The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Tanmatras
importance of grace as the sole means
of salvation because human beings were
unable to save themselves. Given this
dire view of human capacities, Madhva
divided the beings of the world into
three classes: The muktiyogas were destined
for final liberation, the nityasamsarins
were destined for eternal rebirth,
and the tamoyogas were predestined for
eternal damnation.
Tandava
Name denoting one of the two broad
categories in Indian dance. The tandava
style is athletic and dramatic and conveys
violence and power, whereas the
other dance form, lasya, is soft and lyrical
and conveys a mood of love. The tandava
style received its name from the
tandava dance of the god Shiva.
According to tradition, this is the dance
through which Shiva destroys the world
when its time has come. Not all of the
dance’s mythic connotations are violent,
since this athletic dance is also said to
be the one through which Shiva vanquished
the goddess Kali in a dance
contest, when her feminine modesty
prevented her from imitating his style.
Tanjore
City and district in the southern Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, the eastern boundary
of which is the Bay of Bengal. The
Tanjore district lies in the Cauvery River
delta, south of the river’s main channel;
even today this extremely fertile area
grows a large percentage of India’s rice.
This district was the core homeland of
the Chola dynasty, and the land’s agricultural
fecundity was the underlying
source of the dynasty’s power, which at
one point stretched through most of
southern India and even extended to
Malaysia. The Chola dynasty used
their wealth and power to build
enormous temples throughout Tamil
Nadu, but especially in the Tanjore
district and Tanjore city, their capital.
The Chola zenith came with King Raja
Raja (r. 985–1014 C.E.), who built Tanjore
city’s Brhadeshvar temple, and his
son Rajendra (r. 1014–1042 C.E.),
whose greatest monument is the temple
at Gangaikondacholapuran. The
Brhadeshvar temple is dedicated to
Shiva as the “Great Lord”; some of
the most notable of the other temples
built or improved by the Cholas
were at Kumbhakonam, Thiruvaiyaru,
Chidambaram, and Shrirangam.
Tanka
Name for a small chisel used by stone
workers, one of the characteristic
objects in Hindu iconography. The tanka
is mainly associated with Shiva and
is a minor artifact because it generally
appears only when the deity has
multiple arms and is holding a number
of objects.
Tanmatras
The tanmatras are the subtle elements,
the subtle forms of the five gross elements
(earth, air, fire, water, and
akasha) from which the gross elements
are derived. The senses corresponding
to the subtle elements are gandha
(smell) for earth, sparsha (touch) for air,
rupa (shape) for fire, rasa (taste) for
water, and shabda (sound) for akasha.
The tanmatras first appeared in the
account of the evolution of the universe
propounded by the Samkhya school,
one of the six schools of traditional
Hindu philosophy. In the Samkhya
account, the subtle elements are the
stage of evolution preceding the evolution
of the gross elements. The Samkhya
school espoused an atheistic dualism in
which the two fundamental principles
were purusha (spirit) and prakrti
(matter); all of this evolution was associated
with prakrti because, according
to the Samkhyas, the purusha
never changed. The Samkhya account
of evolution was appropriated by
other groups—although these groups
often adapted it to reflect theistic
assumptions in which the world
came from God—and thus the notion
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