The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Sagara Dashanami
in the province of Sindh province, now
in Pakistan.
Sadhya
(“to be proved”) Element in the accepted
form of an inference (anumana) in
Indian philosophy. An acceptable inference
has three terms: an assertion
(pratijna), a reason (hetu), and examples
(drshtanta); each of these three has
its own constituent parts. The sadhya is,
along with the paksha, one of the two
parts of the assertion. The paksha is the
subject of the hypothesis and names a
class of things, while the sadhya contains
the claim to be proven about that
class. In the standard example, in which
the hypothesis is “this mountain is on
fire,” the paksha is “this mountain” (the
class of things about which a claim is
being made); and the sadhya, or thing to
be proven, is “is on fire.”
Safai
Small cloth wrapped around the base of
a chillum, a clay cylinder used for smoking
a mixture of tobacco and hashish
(charas). The safai serves two purposes,
one ritual and one physical. On one
hand, it forms a barrier intended to prevent
passing the ritual impurity
(ashaucha) carried by saliva when the
chillum is being passed from person to
person. Ascetics who are very conscious
of purity or status will often wrap their
own safai around the base of the chillum
before smoking. Aside from helping to
protect personal purity, the safai also
serves a practical purpose–it is usually
dipped in water before being wrapped
around the chillum, which serves to cool
and mellow the smoke being drawn
through it.
Sagar
In Hindu mythology, a celebrated king
of the Solar Line. Sagar, the son of King
Subahu and his wife Yadavi, gets his
name because one of Yadavi’s co-wives
has given her poison (gara) while she is
pregnant with him. Sagar has a very
hard early life. His father is driven from
his kingdom even before he is born, and
Sagar is raised at the ashram of the sage
Aurva, where his mother has taken asylum.
When he comes to maturity Sagar
embarks on a series of military campaigns
in which he wins back all the
lands his father lost, and becomes a
righteous and religious king whose only
concern is his lack of progeny.
To beget sons, Sagar calls on the sage
Bhrgu, who gives Sagar’s two wives a
choice: one wife will bear 60,000 sons
who will all die childless, and one wife
will bear one son who will carry on the
line. Each of his wives chooses, and in
due course both have their children—
Keshini delivers her one son in the normal
way, whereas Sumati delivers a
lump of flesh that is divided and put into
60,000 pots, each of which develops into
a handsome son.
In his prosperity King Sagar continues
to sponsor religious rites, and is on
the verge of completing his hundredth
horse sacrifice (asvamedha), which will
entitle him to the throne of Indra, the
god who is the king of heaven. To forestall
this, Indra steals the sacred horse
and hides it in the ashram of the sage
Kapila. Sagar sends his 60,000 sons
to search for the horse, but they make
the mistake of insulting the sage, who
burns them all to ash through his
yogic powers. To rescue their souls it
is necessary to bring down the Ganges
from heaven, a job that Sagar’s descendants
diligently attempt to complete.
After several generations of frustration,
his great-great-grandson Bhagirath is
finally successful.
Sagara Dashanami
One of the ten divisions of the
Dashanami Sanyasis, renunciant ascetics
who are devotees (bhakta) of Shiva.
The Dashanamis were supposedly
established by the ninth-century philosopher
Shankaracharya in an effort
create a corps of learned men who
could help to revitalize Hindu life.
Each of the divisions is designated by a
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