The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Vishva Nirmala Dharam
764
temple and Aurangzeb’s mosque made
for delicate relations between the Hindu
and Muslim communities, and like
many northern Indian cities Benares has
seen its share of bloodshed between
these two communities. In recent times
the destruction of the original Vishvanath
temple has been taken up as a political
issue by the Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP), a Hindu activist organization
calling for the “return” of this and other
northern Indian sites by force if necessary.
The VHP’s presence and activity have
significantly escalated tensions between
Hindus and Muslims as a whole. Given
the political gains that these confrontational
strategies have brought, it seems
likely that they will continue in the future
and that the Vishvanath temple will be a
site connected with conflict.
Vishva Nirmala Dharam
Religious organization founded by the
modern Hindu teacher Nirmala Devi
(b. 1923), to propagate her teachings
throughout the world.
Dancer displaying the vismaya hasta.
Vishvedevas
This name can either be construed as
referring to all the gods, based on the
term’s literal meaning (“all the gods”), or
it can refer to a group of deities reckoned
as the sons of Vishva, the daughter
of the divine sage Daksha. The
number of sons differs according to different
texts and is reckoned at either ten
or thirteen. The Vishvedevas are especially
worshiped at the memorial rites
for the dead known as shraddhas,
although the Manu Smrti, one of the
authoritative texts in the dharma literature,
prescribes offerings to them every
day. These prescribed daily offerings are
said to have been their reward for having
performed particularly harsh asceticism
(tapas).
Vismaya (“surprise”) Hasta
In Indian dance, sculpture, and ritual, a
particular hand gesture (hasta), in
which the forearm and the fingers are
pointing upward, with the back of the
hand turned toward the viewer. This