarlet Fever, 1908 (Original title: Scharlach)
 * Twilight, 1910 (Original title: Geschichte eines Unterganges)
 * A Story Told In Twilight, 1911, short story (Original title: Geschichte in der Dämmerung)
 * Burning Secret, 1913 (Original title: )
 * Fear, 1920 (Original title: Angst)
 * Compulsion, 1920 (Original title: Der Zwang)
 * Fantastic Night, 1922 (Original title: Phantastische Nacht)
 * Letter from an Unknown Woman, 1922 (Original title: Brief einer Unbekannten)
 * Moonbeam Alley, 1922 (Original title: Die Mondscheingasse)
 * Amok, 1922 (Original title: Amok) – novella, initially published with several others in Amok. Novellen einer Leidenschaft
 * The Invisible Collection, 1925 (Original title: Die unsichtbare Sammlung)
 * Downfall of the Heart, 1927 (Original title: Untergang eines Herzens)
 * The Invisible Collection see Collected Stories below, (Original title: Die Unsichtbare Sammlung, first published in book form in 'Insel-Almanach auf das Jahr 1927' )
 * The Refugee, 1927 (Original title: Der Flüchtling. Episode vom Genfer See).
 * Confusion of Feelings or Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R Von D, 1927 (Original title: Verwirrung der Gefühle) – novella initially published in the volume Verwirrung der Gefühle: Drei Novellen
 * Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, 1927 (Original title: Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau) – novella initially published in the volume Verwirrung der Gefühle: Drei Novellen
 * Widerstand der Wirklichkeit, 1929 (in English as Journey into the Past (1976))
 * Buchmendel, 1929 (Original title: Buchmendel))
 * Short stories, 1930 (Original title: Kleine Chronik. Vier Erzählungen) – includes Buchmendel
 * Did He Do It?, published between 1935 and 1940 (Original title: War er es?)
 * Leporella, 1935 (Original title: Leporella)
 * Collected Stories, 1936 (Original title: Gesammelte Erzählungen) – two volumes of short stories:
 * Incident on Lake Geneva, 1936 (Original title: Episode am Genfer See Revised version of "Der Flüchtung. Episode vom Genfer See", published in 1927)
 * The Old-Book Peddler and Other Tales for Bibliophiles, 1937, four pieces (two "clothed in the form of fiction," according to the preface by translator Theodore W. Koch), published by Northwestern University, The Charles Deering Library, Evanston, Illinois:
 * "Books are the Gateway to the World"
 * "The Old-Book Peddler; A Viennese Tale for Bibliophiles" (Original title: Buchmendel)
 * "The Invisible Collection; An Episode from the Post-War Inflation Period" (Original title: Die unsichtbare Sammlung)
 * "Thanks to Books"
 * Beware of Pity, 1939 (Original title: Ungeduld des Herzens) novel
 * Legends, a collection of five short stories published in 1945 (Original title: Legenden – published also as Jewish Legends with "Buchmendel" instead of "The Dissimilar Doubles":
 * "Rachel Arraigns with God", 1930 (Original title: "Rahel rechtet mit Gott"
 * "The Eyes of My Brother, Forever", 1922 (Original title: "Die Augen des ewigen Bruders")
 * "The Buried Candelabrum", 1936 (Original title: "Der begrabene Leuchter")
 * "The Legend of The Third Dove", 1945 (Original title: "Die Legende der dritten Taube")
 * "The Dissimilar Doubles", 1927 (Original title: "Kleine Legende von den gleich-ungleichen Schwestern")
 * The Royal Game or Chess Story or Chess (Original title: Schachnovelle; Buenos Aires, 1942) – novella written in 1938–41,
 * Clarissa, 1981 unfinished novel
 * The Debt Paid Late, 1982 (Original title: Die spät bezahlte Schuld)
 * The Post Office Girl, 1982 (Original title: Rausch der Verwandlung. Roman aus dem Nachlaß; The Intoxication of Metamorphosis)
 * Schneewinter: 50 zeitlose Gedichte, 2016, editor Martin Werhand. Melsbach, Martin Werhand Verlag 2016

Biographies and historical texts

 * Émile Verhaeren (the Belgian poet), 1910
 * Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky, 1920 (Original title: Drei Meister. Balzac – Dickens – Dostojewski. Translated into English by Eden and Cedar Paul and published in 1930 as Three Masters)
 * Romain Rolland: The Man and His Work, 1921 (Original title: Romain Rolland. Der Mann und das Werk)
 * Nietzsche, 1925 (Originally published in the volume titled: Der Kampf mit dem Dämon. Hölderlin – Kleist – Nietzsche)
 * Decisive Moments in History, 1927 (Original title: Sternstunden der Menschheit). Translated into English and published in 1940 as The Tide of Fortune: Twelve Historical Miniatures; retranslated in 2013 by Anthea Bell as Shooting Stars: Ten Historical Miniatures
 * Adepts in Self-Portraiture: Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoy, 1928 (Original title: Drei Dichter ihres Lebens. Casanova – Stendhal – Tolstoi)
 * Joseph Fouché, 1929 (Original title: Joseph Fouché. Bildnis eines politischen Menschen)
 * Mental Healers: Franz Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy, Sigmund Freud, 1932 (Original title: Die Heilung durch den Geist. Mesmer, Mary Baker-Eddy, Freud)
 * Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, 1932 (Original title: Marie Antoinette. Bildnis eines mittleren Charakters) ISBN 4-87187-855-4
 * Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1934 (Original title: Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam)
 * Maria Stuart, 1935 (also published as: The Queen of Scots or Mary Queen of Scots) ISBN 4-87187-858-9
 * A Conscience Against Violence or The Right to Heresy: Castellio against Calvin, 1936 (Original title: Castellio gegen Calvin oder Ein Gewissen gegen die Gewalt)
 * Conqueror of the Seas: The Story of Magellan, 1938 (Original title: Magellan. Der Mann und seine Tat) ISBN 4-87187-856-2
 * Montaigne, 1941 ISBN 978-1782271031
 * Amerigo, 1942 (Original title: Amerigo. Geschichte eines historischen Irrtums) – written in 1942, published the day before he died ISBN 4-87187-857-0
 * Balzac, 1946 – written, as describes in a postscript, by Zweig in the Brazilian summer capital of Petrópolis, without access to the files, notebooks, lists, tables, editions and monographs that Zweig accumulated for many years and that he took with him to Bath, but that he left behind when he went to America. Friedenthal wrote that Balzac "was to be his magnum opus, and he had been working at it for ten years. It was to be a summing up of his own experience as an author and of what life had taught him." Friedenthal claimed that "The book had been finished", though not every chapter was complete; he used a working copy of the manuscript Zweig left behind him to apply "the finishing touches", and Friedenthal rewrote the final chapters (Balzac, translated by William and Dorothy Rose [New York: Viking, 1946], pp. 399, 402).
 * Paul Verlaine, Copyright 1913, By L.E. Basset Boston, Mass., USA. authorized English translation by O.F. Theis. Luce and Company Boston. Maunsel and Co. Ltd Dublin and London.

Plays

 * Tersites, 1907
 * Das Haus am Meer, 1912
 * Jeremiah, 1917
 * Ben Jonson's Volpone. A Loveless Comedy in 3 Acts, freely adapted, 1928

Other

 * The World of Yesterday (Original title: Die Welt von Gestern; Stockholm, 1942) – autobiography
 * Brazil, Land of the Future (Original title: Brasilien. Ein Land der Zukunft; Bermann-Fischer, Stockholm 1941)
 * Journeys (Original title: Auf Reisen; Zurich, 1976); collection of essays
 * Encounters and Destinies: A Farewell to Europe (2020); collection of essays

Adaptations
The 1933 Austrian-German drama film The Burning Secret directed by Robert Siodmak was based on Zweig's short story Brennendes Geheimnis. The 1988 remake of the same film Burning Secret was directed by Andrew Birkin and starred Klaus Maria Brandauer and Faye Dunaway.

Letter from an Unknown Woman was filmed in 1948 by Max Ophüls.

Beware of Pity was adapted into a 1946 film with the same title, directed by Maurice Elvey.

Letter from an Unknown Woman was filmed in 1962 by Salah Abu Seif.

An adaptation by Stephen Wyatt of Beware of Pity was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

The 2012 Brazilian film The Invisible Collection, directed by Bernard Attal, is based on Zweig's short story of the same title.

The 2013 French film A Promise (Une promesse) is based on Zweig's novella Journey into the Past (Reise in die Vergangenheit).

The 2013 Swiss film Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Thomas Imbach, is based on Zweig's Maria Stuart.

The end-credits for Wes Anderson's 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel say that the film was inspired in part by Zweig's novels. Anderson said that he had "stolen" from Zweig's novels Beware of Pity and The Post-Office Girl in writing the film, and it features actors Tom Wilkinson as The Author, a character based loosely on Zweig, and Jude Law as his younger, idealised self seen in flashbacks. Anderson also said that the film's protagonist, the concierge Gustave H., played by Ralph Fiennes, was based on Zweig. In the film's opening sequence, a teenage girl visits a shrine for The Author, which includes a bust of him wearing Zweig-like spectacles and celebrated as his country's "National Treasure".

The 2017 Austrian-German-French film Vor der Morgenröte (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) chronicles Stefan Zweig's travels in the North and South Americas, trying to come to terms with his exile from home.

The 2018 American short film Crepúsculo by Clemy Clarke is based on Zweig's short story "A Story Told in Twilight" and relocated to a quinceañera in 1980s New York.

TV film La Ruelle au clair de lune (1988) by Édouard Molinaro is an adaptation of Zweig's short-story Moonbeam Alley.

Schachnovelle, translated as The Royal Game and as Chess Story, was the inspiration for the 1960 Gerd Oswald film Brainwashed, as well as for two Czechoslovakian films—the 1980 Královská hra (The Royal Game) and Šach mat (Checkmate), made for television in 1964 —and for the 2021 Philipp Stölzl film Chess Story.

Libraries

 * Zweig Music Collection at the British Library
 * Stefan Zweig Collection at the Daniel A. Reed Library, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, New York
 * Stefan Zweig Online Bibliography, a wiki hosted by Stefan Zweig Digital, in Salzburg, Austria
 * Stefan Zweig's suicide letter on the National Library of Israel's website

title: Stefan Zweig


text:
Radha

Radha (राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Mūlaprakriti, the Supreme goddess, who is the feminine counterpart and internal potency (hladini shakti) of Krishna. Radha accompanies Krishna in all his incarnations. Radha's birthday is celebrated every year on the occasion of Radhashtami.

In relation with Krishna, Radha has dual representation—the lover consort as well as his married consort. Traditions like Nimbarka Sampradaya worship Radha as the eternal consort and wedded wife of Krishna. In contrast, traditions like Gaudiya Vaishnavism revere her as Krishna's lover and the divine consort.

In Radha Vallabh Sampradaya and Haridasi Sampradaya, only Radha is worshipped as the Supreme being. Elsewhere, she is venerated with Krishna as his principal consort in Nimbarka Sampradaya, Pushtimarg, Mahanam Sampradaya, Swaminarayan Sampradaya, Vaishnava-Sahajiya, Manipuri Vaishnavism, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism movements linked to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Radha is described as the chief of Braj Gopis (milkmaids of Braj) and queen of Goloka and Braj including Vrindavan and Barsana. She has inspired numerous literary works,  and her Raslila dance with Krishna has inspired many types of performance arts.

Etymology and epithets
The Sanskrit term (राधा) means "prosperity, success, perfection and wealth". It is a common word and name found in various contexts in the ancient and medieval texts of India. The word appears in the Vedic literature as well as the Hindu epics, but is elusive. The name also appears for a figure in the epic Mahabharata. Rādhikā refers to an endearing form of Radha.

The fifth chapter of Sanskrit scripture Narada Pancharatra mentioned more than 1000 names of Radha under the title Shri Radha Saharsnama Strotam. Some of the significant names are -

 * Sri, Shreeji, Shriji - Goddess of radiance, splendor and wealth; Lakshmi
 * Madhavi - Feminine counterpart of Madhava
 * Keshavi - Beloved of Keshava
 * Aparajita - She who is unconquerable
 * Kishori - Youthful
 * Nitya - She is eternal
 * Nitya-gehinī - Krishna's eternal wife
 * Gopi - Cowherd girl
 * Shyama - Beloved of Shyam Sundar
 * Gaurangi - Shri Radha whose complexion is as bright as that of lustrous polished gold
 * Raseshvari and Rasa-priya - Queen of Raslila and she who is fond of rasa dance
 * Vrindavaneshvari - Queen of Vrindavan

Literature and symbolism

Radha is an important goddess in the Vaishnavite traditions of Hinduism. Her traits, manifestations, descriptions, and roles vary by region. Radha is intrinsic with Krishna. In early Indian literature, mentions of her are elusive. The traditions that venerate her explain this is because she is the secret treasure hidden within the sacred scriptures. During the Bhakti movement era in the sixteenth century, she became more well known as her extraordinary love for Krishna was highlighted.

Radha's first major appearance in the 12th-century Gita Govinda in Sanskrit by Jayadeva, as well as Nimbarkacharya's philosophical works. Thus in the Gita Govinda Krishna speaks to Radha: "O woman with desire, place on this patch of flower-strewn floor your lotus foot, And let your foot through beauty win, To me who am the Lord of All, O be attached, now always yours. O follow me, my little Radha."

However, the source of Jayadeva's heroine in his poem remains a puzzle of the Sanskrit literature. A possible explanation is Jayadeva's friendship with Nimbarkacharya, the first acharya to establish the worship of Radha-Krishna. Nimbarka, in accordance with the Sahitya Akademi's Encyclopaedia, more than any other acharyas gave Radha a place as a deity.

Prior to Gita Govinda, Radha was also mentioned in text Gatha Saptasati which is a collection of 700 verses composed in Prakrit language by King Hāla. The text was written around first or second century AD. Gatha Saptasati mentioned Radha explicitly in its verse -

Radha also appears in the Puranas namely the Padma Purana (as an avatar of Lakshmi), the Devi-Bhagavata Purana (as a form of Mahadevi), the Brahma Vaivarta Purana (as Radha-Krishna supreme deity), the Matsya Purana (as form of Devi), the Linga Purana (as form of Lakshmi), the Varaha Purana (as consort of Krishna), the Narada Purana (as goddess of love), the Skanda Purana and the Shiva Purana. The 15th and 16th century Krishnaite Bhakti poet-saints Vidyapati, Chandidas, Meera Bai, Surdas, Swami Haridas, as well as Narsinh Mehta (1350–1450), who preceded all of them, wrote about the romance of Krishna and Radha too. Thus, Chandidas in his Bengali-language Shri Krishna Kirtana, a poem of Bhakti, depicts Radha and Krishna as divine, but in human love. Though not named in the Bhagavata Purana, Visvanatha Chakravarti (c. 1626–1708) interprets an unnamed favourite gopi in the scripture as Radha. She makes appearances in Venisamhara by Bhatta Narayana (c. 800 CE), Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana (c. 820–890 CE) and its commentary Dhvanyalokalocana by Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 CE), Rajasekhara's (late ninth-early tenth century) Kāvyamīmāṃsā, Dashavatara-charita (1066 CE) by Kshemendra and Siddhahemasabdanusana by Hemachandra (c. 1088–1172). In most of these, Radha is depicted as someone who is deeply in love with Krishna and is deeply saddened when Krishna leaves her. But, on contrary, Radha of the Rādhātantram is portrayed as audacious, sassy, confident, omniscient and divine personality who is in full control at all times. In Rādhātantram, Radha is not merely the consort but is treated as the independent goddess. Here, Krishna is portrayed as her disciple and Radha as his guru.

Charlotte Vaudeville theorizes that Radha may have inspired by the pairing of the goddess Ekanamsha (associated with Durga) with Jagannatha (who is identified with Krishna) of Puri in Eastern India. Though Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (15th century, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism) is not known to have worshiped the deity couple of Radha-Krishna, his disciples around the Vrindavan region, affirmed Radha as the hladini shakti ("energy of bliss") of Krishna, associating her with the Primordial Divine Mother. While the poetry of Jayadeva and Vidyapati from Bengal treat Radha as Krishna's "mistress", the Gaudiya poetry elevates her to a divine consort. In Western India, Vallabhacharya's Krishna-centric sampradaya Pushtimarg, Radha is revered as the Swamini of Krishna, who is worthy of devotion.

According to Jaya Chemburkar, there are at least two significant and different aspects of Radha in the literature associated with her, such as Sri Radhika namasahasram. One aspect is she is a milkmaid (gopi), another as a female deity similar to those found in the Hindu goddess traditions. She also appears in Hindu arts as Ardhanari with Krishna, that is an iconography where half of the image is Radha and the other half is Krishna. This is found in sculpture such as those discovered in Maharashtra, and in texts such as Shiva Purana and Brahma Vaivarta Purana. In these texts, this Ardha Nari is sometimes referred to as Ardharadhavenudhara murti, and it symbolizes the complete union and inseparability of Radha and Krishna.

D.M. Wulff demonstrates through a close study of her Sanskrit and Bengali sources that Radha is both the "consort" and "conqueror" of Krishna and that "metaphysically Radha is understood as co-substantial and co-eternal with Krishna." Indeed, the more popular vernacular traditions prefer to worship the couple and often tilt the balance of power towards Radha.

Graham M. Schweig in his work "The divine feminine theology of Krishna" in context with Radha Krishna stated that, "The divine couple, Radha and Krishna, comprise the essence of godhead. Radha is therefore acknowledged by Chaitanyaite Vaishnavas to be part of very center of their theological doctrine. Sacred images of the forms of Radha Krishna, standing together side by side, are elaborately worshiped in the Indian temples. Through her image, her divine character and her amorous and passionate relations with Krishna, Radha is the constant meditation of practitioners.

According to William Archer and David Kinsley, a professor of Religious Studies known for his studies on Hindu goddesses, the Radha-Krishna love story is a metaphor for a divine-human relationship, where Radha is the human devotee or soul who is frustrated with the past, obligations to social expectations, and the ideas she inherited, who then longs for real meaning, the true love, the divine (Krishna). This metaphoric Radha (soul) finds new liberation in learning more about Krishna, bonding in devotion, and with passion.

An image of Radha has inspired numerous literary works. For modern instance, the Shri Radhacharita Mahakavyam—the 1980s epic poem of Dr. Kalika Prasad Shukla that focuses on Radha's devotion to Krishna as the universal lover—"one of the rare, high-quality works in Sanskrit in the twentieth century."

Radha and Sita
The Radha-Krishna and Sita-Rama pairs represent two different personality sets, two perspectives on dharma and lifestyles, both cherished in the way of life called Hinduism. Sita is traditionally wedded: the dedicated and virtuous wife of Rama, an introspective temperate paragon of a serious, virtuous man. Radha is a power potency of Krishna, who is a playful adventurer.

Radha and Sita offer two templates within the Hindu tradition. If "Sita is a queen, aware of her social responsibilities", states Pauwels, then "Radha is exclusively focused on her romantic relationship with her lover", giving two contrasting role models from two ends of the moral universe. Yet they share common elements as well. Both face life challenges and are committed to their true love. They are both influential, adored and beloved goddesses in the Hindu culture.

In worship of Rama, Sita is represented as a dutiful and loving wife, holding a position entirely subordinate to Rama. However, in the worship of Radha Krishna, Radha is often preferred over to Krishna, and in certain traditions, her name is elevated to a higher position compared to Krishna's.

Iconography
Radha in Hinduism, is revered as the goddess of love. She is mostly depicted along with Krishna or gopis in the land of Braj. Various art forms based on Radha Krishna are majorly inspired by Gita Govinda and Rasikapriya. In Rajput paintings, Radha represents an ideal of beauty, wearing the traditional sari decorated extensively with patterns and ornamented in jewelry with lighter skin tone and emphasized facial features. In Kishangarh paintings, Radha is represented as beautifully dressed woman in ghagra choli with pearl jewelry and a dark diaphanous veil over her head. The famous Bani Thani portrait by artist Nihâl Chand was inspired by Radha's physical features which includes sharp eyebrows, lotus-like elongated eyes, thin lips and a pointed nose and chin. In religious art forms, Radha also appears as Ardhanari with Krishna, that is an iconography where half of the image is Radha and the other half is Krishna forming the combined masculine and feminine form of Ardhanarishvara.

In Radha Krishna temples, Radha stands on the left of Krishna, with a garland in her hand. She is often dressed in traditional sari or ghagra-choli along with a veil. Her jewelry from top to bottom is either made of metals, pearls or flowers.

The Sanskrit scripture Brahma Vaivarta Purana describes Radha as the beautiful and youthful goddess having the molten golden complexion and wearing the garlands of gems and flowers.

Life and legends
Radha in her human form is revered as the milkmaid (gopi) of Vrindavan who became the beloved of Krishna. One of the basic traits of Radha is her unconditional love for Krishna and her sufferings that forms the basis for Radha's exaltation as a model of devotion.

Birth and early life

Radha was born to Vrishbhanu, who was the Yadava ruler of Barsana and his wife Kirtida. Her birthplace is Raval which is a small town near Gokul in Uttar pradesh, but is often said to be Barsana where she grew up. According to popular legend, Radha was discovered by Vrishbhanu on an effulgent lotus floating in Yamuna river. Radha was nine months older than Krishna. She didn't open her eyes until Krishna himself in his child form appeared in front of her.

"Ashtasakhis" (translated to eight friends) are the integral part of Radha's childhood and youth. It is believed that all the Ashtasakhis are the intimate friends of Radha Krishna and also have descended from Goloka in Braj region. Out of all the eight sakhis - Lalita and Vishakha are the prominent ones. According to Chaitanya Charitamrita's Antya lila (2:6:116), Radha also received a boon from sage Durvasa in her childhood that whatever she cooks would be better than the nectar.

Youth
Stories of Radha's youth are filled with her divine pastimes with Krishna. Some of the popular pastimes of Radha Krishna includes :- Raslila, pastimes of Radha Kund, Gopashtami lila, Lathmar Holi, Seva Kunj lila in which Krishna did sringara of Radha, Maan lila ( A special stage in divine love in which the devotee develops so much love for God as to even attain the right of getting angry with him), Mor Kutir lila in which Krishna performed a dance lila by dressing himself as a peacock to please Radha, Gopadevi lila (Krishna took form of female to meet Radha) and Lilahava in which Radha Krishna dressed in each other clothes.

Relationship with Krishna
Radha and Krishna share two kinds of relationships, Parakiya (Love without any social limitation) and Svakiya (married relationship). Radha asked Krishna why he can't marry her, the reply came "Marriage is a union of two souls. You and I are one soul, how can I marry myself?" Several Hindu texts allude to these circumstances.

The Sanskrit texts, Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Garga Samhita mention that Krishna secretly married Radha in the presence of Brahma in the Bhandirvan forest before leaving Vrindavan. The place where Radha Krishna's marriage was conducted is still present in the outskirts of Vrindavan, called Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali, Bhandirvan. The story mentioned in Brahma Vaivarta Purana indicates that Radha has always been Krishna's divine consort. But to give importance to Parakiya relationship (love without any social foundation) over Svakiya's (married relationship), Radha Krishna's marriage was kept hidden.

Life after Krishna left Vrindavan
According to Garga Samhita and Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha also left her home post Krishna's departure and went to Kadli vann (forest) leaving behind her illusionary form (also called Chaya Radha, her shadow) in Barsana. Radha with Ashtasakhi also met Uddhava in this forest who delivered them Krishna's message.

Reuniting with Krishna

It is mentioned in Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Krishnajanma Khanda, Chapter 125) and Garga Samhita (Ashvamedha Khanda, Chapter 41) that after the curse of 100 years of separation ran out, Krishna revisited Braj and met Radha and gopis. After performing the divine pastimes for sometime, Krishna summoned a huge divine chariot which took the residents of Braj along with Radha and gopis back to their celestial abode Goloka where the final reunion of Radha Krishna took place.

As Supreme Goddess
In Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha (or Rādhikā), who is inseparable from Krishna, appears as the main goddess. She is mentioned as the personification of the Mūlaprakriti, the "Root nature", that original seed from which all material forms evolved. In the company of the Purusha ("Man", "Spirit", "Universal soul") Krishna, she is said to inhabit the Goloka, which is a world of cows and cowherds far above the Vishnu's Vaikuntha. In this divine world, Krishna and Radha relate to one another in the way body relates to the soul. (4.6.216)

According to Krishnaism, Radha is the chief female deity and is associated with Krishna's maya (material energy) and prakriti (feminine energy). At highest level Goloka, Radha is said to be united with Krishna and abiding with him in the same body. The relationship between Radha Krishna is that of substance and attribute: they are as inseparable as Milk and its whiteness or Earth and its smell. This level of Radha's identity transcends her material nature as prakriti and exits in the form of pure consciousness (Narada Purana, Uttara Khana - 59.8). While Radha is identical to Krishna at this highest level, this merger of identities seems to end when she separates from him. After separation she manifest herself as the goddess Primordial prakriti (Mūlaprakriti) who is called the "Maker of Universe" or "Mother of All" (Narada Purana, Purva-Khanda, 83.10-11, 83.44, 82.214).

In Nimbarkacharya's Vedanta Kamadhenu Dashashloki (verse 6), it is clearly stated that:

In the hymnal Hita-Caurasi of Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu, the 16th-century bhakti poet-saint, founder of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, Radharani is exalted to the status of the only ultimate deity, while her consort Krishna is just her most intimate subordinate. As a precursor to this view can be understand Jayadeva, in whose Gita Govinda (10.9) Krishna is beneath Radha.

Radha is also considered as the personification of Krishna's love. According to doctrines attributed to Vaishnavite saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, It is said that, Krishna has three powers: the internal which is intelligence, the external which generates appearances and the differentiated which forms the individual soul. His chief power is that which creates dilatation of the heart or joy. This appears to be the power of love. When this love becomes settled in the heart of the devotee, it constitutes Mahabhava, or the best feeling. When love attains to the highest pitch, it constitutes itself into Radha, who is the most lovable of all and full of all qualities. She was the object of the highest love of Krishna and being idealized as love, some of the agreeable feelings of the heart are considered her ornaments.

In Narada Pancharatra Samhita, Radha is mentioned as the feminine form of Krishna. It is described that, the one single lord is represented to have become two - one a woman and the other a man. Krishna retained his form of man while the female form became Radha. Radha is said to have come out from primordial body of Krishna, forming his left side, and is eternally associated with him in his amorous sports in this world as well as the world of cows (Goloka).

Radha is often identified with the "sweet" aspect of goddess Lakshmi's essence and thus also worshiped as an avatara of Lakshmi. In Shri Daivakrita Lakshmi Strotam, Lakshmi is praised and glorified in her form of Radha -

"In Goloka, you are the goddess more dear to Krishna than life itself, His own Radhika. Deep in the Vrinda forest, you are the mistress of mesmerizing rasa dance."

According to the Garga Samhita (Canto 2, chapter 22, verse 26–29), during the rasa pastime, on the request of gopis, Radha and Krishna showed them their eight armed forms and turned into their Lakshmi Narayan forms. (2.22.26)

As Krishna's lover consort (Parakiya rasa)
Radha is admired as an ideal of perfect lover. In Gita Govinda, it is not certain whether Radha was married or if she was an unmarried maiden. But, the relationship between Radha Krishna was unfolded in the secrecy of Vrindavan forest hinting at the Parakiya rasa. This can be understood from the verse where Nanda, the father of Krishna, who represents social authority and ideal of dharma ordered Radha Krishna to go home as storm was approaching Vrindavan but the order was defied by the couple. The translation of first verse of Gita Govinda is as follows :-

"Radha, you alone must take him home. This is Nanda's command. But, Radha and Madhava (Krishna) stray to a tree in the grove by the path and on the bank of the Yamuna their secret love games prevail."

In the Gita govinda, Radha stands in relation to Krishna as his consort. She is neither a wife nor a devoted rustic playmate. She is an intense, solitary, proud figure who is addressed as Sri, Candi, Manini, Bhamini and Kaamini. She is portrayed as Krishna's partner in a mature and exclusive love.

In Vidyapati's work, Radha is depicted as a young girl barely twelve years old, while Krishna is depicted slightly older than her and as an aggressive lover. In the work of poet Chandidas, Radha is depicted as a bold woman who is unafraid of social consequences. Radha abandons all social propriety in the name of her love for Krishna. Excerpts of Chandidas's work showing Radha's boldness :-

"Casting away all the ethics of caste, my heart dotes on Krishna day and night. The custom of the clan is far away cry, and now I know that love adheres wholly to its own laws. I have blackened my golden skin longing for him. As the fire encircled me, my life begins to wilt. And my heart brooding eternally, parched for my dark darling, My Krishna."

In loving Krishna, Radha violates the basis of caste, showing no care for the realities of social structures. Love consumed her to extent that once having fair complexion, Radha turned herself into Krishna's dark color. Chandidas used the word "fire" as synonym for Radha's love towards Krishna. The Radha of Chandidas is favored by Gaudiya Vaishnavas.

As Krishna's married consort (Svakiya rasa)
Rasikapriya, a Braj text on poetics depicts Radha as the married consort of Krishna. It is a frequently illustrated text that deals with the Radha Krishna's romance and is written by one of the most prominent writers of the Riti kavya tradition, Kesavdas. Changes in the portrayal of Radha, as articulated in the Rasikapriya, have significant implications for later literary traditions. In the Riti kavya literature, especially the Rasikapriya, Radha is depicted as the archetypal heroine and is used to exemplify the ideal form of connection to Krishna. Rather than depicting her as a parakiya heroine, Kesavdas, on the whole, presents her as a svakiya heroine, the one to whom Krishna belongs wholeheartedly. If she is separated from him, it is only temporarily, for as archetypal lovers they are connected forever. The suggestion that Radha is Krishna's rightful wife is clearly articulated in the first chapter in the exemplary verse for the manifest form of union. Here, Kesavdas compares the union of Radha and Krishna with that of Sita and Rama. Kesavdas compares the union of Radha and Krishna with that of Sita and Rama :-

"Once Krishna sat with Radha on the same couch with pleasure, and in the mirror held, as he looked to watch the splendor of her face, his eyes filled with tears. In her reflections he saw the red gem on her forehead which seemed to glow like fire, reminding him of Sita sitting in fire, adorned, with her husband's leave."

In this verse, Kesavdas connects Radha with Krishna as his legitimate wife not only in this lifetime but even in the previous one. Chapter 3 and verse 34 of Rasikapriya, depicted Radha as Madhya arudhayovana nayika and is described as a beautiful woman who looks like a heavenly damsel, with perfect features (forehead like the half moon, arches like a perfect bow, etc.), golden body, and a beautiful body fragrance. In chapter 3, verse 38, one attendant talks to another :-

"I have seen such an amazingly beautiful gopi, that I wonder if she really is a cowherdess ! Such splendor shone from her body that my eyes remained transfixed on her! No other beautiful women appeal any more; having seen her delicate walk once, I see the beauty of all three worlds. Who could be the husband of such a beauty, Kamadeva or Kalanidhi [moon]? No, Krishna himself."

In chapter 3, verse 38, Radha is very specifically described as the wife of Krishna. In most of the verses, whenever she is mentioned by name, she is usually seen as a virtuous court lady with utmost beauty and charm. Her husband Krishna is said to be in control of her love. Kesavdasa in Rasikapriya mentioned that while it is common to see women devoted to their husbands but it is not as common to see a husband as Krishna who is so devoted to his wife Radha and considering her as goddess.(VII, 6) In Sanskrit scripture Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha and Krishna are understood to be eternally related to each other as husband and wife validating their Svakiya relationship. The celebrated poets of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, Dhruva Dasa and Rupalji composed "Vyahulau Utsav ke Pad" or "Marriage Festival songs" which describe the eternal wedding of Radha and Krishna with praise and adulation. In the Indian state of Maharashtra, Radha is often identified as Rahi, a regional form of Radha who is worshiped as the married consort of Vithoba, a regional form of Krishna.

Worship
Friedhelm Hardy singles out such an offshoot of Krishnaism as Radha-centered stream Radhaism. The main representative of which is the Radha Vallabh Sampradaya (lit. "consort of Radha"), where goddess Radha is worshipped as the supreme deity, and Krishna is in a subordinate position.

During the 18th century at Kolkata existed the Sakhībhāvakas community, whose members used to wear female dresses in order to identify themselves with the gopis, companions of Radha.

In some devotional (bhakti) Krishnaite traditions of Vaishnavism that focus on Krishna, Radha represents "the feeling of love towards Krishna". For some of the adherents of these traditions, her importance approaches or even exceeds that of Krishna. Radha is worshipped along with Krishna in Nepal and many Indian states including West Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Elsewhere, she is a revered deity. In Maharashtra region, Radha is worshipped in her regional form as Rahi. Radha is considered as Krishna's original shakti, the supreme goddess in both the Nimbarka Sampradaya and following the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Nimbarka was the first well known Vaishnava scholar whose theology centered on goddess Radha.

Since 15th century in Bengal and Assam flourished Tantric Vaishnava-Sahajiya tradition with related to it Bauls, where Krishna is the inner divine aspect of man and Radha is the aspect of woman, what incorporated into their specific sexual Maithuna ritual.

Radha's connection to Krishna is of two types: svakiya-rasa (married relationship) and parakiya-rasa (a relationship signified with eternal mental "love"). The Gaudiya tradition focuses upon parakiya-rasa as the highest form of love, wherein Radha and Krishna share thoughts even through separation. The love the gopis feel for Krishna is also described in this esoteric manner as the highest platform of spontaneous love of God, and not of a sexual nature.

Hymns
List of prayers and hymns dedicated to Radha are:

"Rādhe Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Rādhe Rādhe Shyām Rādhe Shyām Shyām Shyām Rādhe Rādhe" "Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare"
 * Gita Govinda — this 12th century work of Jayadeva is dedicated to both Radha and Krishna. Gita Govinda is still the part of temple songs of Jagannath Temple, Puri.
 * Radhe Krishna — the maha-mantra of Nimbarka Sampradaya is as follows :-
 * Radha Gayatri Mantra — "Om Vrashbhanujaye Vidmahe, Krishnapriyaye Dhimahi, Tanno Radha Prachodayat."
 * Lakshmi Gayatri Mantra — " Samuddhrtayai vidmahe Vishnunaikena dhimahi | tan no Radha prachodaydt || " (We think about her whom Vishnu himself supports, we meditate on her. Then, let Radha inspire us). The mantra is mentioned in Linga Purana (48.13) and invokes Lakshmi through Radha.
 * Shri Radhika Krishnashtaka — it is also called Radhashtak. The prayer is composed of eight verses and is popular in Swaminarayan Sampradaya.
 * Shri Radha Saharsnama Strotam — the prayer has more than 1000 names of Radha and is part of the Sanskrit scripture Narada Panchratra.
 * Radha Kripa Kataksh Strotam — this is the most famous stotra in Vrindavana. It is written in Ūrdhvāmnāya-tantra and is believed to be spoken by Śiva to Parvati. The prayer is dedicated to Radha and has total 19 verses.
 * Yugalashtakam — this prayer is dedicated to Yugal (combined) form of Radha Krishna. It is popular in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and was written by Jiva Goswami.
 * Radha Chalisa — it is a devotional hymn in praise of Radha. The prayer has 40 verses.
 * Hare Krishna Mahamantra — In this mantra, "Hare" is the vocative form of both "Hari" (Krishna) and "Hara" (Radha). The mantra is mentioned in Kali Santarana Upanishad.
 * Hita-Caurasi — the eighty-four verses (hymns) in Braj Bhasha of the 16th-century poet-sant Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu, founder of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, in praise of Radha as the ultimate deity, the Queen, while Krishna depicted as her servant.
 * Radhe Radhe - Greeting or Salutation in Braj region dedicated to Radha.

Festivals
Radha is one of the major and celebrated goddess in Hinduism. Following is the list of festivals associated with her -

Radhashtami
Radhashtami, also called Radha Jayanti is celebrated as the appearance anniversary of Radha. In the Hindu calendar, Radhashtami is observed annually in the month of the Bhadra, 15 days after Krishna Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Krishna, which suggests that Radha is very much an aspect of the cultural-religious faith system governing social life. The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervor especially in the Braj region. The festivities include fasting till afternoon (12 pm), abhishek and aarti of Radharani, offering her flowers, sweets and food items, singing songs, dancing and prayers dedicated to Radha. The Radha Rani Temple in Barsana host this festival in a grand manner as Basana is also considered as the birthplace of Radha. Apart from Barsana, this festival is celebrated in nearly all the temples of Vrindavan and ISKCON temples across the world as it is one of the major festival for many Vaishnavism sections.

Holi
Holi, one of the major Hindu festival, also called festival of love and festival of colors also celebrates the divine and eternal love of Radha and Krishna. Mathura and Vrindavan are known for their Holi celebrations. According to popular legend associated with Radha Krishna, as a child, Krishna would cry to his mother Yashoda about Radha being fair while he had a dark complexion. His mother then advised him to smear colour of his choice on Radha's face, thus giving birth to Braj ki Holi. It is said that every year, Lord Krishna would travel from his village Nandgaon to Goddess Radha's village Barsana, where Radha and the gopis would playfully beat him with sticks. In present times, Holi celebrations in Barsana begin one week before the actual date of the festival, moving to Nandgaon the next day. In Mathura and Vrindavan, the festival is celebrated in different forms like Lathmar Holi in Barsana and Nandgaon, where sticks are used to create playful beats, to which young men and women dance; Phoolon wali Holi in Gulaal Kund near the Govardhan Hill, during which Ras Leela is performed and Holi is played with colourful flowers and Widow's Holi in Vrindavan.

Sharad Purnima
Sharad Purnima refers to the full moon of the autumn season. On this day, devotees celebrate Krishna performing a beautiful dance called "rasa lila" with Radha and the gopis - the cowherd damsels of Vrindavan. On this day, Radha Krishna in temples are dressed in white outfits and are adorned with flower garlands and glittering ornaments.

Kartik Purnima
In Vaishnavism, the occasion of Kartik Purnima is considered as the most auspicious day to worship goddess Radha. According to Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Krishna also worshiped Radha on this day. In Radha Krishna temples, sacred vow is observed throughout the Karthik month and performances of Raslila are organized to celebrate this festival.

Paintings
Radha and Krishna have inspired many forms of performance arts and literary works. Over the centuries, their love has been portrayed in thousands of exquisite paintings which depicts the lover in separation and union, longing and abandonment.

Patta chitra, is one of the typical regional arts of the coastal state of Orissa. In this type of painting, Krishna is depicted in blue or black color and is usually accompanied by his fiancée Radha. Rajasthani art emerged as an amalgamation of folk art with conventional and canonical ethos. Krishna and Radha have been the pivotal figures in Rajasthani miniature paintings. Their love has been delineated aesthetically in this composition. In Pahari paintings, often the nayaka (hero) is depicted as Krishna and the nayika (heroine) is depicted as Radha. The legend of Krishna and Radha and their love provided rich material to Pahari painters in general and to the artists of Garhwal in particular. The central theme of Kangra painting is love inspired by Rasikapriya, popular poetic work of Keshavdasa. A closely related theme of this art is lover looking at his beloved who is unaware of his presence. Thus, Krishna is shown watching Radha who is unaware of his presence. In Radha and Krishna, Kangra artists discovered highest model of loving couple. The Radha-Krishna theme also served their devotional purpose and provided an inherent symbolism. Madhubani paintings are charismatic art of Bihar. Madhubani paintings are mostly based on religion and mythology. In the paintings, Hindu Gods like Radha-Krishna and Shiva-Parvati are in center. Krishna and Radha are one of the favorite subject in Rajput paintings because they portrayed a theme that symbolized the desire of the soul to be united by god. In Rajput paintings, Radha is always dressed in more elegant way. She was adorned with ornaments and is often depicted holding a white garland when enthroned next to Krishna. The Chamba paintings of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab often depicts romantic ambiances of rainy season with Radha Krishna as the lead couple.

Dance forms
The most famous Indian classical dance Manipuri Raas Leela was first introduced by King Bhagyachandra around 1779. Inspired by Radha Krishna's raslila, the king introduced three forms of rasa dance — Maha rasa, Kunj rasa and Basant rasa. Later two more forms of rasa — Nitya rasa and Deba rasa was added by successive kings in the art and culture of Manipur. In these dance forms, the dancers portray the role of Radha, Krishna and gopis. The dance forms are still prevalent in the state of Manipur and are performed on stage as well as on the auspicious occasions like Kartik Purnima and Sharad Purnima (full moon nights).

Another Indian classical dance form, Kathakali was also influenced by Vaishnavism and Radha Krishna based Gita Govinda tradition which along with other factors contributed in the evolution of this dance form. The predominant theme of North Indian Kathak dancing lies in the fleeting appearances and longer stories of Radha and Krishna. The sacred love of Krishna and his beloved Radha, are woven into all aspects of the Kathak dance and is clearly visible during the discussions of the music, costumes and finally the role of the Kathak dancer.

Ashtapadis of Gita Govinda are also enacted in contemporary classical Odissi dance form. This dance form was originated in the temples. It is centered on the celestial love of Krishna and Radha. At one time, it was performed by the Devadasis but now it has spread out to the homes and cultural institutions.

Music
Rasiya is a popular genre of Indian folk music from Braj region, Uttar Pradesh. It is commonly played and performed during the festivities in the villages and temples of Braj area. The traditional songs of Rasiya are based on the divine portrayal and love of Radha and Krishna. They are frequently written from the female perspective of Radha and portray Krishna and his flirtation with her.

Culture
The residents of Braj region still greet each other with salutations like "Radhe Radhe", "Jai Shri Radhe" and "Radhe Shyam", directing their mind to Radha and ultimate relationship she shares with Krishna. The image of Krishna rarely appears without Radha by his side in the temples of Vrindavan. It is not the Krishna who is worshiped, but Radha and Krishna together are worshiped.

In culture of Odisha, Krishna is the cultural hero and his form Jagannath, is the symbol of Oriya pride. His consort Radha is celebrated as the energy of Krishna and symbolically the energy of the cosmos. She is considered as the power of joy, the hladini shakti of Krishna and is often identified with both Durga and Mahakali, the bright and dark forms of the cosmic energy. Krishna and Radha have entered the Oriya psyche and have inspired the mythic imagination of the Oriya poets in a big way. For the conscious and the informed, Krishna and Radha are the Universe and its harmony, the Energy and its joyful articulation, the cosmic dance and its rhythmic balance.

In Indian culture, Radha serve as an exemplary model of female-neutral subjectivity for all persons—an active, non-substantial, shared and strong self that rationally embrace their (religious) passions.

Temples
Radha and Krishna are the focus of temples in the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Vallabhacharya, Chandidas, and other traditions of Vaishnavism. Radha is typically shown standing immediately next to Krishna. Some of the important Radha Krishna temples are :-

 * Barsana and Vrindavan in Mathura District, Northern India contain many temples dedicated to both Radha and Krishna.
 * Vrindavan: Bankey Bihari Temple, Shri Radha Damodar Temple, Krishna Balram Temple (Iskcon Vrindavan), Shri Radha Gokulananda Temple, Shri Radha Gopinath Temple, Radha Raman Temple, Shahji Temple, Nidhivan, Radha Kund, Kusum Sarovar, Seva kunj Temple, Pagal Baba Temple, Prem Mandir, Shri Radha Madan Mohan Temple, Shri Ashtsakhi Temple, Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, Shri Radha ShyamSundar ji Temple, Shri Jugal Kishore Temple, Shri Radha Govind Dev ji Temple, Priyakant ju Temple and Shri Radha Vallabh Temple.
 * Mathura: Shri Krishna Janamasthan Temple, Shri Dwarkadhish Temple.
 * Barsana: Shri Radha Rani Temple (Shreeji Temple), Rangeeli Mahal (Kirti temple), Maan temple (Maan Garh temple).
 * Bhandirvan: Shri Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali.
 * Rest of India: Shri Radha Govind Dev ji temple in Jaipur, Murlidhar Krishna temple in Naggar, Shri Govindajee temple in Imphal, Madan Mohan temple in Karauli, Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir in Nadia, Swaminarayan temple Gadhada, Swaminarayan temple Vadtal, Swaminarayan Temple Bhuj, Swaminarayan Temple Dholera, Swaminarayan Temple Mumbai, Iskcon Bangalore, Iskcon Chennai, Radha Damodar temple in Junagadh, Bhakti Mandir Mangarh, Iskcon temple Patna, Radha Krishna temple, Baroh in Kangra, Hare Krishna Golden Temple in Hyderabad, Temples in Bishnupur including Radha Madhab Temple, RadheShyam Temple, Rasmancha and Lalji Temple, Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir in Delhi.

 * Outside India: There are multiple temples dedicated to Radha Krishna which are established by Iskcon organization and Swaminarayan Sampradaya in all the prominent cities of the world. The Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani Temple at Radha Madhav Dham in Austin, Texas, USA, established by Kripalu Maharaj, is one of the largest Hindu Temple complexes in the Western Hemisphere and the largest in North America.

Outside Hinduism
Guru Gobind Singh, in his Dasam Grantha, describes Radha the, sukl bhis rika, thus : "Radhika went out in the light of the white soft moon, wearing a white robe to meet her Lord. It was white everywhere and hidden in it, she appeared like the light itself in search of Him".

Radha is mentioned in many Jain commentaries including the popular Venisamhara by Narayana Bhatta and Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana written in 7th century. Jain scholars like Somadeva Suri and Vikram Bhatta continued mentioning Radha between 9th-12th century in their literary works.

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Yashoda

Yashoda (यशोदा, ) is the foster-mother of Krishna and the wife of Nanda. She is described in the Puranic texts of Hinduism as the wife of Nanda, the chieftain of Gokulam, and the sister of Rohini. According to the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna was born to Devaki, but Krishna's father, Vasudeva, brought the newborn Krishna to his cousin Nanda, and his wife, Yashoda, in Gokulam. This was for his upbringing, as well as to protect Krishna from Devaki's brother, Kamsa, the tyrannical king of Mathura.

Etymology
The name Yashoda means 'one who is giver (da, दा) of fame or glory (Yash, यश)'.

Origin
According to the Bhagavata Purana, Yashoda was the incarnation of Dhara, the wife of the vasu, Drona. Little is known about Yashoda's early life, other than her marriage with Nanda.

Yashoda's father, Sumukha, was the treasurer and a wealthy trader of Vraja. He is mentioned to have had a very long beard as fair as the white conchshell, and his skin complexion was as dark as the ripe Indian blackberry. He had an elder sister named Vikshanashobhini (IAST : Vīkṣaṇaśobhini) who was married to a wealthy family of Gomatiksetra. Sumukha also had a younger brother named Charumukha (IAST : Cārumukha) who had a wife named Bālagopikā in Vrindavana. Yashoda's mother, Pataladevi, (IAST : Pāṭaḷādevī) was from a wealthy and respected mercantile family of seafaring traders from the ancient city of Patala, located at the mouth of Indus river in the Sindhu kingdom. Her skin is said to be as soft as the rose petals, known as Pāṭaḷa in Sanskrit. Her family was an ardent devotee of Vishnu and used to worship him before seafaring.

Kamsa, the ruler of Mathura, had decided to kill Krishna as soon as he was born. In order to protect Krishna from Kamsa, Krishna and Yogamaya were born at the same time from the wombs of Devaki and Yashoda, respectively, and were exchanged by Vasudeva Anakadundubhi. Krishna survived and was raised as the foster-son of Yashoda.

Various childhood episodes or lilas, growing up in Yashoda's household, abound in Hindu texts. In the Bhagavata Purana, Yashoda is praised as: "Neither Lord Brahmā, nor Lord Śiva, nor even the goddess of fortune (Goddess Mahalakshmi), who is always the better half of the Supreme Lord, can obtain from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer from this material world, such mercy as received by mother Yaśodā"

Witnessing the Cosmos in Krishna's Mouth
The Bhagavata Purana describes the following episode: "Another day, Śrī Kṛṣṇa was playing at Brahmāṇḍa-ghaṭa with Śrīdāma, Subala, Balarāma and some other cowherd boys. Child Kṛṣṇa secretly ate some mud, but somehow the cowherd boys saw Him doing this and complained to Mother Yaśodā. Yaśodā came running and, catching hold of Kṛṣṇa’s hand, she began to chastise Him. Trembling with fear, Kṛṣṇa said, “Mother, I have not eaten any mud. All these boys are telling lies. If you do not believe Me, then you can look in My mouth and see for yourself.” Saying this, Kṛṣṇa opened His mouth and showed her the whole universe, containing all moving and non-moving entities, the sky, etc., as well as His own abode (dhāma)."

Liberation of Nalakuvara and Manigriva
According to the Bhagavata Purana, once, Krishna was playing in the sand and was swallowing it. Yashoda, upon seeing this, was furious with Krishna for disobeying her and punished him by tying him to a mortar, or a grinding stone. The child dragged the mortar to the tree called Marutru, and got himself struck between the twin trees. Immediately, the trees regained their original forms of Nalakuvara and Manigriva, the sons of Kubera. The deities had been cursed by Narada for not paying heed to him, and had been liberated from their curse as trees after meeting Krishna. They paid homage to the child, who blessed them, and the two returned to Vaishravanapuri.

Slaying of Putana
When the demoness Putana attempts to murder the infant Krishna by breastfeeding him with her poison, Krishna sucks out her life force instead, turning her into a carcass. Hearing the demoness' dying screams, Yashoda finds the corpse still bearing her child in her arms. Yashoda snatches him and waves a cow-tail brush over him, in order to guard him from harm.

Reincarnation of Yashoda
According to regional tradition, in the Dvapara Yuga, Yashoda could not witness the wedding of Krishna. Krishna promised her that she would get that chance of seeing his wedding when Krishna incarnates again as Venkateshvara in the Kali Yuga. In the Kali Yuga, Yashoda was born as Vakula Devi, as the mother of Venkateshvara and witnessed the nuptials between Venkateshvara and Princess Padmavathi.

In popular culture
The 1975 Telugu film Yashoda Krishna, directed by C. S. Rao, presented events in the life of Krishna and his attachment towards Yashoda. Sridevi played the role of the child Krishna in the film.

The Tamil devotional song, 'Enna Thavam Seithanai' is addressed to Yashoda, rhetorically wondering what penance she had performed to raise Krishna as her own child. The Carnatic song, "Thaaye Yashoda", composed by Oothukkadu Venkata Kavi, is another song addressed to Yashoda from the perspective of gopikas who complain about Krishna's mischief.

title: Yashoda


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Talk:Basset (banking game)

Game Play
This section is written horribly; to the point where the actual mechanics of the game and how one wins/loses money are not even evident. The glossary doesn't do much to clarify. I was linked to this article through the faro article, and I can't tell the difference between the two from this section, not to mention that if I hadn't read that article and known that this was a related game, I would have no clue how basset works, period. A winning card is mentioned, but which card is that? Is it the first dealt, or is it the second/third...etc. This section is very much lacking in a plain, step-by-step description and assumes that you already know how this whole family of gambling card games works. I think this issue stems from the below mentioned fact of this text being copied from a public domain website, which would explain why the assumptions of you knowing the general format of the game are present. hansolo22 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.225.72.172 (talk) 09:04, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

I agree. I came to this article from from the Faro article and found it completely confusing. Peace eagle (talk) 19:49, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Spelling question
Spelling question: 30 and 60 in modern French are trente and soixante, respectively, not trent and soissante. Are these old spellings or misspellings? -phma, 20:50, 17 November 2008 (UCT)
 * I checked and that was what was used in The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims, Vol. II (1870). Maybe that was the English version of the French numbers as used around the gaming tables. --Bejnar (talk) 07:18, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

 * It probably was a combination.--Parkwells (talk) 17:06, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Article copied from public domain text
This entire article seems to have been copied from The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims, Vol. II, by Andrew Steinmetz, Esq., published 1870 in the United Kingdom by Tinsley Brothers. It is public domain. --Bryan Nguyen | Talk 03:01, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

 * Even though the original article is in public domain, the Wikipedia article should be cleaned up to clarify it, reflect contemporary usage and reduce archaic tone.--Parkwells (talk) 17:06, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation
Move to Basset (card game), leave Basset as disambig page Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:59, 21 November 2008 (UTC) Why should "Basset" default here instead of to a disambiguation page? The dabs are becoming tedious, and I would think that the dogs are more likely to be searched for than the card game. Any consensus for creating a "Basset" disambiguation page as the default? --Bejnar (talk) 15:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

 * If I don't see any "nay-sayers" in the next week or so, I will go ahead and make the change. --Bejnar (talk) 06:28, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

 * Support. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 20:50, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Basser
Voltaire's Candide makes reference to a game played in Paris called "Basser". The description he gives sounds like Basset. Here is the quote:

"Candide, who was naturally curious, suffered himself to be conducted to this lady's house, which was in the suburbs of Saint-Honore. The company was engaged at basser; twelve melancholy punters held each in his hand a small pack of cards, the corners of which were doubled down, and were so many registers of their ill fortune. A profound silence reigned throughout the assembly, a pallid dread had taken possession of the countenances of the punters, and restless inquietude stretched every muscle of the face of him who kept the bank; and the lady of the house, who was seated next to him, observed with lynx's eyes every play made, and noted those who tallied, and made them undouble their cards with a severe exactness, though mixed with a politeness, which she thought necessary not to frighten away her customers. This lady assumed the title of Marchioness of Parolignac. Her daughter, a girl of about fifteen years of age, was one of the punters, and took care to give her mamma a hint, by signs, when any one of the players attempted to repair the rigor of their ill fortune by a little innocent deception. The company were thus occupied when Candide, Martin, and the abbe made their entrance; not a creature rose to salute them, or indeed took the least notice of them, being wholly intent upon the business at hand."

If someone can confirm they think this is Basset I will put the quote or part of it in the article. Zargulon (talk) 12:38, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Basser is probably an OCR error introduced when someone scanned Tobias Smollett's translation, which has Basset. The French original says "on y était occupé d'un pharaon". Pharaon replaced Basset, and presumably Smollett considered it just a variant of Basset and decided that the latter would be better for easy recognition by his readers. Hans Adler 14:05, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
 * PS: The name of the host could be an allusion to Polignac, a negative card game, as she profits from the players' losses. Hans Adler 14:11, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Fascinating - thanks Hans. 86.176.13.64 (talk) 19:39, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Basset (banking game)


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Kemwer

Kemwer means "great black (one)" in the Egyptian language, and may refer to:
 * An epithet of Horus, who was viewed as a nature spirit with the qualities of a hawk
 * A description of the Mnevis bull

title: Kemwer


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Nanda (surname)

Nanda is an Indian surname. It is found among the Khatris of Punjab and Brahmins of Odisha.

Notable people bearing the surname, who may or may not be associated with the clan, include:

 * Agastya Nanda, Indian actor
 * Ananya Nanda, Indian playback singer and winner of Indian Idol Junior
 * Ashish Nanda, Director of IIM Ahmedabad
 * Bal Ram Nanda (1917-2010), Indian historian and biographer
 * Biddanda Chengappa Nanda, (1931–2018), Indian Army General
 * Chetanya Nanda, Indian cricketer
 * Govind Nanda, American tennis player
 * Gulshan Nanda (1929–1985), Indian novelist and screenwriter
 * Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998), former Indian Prime Minister
 * Har Prasad Nanda (1917–1999), Indian automotive industrialist
 * Ishwar Chander Nanda (1892-1965), father of Punjabi drama
 * Jimmy Nanda, Indian actress and model, Mrs India 2007
 * Kiranmoy Nanda (born 1944), politician
 * Meera Nanda (born 1954), Indian writer, historian and philosopher of science
 * Nabin Nanda, Indian politician
 * Nikhil Nanda (born 1974), Indian businessman, Joint Managing Director of Escorts Group
 * Pintu Nanda (1977-2023), Indian actor
 * Prashanta Nanda (born 1947), movie actor from Odisha
 * Ramakrushna Nanda (1906-1994), Indian writer in the Odia language
 * Ratish Nanda, Indian conservation architect
 * Ravindra Nanda (born 1943), HOD of Craniofacial Sciences at Division of Orthodontics
 * Sanjeev Nanda, son of Suresh Nanda, grandson of SM Nanda, accused in the 1999 Delhi hit-and-run case
 * Sardarilal Mathradas Nanda (SM Nanda, 1915–2009), Indian Navy Admiral
 * Seema Nanda, American government official
 * Serena Nanda, American author and anthropologist
 * Shweta Bachchan Nanda, Indian author, journalist and model
 * Suresh Nanda, Lieutenant Commander in Indian Army
 * Srabani Nanda, Indian sprinter
 * Swati Nanda, Indian actress and model
 * Vartika Nanda, Indian journalist and campaigner
 * Ved Prakash Nanda (1934-2024), Indian American academic
 * William Nanda-Bissell, Chairman at FabIndia

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Ravana

Ravana (रावण,, ) was an ancient mythological king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana. In the Ramayana, Ravana is described as the eldest son of sage Vishrava and Kaikasi. He abducted Lord Rama's wife, Sita, and took her to his kingdom of Lanka, where he held her in the Ashoka Vatika. Lord Rama, with the support of vanara King Sugriva and his army of vanaras, launched a rescue operation for Sita against Ravana in Lanka. Ravana was subsequently slain, and Rama rescued his beloved wife Sita.

Ravana is widely portrayed as being an evil character, though he is also a learned scholar. He was well-versed in the six shastras and the four Vedas, including the Shiva Tandava Stotra. Ravana is also considered to be the most revered devotee of Shiva. Images of Ravana are often seen associated with Shiva at temples. He also appears in the Buddhist Mahayana text Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, in Buddhist Jatakas, as well as in Jain Ramayanas. In Vaishnava scriptures, he is depicted as one of Vishnu's cursed doorkeepers.

Etymology
The word Rāvaṇa (Sanskrit: रावण) means "roaring" (active), the opposite of Vaiśravaṇa which means to "hear distinctly" (passive). Both Ravana and Vaiśravaṇa, who is commonly known as Kubera, are considered to be patronymics derived from "sons of Vishrava".

Ravana was a title later taken on by Dashānana, and it means "the one with ten (dasha) faces (anana)". Further, roravana is Sanskrit for "loud roaring." In Abhinava Gupta's Krama Shaiva scripture, yāsām rāvanam is used as an expression to mean people who are truly aware of the materialism of their environment.

Ravana has many other popular names such as Dasis Ravana, Dasis Sakvithi Maha Ravana, Dashaanan, Ravula, Lankapati, Lankeshwar, Lankeshwaran, Ravanasura and Ravanaeshwaran.

Iconography
Ravana is depicted and described as having ten heads, although he is sometimes shown with only nine heads since he cut one off to convince Shiva. He is described as a devout follower of Shiva, a great scholar, a capable ruler, and a maestro of the Veena. Ravana is also depicted as the author of the Ravana Samhita, a book on Hindu astrology, and the Arka Prakasham, a book on Siddha medicine and treatment. Ravana possessed a thorough knowledge of Siddha and political science. He is said to have possessed the nectar of immortality, which was stored inside his belly thanks to a celestial boon from Brahma.In the War with Lord Rama, Ravana was killed by 31 arrows which were shot by Rama at him. One arrow dried up his nectar, ten arrows cut off his heads and twenty cut off his arms.

Birth
Ravana was born to the sage Vishrava and the Rakshasa princess Kaikasi in Treta Yuga. Villagers from Bisrakh in Uttar Pradesh claim that Bisrakh was named after Vishrava, and that Ravana was born there.

Ravana's paternal grandfather, the sage Pulastya, was one of the ten Prajapatis, or mind-born sons of Brahma, and one of the Saptarishi (seven great sages) in the first Manvantara (age of Manu). His maternal grandfather was Sumali (or Sumalaya), the king of the Rakshasas and the son of Sukesha. Sumali had ten sons and four daughters. Sumali wished for Kaikasi to marry the most powerful being in the mortal world, so as to produce an exceptional heir. He rejected the kings of the world, as they were less powerful than him. Kaikasi searched among the sages and finally chose Vishrava, the father of Kubera. Ravana and his siblings were born to the couple and they completed their education from their father, with Ravana being a great scholar of the Vedas.

Boon from Brahma
Ravana and his two brothers, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, performed penance on Mount Gokarna for 11,000 years and won boons from Brahma. Ravana was blessed with a boon that would make him invincible to all the creations of Brahma, except for humans. He also received weapons, a chariot, as well as the ability to shapeshift from Brahma. According to the Ramayana, demigods approached Brahma since Ravana was causing harm on Earth. Lord Vishnu appeared and gave blessings that he will incarnate as a human (Rama) and kill Ravana since his invincibility boon did not include humans.

Devotee of Shiva
One of the most popular images of Shiva is called "Ravananugraha", which was popular in the Gupta era. It depicts Ravana beneath Mount Kailash playing a veena made out of his head and hands, and strings made out of his tendons, while Shiva and Parvati sit on top of the mountain. According to scriptures, Ravana once tried to lift Mount Kailash, but Shiva pushed the mountain into place and trapped Ravana beneath it. For a thousand years, the imprisoned Ravana sang Shiva Tandava Stotra, a hymn in praise of Shiva, who finally blessed him and granted him an invincible sword and a powerful linga (Shiva's iconic symbol, Atmalinga) to worship.

Family
Ravana's parents were the sage Vishrava (son of Pulastya) and Kaikesi (daughter of Sumali and Ketumati). Ravana had seventeen maternal uncles and three maternal aunts. Dhumraksha, Prahastha, Akampana, Vajramushti, Suparshwa and Virupaksha, a few of his maternal uncles, were generals in the Lanka army. Kaikesi's father, Sumali and uncle, Malyavan were instrumental in making Ravana the king of Lanka by advising him to receive boons from Brahma, defeat Kubera, and establish rakshasa rule in the three worlds.

Ravana's granduncle was Malyavan, who opposed the war with Rama and Lakshmana. He also had another granduncle named Mali who was killed by Vishnu.

Ravana had 2 full brothers, 8 half brothers, 1 full sister and 3 half sisters.

Ravana had three wives, Mandodari, the daughter of the celestial architect Maya, Dhanyamalini, and a third wife. His sons from his three wives were Meghanada, Atikaya, Akshayakumara, Narantaka, Devantaka, Trishira, and Prahasta.

Priestly ministers
In some accounts, Ravana is said to have had Shukracharya, the priest of the Asuras, as his minister, and in other accounts, Brihaspati, the priest of the Devas.

One account narrates how Ravana ordered Brihaspati to recite the Chandi stava (mantras of Chandi), more specifically the Devi Mahatmya, in order to stave off defeat. According to the Krttivasa text, Ravana arranged for a peaceful yajna, and invited Brihaspati to start the recitation of Chandi.

Vishnu's cursed doorkeeper
In the Bhagavata Purana, Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarna are said to be reincarnations of Jaya and Vijaya, gatekeepers at Vaikuntha (the abode of Vishnu), and were cursed to be born on Earth for their insolence.

These gatekeepers refused entry to the Sanatha Kumara monks who, because of their powers and austerity, appeared as young children. For their insolence, the monks cursed them to be expelled from Vaikuntha and to be born on Earth.

Vishnu agreed that they should be punished and gave them two options. First, that they could be born seven times as normal mortals and devotees of Vishnu, or be born three times as strong and powerful beings, but as enemies of Vishnu. Eager to be back with the Lord, they chose the latter option. The curse of the first birth was fulfilled by Hiranyakashipu and his brother Hiranyaksha in Satya Yuga, when they were both vanquished by earlier avatars of Vishnu (Hiranyaksha by Varaha, and Hiranyakashipu by Narasimha). Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarna were born to fulfill the curse in their second birth as enemies of Vishnu in Treta Yuga. The curse of the third birth was fulfilled by Dantavakra and Shishupala in the Dvapara Yuga, when they both were slain by Krishna, the eighth avatar.

Other conflicts
In Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, Ravana is said to have fought and lost to Kartavirya Arjuna. Ravana was vanquished by the Ikshvaku King Mandhata, an ancestor of Rama, as well as by the sage Kapila. In the Ramayana, he fought Vali, the Kishkindha king, but was defeated by him because of his boon to obtain half the strength of anyone he fought. He also fought with the Nivatakavachas, descendants of Prahlada, but struck an alliance with them after being unable to defeat them.

Once, upon hearing a discourse from Sage Sanatkumara, Ravana attempted to invade Vaikuntha. Only Ravana managed to enter Vaikuntha's capital, Shwetadwipa, where he was hopelessly outmatched by the inhabitants and was forced to retreat.

He killed Anaranya, the king of Ayodhya, although he cursed Ravana to be slain by Rama.

Ravana had wrestled his brother Kubera for the Pushpaka Vimana.

He also fought Marutta (Chakravarti King of Ushiraviga), Gadhi (Vishwamitra's father), Dushyanta (Bharata's father), Suratha (King of Vidarbha), Gaya (Chakravarti king of Dharmaranya), and Paurava (King of Anga).

Rape of Rambha
Ravana is regarded to have once caught sight of the apsara Rambha and was filled with lust. Even as the apsara resisted his advances by asserting that she was his daughter-in-law, he raped her. When she reported this to her husband, Nalakuvara, he cursed Ravana to be unable to cause violence to any woman who did not consent to being with him, his head splitting into a number of pieces if he did so. This incident is stated to explain why Ravana could not force the abducted Sita to submit to his desire.

Worship
Ravana is worshipped as one of Shiva's most revered followers, and he is even worshipped in some Shiva temples.

Ravana is worshipped by the Kanyakubja Brahmins of the Vidisha region, who see him as a savior and a sign of prosperity, claiming Ravana was also a Kanyakubja Brahmin. Thousands of Kanyakubja Brahmins of the village Ravangram of Netaran, in the Vidisha District of Madhya Pradesh, perform daily puja in the Ravana temple and offer naivedyam or bhog (a ritual of sacrifice to the gods).

King Shiv Shankar built a Ravana temple in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The Ravana temple is open once a year, on the day of Dashera, to perform puja for the welfare of Ravana.

Ravana is also worshipped by Hindus of Bisrakh, who claim their town to be his birthplace.

The Sachora Brahmins of Gujarat claim to be descendants of Ravana, and sometimes have "Ravan" as their surnames.

Saraswat Brahmins from Mathura claim Ravana as a saraswat Brahmin as per his lineage.

There has also been reference to "Ravani", the lineage of Upadhyaya Yasastrata II, who was of the Gautama gotra and Acharya Vasudatta's son, and described as "born of Ravani".

The Gondi people of central India claim to be descendants of Ravana, and have temples for him, his wife Mandodari, and their son Meghnad. They also state that Ravana was an ancient Gond king, the tenth dharmaguru of their tribe, and the eighteenth lingo (divine teacher). Annually on Dussehra, the Gondis from the village of Paraswadi carry an image of Ravana riding on an elephant in a procession.

Temples
The following temples in India are for Ravana as a Shiva Bhakta.
 * Dashanan Temple, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
 * Ravana Temple, Bisrakh, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh
 * Kakinada Ravana Temple, Andhra Pradesh
 * Ravangram Ravana Temple, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
 * Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh
 * Mandore Ravan Temple, Jodhpur
 * Baijanath Temple, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh
 * Ravaleshwara temple- Malavalli, mandya district of Karnataka

Ravana-Dahan (burning effigy of Ravana)
Effigies of Ravana are burned on Vijayadashami in many places throughout India to symbolize Rama's triumph over evil.

Ravanahatha
According to mythology, the ravanahatha, an ancient bowed string instrument, was created by Ravana and is still used as a Rajasthani folk instrument.

In other religions
In the Rin-spuns-pa Tibetan Ramayana, it is prophesied that Ravana will return as the Buddha incarnation of Vishnu in Kali Yuga. The Arunachal Pradesh Tai Khamti Ramayana (Phra Chow Lamang) shows Rama as a Bodhisattva who was reborn so Ravana could torture him. In the Laotian Buddhist text Phra Lak Phra Lam, Rama is a Bodhisattva and the embodiment of virtues, while Ravana is a Brahmin ("mahabrahma") son of Virulaha who is highly materialistic. In the Cambodian Buddhist text Preah Ream, Buddha is an incarnation of Rama and Ravana is a rakshasa. In the Thai Buddhist text Ramakien, Ravana is a rakshasa known as "Thotsakan" (ทศกัณฐ์, from Sanskrit दशकण्ठ, Daśakaṇṭha, "ten necks"), and is depicted with green skin. In the Karandavyuha Sutra, Yama asks if the visitor in hell (Avalokitesvara), whom he hasn't seen yet, is a god or a demon, and whether he is Vishnu, Mahesvara, or the rakshasa Ravana.

Jainism
Jain accounts vary from the traditional Hindu accounts of the Ramayana. The incidents are placed at the time of the 20th Tirthankara, Munisuvrata. In Jainism, both Rama and Ravana were devout Jains. Ravana was a Vidyadhara king who had magical powers, and Lakshmana, not Rama, was the one who ultimately killed Ravana.

Dravidian movement
Pulavar Kuzhanthai's Ravana Kaaviyam is a panegyric on Ravana that is made up of 3,100 poetic stanzas in which Ravana is the hero. The book was released in 1946, and was subsequently banned by India's Congress led government. The ban was later lifted in 1971.

In popular culture
Sri Lanka named its first satellite Raavana 1 after Ravana.

Ravana appears as the primary antagonist in films and television series based on the Ramayana. Movies like Bhakta Ravana (1938) and its Telugu (1940 and 1958) and Kannada (1958) adaptations as well as television series Raavan (2006-2008) are focused on the tale on Ravana. The Tamil film Raavanan (2010) and its Hindi counterpart Raavan (2010) narrate the epic from Ravana's perspective in a modern setting.

title: Ravana