According to the epic-material summarized in the supplied sources, Gandhārī carried an abnormal pregnancy that produced a hard lump of flesh. The rishi Vyāsa advised that the piece be divided into one hundred and one parts, each placed into a jar filled with ghee; after incubation in the jars for two years they matured and were born as Dhṛtarāṣṭra's children. This mythic birth narrative is presented in the sources as the origin of the Kauravas and figures in later disputes over succession to the Kuru throne.
The sources describe the Kauravas as human princes and members of the royal family of Kuru. Individual brothers are named in the epic tradition (notably Duryodhana, Dushasana, Vikarna, Chitrasena) and the family also includes a sister, Dussala, and a half-brother, Yuyutsu. No unified supernatural or non-human physical description is provided in the supplied material; they are presented as ordinary human characters of princely status.
Within the narrative the Kauravas function as political and martial actors: claimants to the throne, leaders of the Kaurava forces in the Kurukṣetra war, and central agents in the epic's moral and dynastic conflicts. The supplied sources emphasize their role in succession disputes and warfare; most of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons (excluding Yuyutsu) are reported to have been killed in the Battle of Kurukṣetra. The sources do not attribute magical powers to them.
Pandubba
The 'water-drowner' of UP and Bihar — a jal pret (water ghost) that lurks in wells, ponds, and river bends, grabbing the ankles of swimmers and washing those who lean over still water. The most feared water-edge presence in Bhojpuri folk belief.
Pandava
The Pandavas are five legendary royal brothers who are central protagonists of the Indian epic the Mahabharata. They are mortal princes of the Kuru line whose births are supernaturally sanctioned by different gods and whose lives (education, exile, war, and rule) illustrate dilemmas of dharma, kinship, and kingship.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
Abhimanyu
Abhimanyu is a youthful Kuru/Pandava warrior-hero in the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata. Son of Arjuna and Subhadra, he is famed for entering the Chakravyuha battle formation on the thirteenth day of the Kurukshetra War and dying at age sixteen; his posthumous son Parikshit continues the Kuru line.
Abhinandananātha
Abhinandananātha is the fourth Tīrthaṅkara (ford-maker) of the current Jain cosmic age (avasarpini). Traditional accounts place his birth in Ayodhyā to the Ikshvāku (Solar) dynasty, describe his renunciation and attainment of omniscience beneath a priyangu tree, and record his liberation on Mount Śikharjī.
Achyuta
Achyuta (Sanskrit: अच्युत, acyuta) is primarily an epithet/theonym in Vaishnava Hindu tradition applied to Vishnu and Krishna, signifying the divine quality of being 'not fallen' — immutable, infallible, and imperishable. It functions as a devotional name in scripture, liturgy, and Pancharatra lists of divine emanations rather than as an autonomous folkloric spirit.
Acintya
Acintya is an Indonesian Hindu theological-symbolic representation of the ineffable supreme divine principle. In Balinese and Javanese practice it functions as a way to make ultimate reality present in ritual and art—often aniconically as an empty throne (padmasana) or anthropomorphically as a naked, flame-surrounded figure—rather than as a narrative, intervening deity.
Adi (asura)
Adi is attested in modern reference works as the name of an Asura who 'appears in the Matsya Purāṇa.' Beyond this single-line citation in secondary sources, no descriptive material about the figure is provided in the supplied research notes.
Adi Shakti
Adi Shakti (also Adi Parashakti, Mahadevi, Adya Shakti) is the primordial feminine power in Hindu/Shakta theology, regarded as the ultimate reality (Para Brahman) and the source from which all goddesses and gods manifest. She is both an impersonal cosmic principle (Mulaprakriti) and a focus of devotional invocation in temples, mantras, and pilgrimage sites such as Shakti Peethas.
Adi Vinayaka
Adi Vinayaka (Ādi Vināyaka; also called Nara Mukha Vinayaka) is a named iconographic and devotional form of the Hindu god Ganesha portraying the deity with a human head, described in sources as the form before the episode of decapitation by Shiva. It is rarely worshipped and appears in a small number of South Indian shrines and in devotional/musical repertoires.
Aditi
Aditi is a major Vedic goddess in Hindu tradition who personifies the boundless, infinite cosmic principle and functions as the maternal matrix from which many celestial deities (the Ādityas and other groups) are born. In the Vedic hymns she is invoked as a protective liberator who guards petitioners, provides wealth and safety, and frees devotees from hindrances such as sin and sickness.
Agastya
Agastya (also Agathiyar/Agasti) is a revered Vedic and later-period Indian rishi (sage) figure credited in textual traditions as an inspired seer, ascetic, teacher, culture-founder, and attributed author of Vedic, Puranic and Tamil works; in South Indian tradition he is associated with origins of Tamil grammar and Siddha medicine and is identified astronomically with the star Canopus.
Aghasura
Aghasura is an asura from the Vaishnava/Hindu narrative tradition (notably the Srimad‑Bhāgavatam) who, at the command of Kamsa, assumed the form of a vast serpent to ambush Kṛṣṇa and the cowherd boys in Vṛndāvana. The episode demonstrates Kṛṣṇa’s protective, divine power as he enters and destroys the demon from within.
Agiya Baital
The fire-form of the Vetala — a cremation ground spirit of UP and Bihar that manifests as a wandering flame rather than a corpse-inhabitor, leading night travellers off roads and into marshland or flames with a dancing fire that seems always just ahead.
Community Record
- [1]Kaurava — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Kaurava' entry (accessed via provided research notes)wiki
- [2]Kaurava — Wikidata Q13900078. Wikidata entry noting homonymous insect genus usageother
- [3]Vikranta Kaurava (archive). Archive listing referencing modern literary use of the term 'Kaurava'other
- [4]CBFC entry: ONCE MORE KAURAVA trailer (archive). Archive item showing modern cultural reuse of the name 'Kaurava' in mediaother
- [5]CBFC entry: SONG 1 KUKKU KUKKU MALE BILLU (ONCE MORE KAURAVA) (archive). Archive item showing modern cultural reuse of the name 'Kaurava' in mediaother