The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Sapindikarana
reduced agricultural revenue and by
British-sponsored changes in land ownership
patterns, in which officials in the
East India Company replaced many of
the “unprofitable” traditional landowners
with their own Company employees.
Many of the traditional landowners
owed money to ascetic moneylenders
(Sanyasis), and had pledged their land
revenue as security. The Sanyasis were
upset when the landowners were
replaced and the debts not honored. For
their part, the Company’s officials were
reluctant to allow the ascetics, who traveled
in heavily armed bands, to pass
through the company’s territories while
on religious pilgrimage, as the ascetics
had traditionally done. Ultimately
the ascetic attacks were disorganized
and local, and the disparate Sanyasi
bands were unable to withstand
British resources and organization. A
fictionalized account of the Sanyasi
Rebellion appeared in the novel
Anandamath, by Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee (1838–1894), who used the
Sanyasi Rebellion as a coded call for
resistance to contemporary British rule.
Sapaksha
One of the parts of an acceptable
form of 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 sapaksha is part of
the third term, the examples. It is a positive
example given to support the claim
made in the initial assertion, by showing
that similar things happen in comparable
cases. For example, in the inference,
“there is fire on the mountain, because
there is smoke on the mountain,” the
sapaksha could be “as in a kitchen,”
since this place has both fire and smoke,
and thus supports the initial assertion.
Conventionally, an inference also has to
have a negative example, to show that
the claim made in the assertion does not
happen in some other cases.
Saphala Ekadashi
Religious observance falling on the
eleventh day (ekadashi) of the dark
(waxing) half of the lunar month of
Paush (December–January). All the
eleventh-day observances are dedicated
to the worship of Vishnu. Most Hindu
religious festivals have certain prescribed
rites, which usually involve fasting
(upavasa) and worship and often
promise specific benefits for faithful
performance. Those performing this rite
must stay up all night singing and telling
of Vishnu’s exploits. The name Saphala
means “successful,” and those who
faithfully observe this will be successful
in all their endeavors.
Sapinda
(“having a common body”) Term for
people having common ancestry, who
could thus be said to share the same
body through the ancestor. This relationship
was held to cease after seven
generations on the father’s side, and
after five on the mother’s. Men and
women who were sapinda were theoretically
forbidden to marry, although this
prohibition has been routinely ignored
in southern India since very early times.
See also marriage prohibitions.
Sapindikarana
Funerary rite (antyeshthi samskara)
performed on the twelfth day after
death, which symbolically represents
the one-year anniversary of the death.
In this rite, the departed person is transformed
from a potentially dangerous
wandering spirit (pret) to a benevolent
ancestral spirit (pitr). Each day for ten
days following a person’s death, mourners
leave a ball of cooked grain (pinda)
for the departed spirit. Gradually the ten
pindas “construct” a new body for the
departed person. Then sapindikarana is
performed on the twelfth day. A large
pinda, representing the departed, and
three smaller ones are collected, representing
the departed’s father, grandfather,
and great-grandfather. The rite’s
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