A kautuka is a red-yellow coloured ritual protection thread, sometimes with knots, found on the Indian subcontinent. It is sometimes called a kalava, mauli, moui, raksasutra, [1] pratisara (in North India), kaapu, kayiru, charandu or rakshadhara (in South India). [2] [3] [4] A kautuka is a woven thread, cord or ribbon, states the Indologist Jan Gonda, which is traditionally believed to be protective or apotropaeic. [3] The pratisara and kautuka in a ritual thread context appear in the Vedic text Atharvaveda Samhita section 2.11. [3] An even earlier reference to ritual "red and black" colored thread with a dual function, one of driving away "fiends" and the other "binding of bonds" between the bride and the groom by one's relatives appears in hymn 10.85.28 of the Rigveda , states Gonda. [3] [5]
A pratisara or kautuka serves a ritual role in Hinduism, and is tied by the priest or oldest family member on the wrist of a devotee, patron, loved one or around items such as kalasha or lota (vessel) for a rite-of-passage or yajna ritual. [2] [6] It is the woven thread in the pooja thali. It is typically colored a shade of red, sometimes orange, saffron, yellow or is a mixture of these colors. [3] [7] [1] However, it may also be white or wreathe or just stalks of a grass of the types found in other cultures and believed to offer similar apotropaic value. [3] It is typically tied to the wrist or worn like a necklace, but occasionally it may be worn in conjunction with a headband or turban-like gear. [3] Similar threads are tied to various items and the neck of vessels during a Hindu puja ceremony. [8]
The ritual thread is traditionally worn on the right wrist or arm by the males and on the left by the females. This thread also plays a role in certain familial and marital ceremonies. For example, a red or golden or similarly colored thread is offered by a sister to her brother at Raksha Bandhan. This thread, states the Indologist Jack Goody, is at once a "protection against misfortune for the brother, a symbol of mutual dependence between the sister and brother, and a mark of mutual respect". [9] In a Hindu marriage ceremony, this thread is referred to as kautuka in ancient Sanskrit texts. [3] It is tied to both the bride and the groom, as well as household items such as grinding stone, clay pots and fertility symbols. [2] In South India, it is the priest who ties the kaapu (kautuka) on the groom's wrist, while the groom ties the colored thread on the bride's wrist as a part of the wedding rituals. [4]
In regional Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism such as those found in Maharashtra, the red-colored thread symbolizes Vishnu for men, and Lakshmi for women, states the Indologist Gudrun Bühnemann. The string typically has no knots or fourteen knots and it is tied to the wrist of the worshipper or garlanded as a necklace. If worn by the wife, it is without knots and is identified with Lakshmi-doraka or Anantī. To the husband, the thread has knots and it symbolizes Ananta (Vishnu). [10]
The Shaivism tradition of Hinduism similarly deploys auspicious kautuka (pratisara) threads in puja and consecration rituals. For example, during temple construction and worship rituals, the shilpa Sanskrit texts recommend that the first bricks and the Shiva linga be ritually tied with red-, golden-, saffron- or similarly hued threads. [11] The Shaiva temple architecture texts generally use the term kautuka for this auspicious thread, while Vaishnava texts refer to it as pratisara. [11]
The raksasutra (kautuka, pratisara) is also a part of festive ceremonies and processions, where the protective thread is tied to the wrist of festival icons and human participants. It is mentioned in verses 27.206-207 of the Ajitagama, states the Indologist Richard Davis. [1] Some Hindu texts mention these threads to be a part of the rakshabandhana rite for a temple procession and festive celebrations, recommending woven gold, silver or cotton threads, with some texts specifying the number of threads in a kautuka. [1]
In Jainism, protective threads with amulets are called raksapotli. Typically red and worn of the wrist, they may sometimes come with a rolled up red fabric that has been blessed by a Jain mendicant using mantras, according to the Indologist M. Whitney Kelting. [12] If worn on the neck, states Kelting, the Jain tradition names the protective amulet after the Jain deity whose blessing is believed to be tied into the knot. The ritual significance of a protective thread between the sisters and brothers as well as during Jain weddings is similar to those in Hinduism. [12]
Sutra in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a condensed manual or text. Sutras are a genre of ancient and medieval Indian texts found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
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Prajapati is a Vedic deity of Hinduism.
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The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE, it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars before spreading northwards. It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.
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Puja is a worship ritual performed by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honour a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honour or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their memories after they die. The word pūjā is Sanskrit, and means reverence, honor, homage, adoration and worship. Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. For the worshipper, the divine is visible in the image, and the divinity sees the worshipper. The interaction between human and deity, between human and guru, is called darshan, seeing.
A mantra or mantram is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words believed by practitioners to have religious, magical or spiritual powers. Some mantras have a syntactic structure and a literal meaning, while others do not.
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Yajna in Hinduism refers to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature called Brahmanas, as well as Yajurveda. The tradition has evolved from offering oblations and libations into sacred fire to symbolic offerings in the presence of sacred fire (Agni).
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Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in South Asia. It is also celebrated in other parts of the world significantly influenced by Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman or amulet called the rakhi around the wrists of their brothers. They symbolically protect them, receive a gift in return, and traditionally invest the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.
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Āstika and nāstika are concepts that have been used to classify the schools of Indian philosophy by modern scholars, as well as some Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. The various definitions for āstika and nāstika philosophies have been disputed since ancient times, and there is no consensus. One standard distinction, as within ancient- and medieval-era Sanskrit philosophical literature, is that āstika schools accept the Vedas, the ancient texts of India, as fundamentally authoritative, while the nāstika schools do not. However, a separate way of distinguishing the two terms has evolved in current Indian languages like Telugu, Hindi and Bengali, wherein āstika and its derivatives usually mean 'theist', and nāstika and its derivatives denote 'atheism'. Still, philosophical tradition maintains the earlier distinction, for example, in identifying the school of Sāṃkhya, which is non-theistic, as āstika (Veda-affirming) philosophy, though "God" is often used as an epithet for consciousness (purusha) within its doctrine. Similarly, though Buddhism is considered to be nāstika, Gautama Buddha is considered an avatar of the god Vishnu in some Hindu denominations. Due to its acceptance of the Vedas, āstika philosophy, in the original sense, is often equivalent to Hindu philosophy: philosophy that developed alongside the Hindu religion.
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The Agni Purana, is a Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. The text is variously classified as a Purana related to Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism, but also considered as a text that covers them all impartially without leaning towards a particular theology.
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Gudrun Bühnemann is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is an Indologist whose research interests include Sanskrit language and literature, Buddhism, Hinduism, Tantrism and yoga studies. Her work has especially attracted the interest of scholars working on South Asian iconography and ritual and of scholars of the emerging discipline of Yoga Studies for her discovery of early illustrated manuscripts including the Joga Pradīpikā showing sets of 84 asanas.