ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

RELIGION2 SECOND EDITION

ATTRIBUTES OF LINDSAY JONESGOD EDITOR IN CHIEF

BUTLER, JOSEPH

MACMILLAN REFERENCEUSAAn imprint of Thomson Gale, a part of The Thomson Corporation

THOJVJ50N

GAUl

© 2005 Thomson Gale, a part of TheThomson Corporation.

Thomson, Star Logo and Macmillan ReferenceUSA are trademarks and Gale is a registeredtrademark used herein under license.

For more information, contactMacmillan Reference USAAn imprint of Thomson Gale27500 Drake Rd.Farmington, Hills, MI 48331-3535Or you can visit our Internet site athttp://www.gale.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDNo part of this work covered by the copyrighthereon may be reproduced or used in anyform or by any means-graphic, electronic, ormechanical, including photocopying, record-ing, taping, Web distribution, or informationstorage retrieval systems-without the writ-ten permission of the publisher.

THOMSON•GALE

Encyclopedia of Religion, Second EditionLindsay Jones, Editor in Chief

For permission to use material from thisproduct, submit your request via Web athttp://www.gale-edit.com/permissions. or youmay download our Permissions Request formand submit your request by fax or mail to:

PermissionsThomson Gale27500 Drake Rd.Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535Permissions Hotline:248-699-8006 or 800-877-4253 ext. 8006Fax: 248-699-8074 or 800-762-4058

Since this page cannot legibly accommodateall copyright notices, the acknowledgmentsconstitute an extension of the copyrightnotice.

While every effort has been made toensure the reliability of the information pre-sented in this publication, Thomson Galedoes not guarantee the accuracy of the datacontained herein. Thomson Gale accepts nopayment for listing; and inclusion in the pub-lication of any organization, agency, institu-tion, publication, service, or individual doesnot imply endorsement of the editors or pub-lisher. Errors brought to the attention of thepublisher and verified to the satisfaction ofthe publisher will be corrected in futureeditions.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Encyclopedia of religion I Lindsay Jones, editor in chief.- 2nd ed.p. em.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN0-02-865733·0 (SETHARDCOVER; ALK. PAPER)-ISBN0-02-865734-9 (V. 1) - ISBN0-02-865735-7 (v. 2)-ISBN0-02-865736-5 (v. 3) - ISBN0·02-865737-3 (v. 4) -ISBN0·02-865738-1 (v. 5) - ISBN0-02-865739-X (v. 6)-ISBN0-02-865740-3 (v. 7) -ISBN 0·02-865741-1 (v. 8)-ISBN0-02-865742-X (v. 9) - ISBN0·02-865743-8 (v. 10)-ISBN 0-02-865980-5 (v. 11) -ISBN 0-02-865981-3 (v.12) -ISBN 0-02-865982-1 (v. 13) -ISBN 0-02-865983-X(v. 14) - ISBN0·02-865984-8 (v. 15)1. RELIGION-ENCYCLOPEDIAS. I. JONES,LINDSAY,1954-

BL31.E462005200' .3-<lc22 2004017052

This title is also available as an e-book.ISBN 0-02-865997-X

Contact your Thomson Gale representative for ordering information.

Printed in the United States of America10987654321

712 AWAKUM

Heikhalot terminology and itsphilosophic vocabulary.

son, Sheraga. "Sifrei halakhot shel ha-R ' bad." Tarbiz 36( ecember 1966): 158-179.

"R. Abraham b. David aus Po uieres." Monatsschriftfor chichte und Wissemchaft de Judenthums 22 (1873):337-3 398-407, 446-459; (1874): 19-29, 76-85,164-182, 75-276.

New Sources

Trigano, S muel L. "Intention d'amour es Maitres de l'ame, deRa i Abraham ben David: un guide atrimonial en Lan-g edoc au XIIe siecle." Parties 1 (1985). 149-172.

AWAKUM (162011-1682), Russian Orthodox arpriest; founding father of the Old Believers; martyr Av-vakum as ordained to the priesthood at the age of enty-two, servi in the area ofNizhni Novgorod; eight}) ars laterhe was pro oted to be archpriest. By then he ad amplydemonstrated is zeal as a reformer. Followin n the wakeof the Muscovi "God-seekers," an influe ial group ofscholarly zealots, n sought to revive liturgic life and publicmorality. The resent ent which this proved led to his dis-placement and his firs visit to Moscow 652). There he waswelcomed by the leadin God-seekers nd introduced to thetsar.

akum and his companions wer brought back toow and anathematized at a church c uncil of 1666-

16 7; he in turn anathematized the council. Thus was con-

firmed the existence of the Russian church schism, which woJto have a decisive influence on the ordering of Russian solety over the centuries to come. Avvakum was sent to the rc-tic outpost ofPustozersk from which he and his compa ionsissued tracts and letters. More important than these w, s Av-akurn's apologetic autobiography composed in 1572 to1 3. It is a masterpiece of Russian literature and 0 e of Eu-rope great confessional texts.

Th accession of a new patriarch of Mosco (joachim)was proba Iy a decisive factor in taking the sta e's campaignagainst the Id Believers a stage further, an Avvakum, to-gether with h three companions, was sen to the stake inApril 1682. A um had persuasively pr ented himself asconfessor and prop t in defense of the sa ed Orthodox her-itage delivered to Mo ow, the "thirdmembered as a martyr 0 the old fait .

BIBLIOGRAPHYAvvakurn's autobiography has bee eedited from the manuscript

by Andrei N. Robinson, "hizn isaniia Aouakuma i Epi-foniia (Moscow, 1963) The mo scholarly edition andtranslation of the rext i a Western E pean language is byPierre Pascal, La vie ~ l'archipritre Avv m ecritepar lui-mime; 2d ed. (Pari, 1960). Even so, Robins utters wordsof caution about he redaction on which the t slation isbased. It was aI 0 Pascal who provided a magnifice treat-ment of Aw m and his times in Avvakum et lesdeb duRasko!:La 'se religieuseau dix-septieme siecleen Russie,ed. (Pari, 1963).

SERGEI HACKEL (I 987)

AXIS MUNDI, the "hub" or "axis" of the universe, isa technical term used in the study of the history of religions.It comprises at least three levels of reference: the imagesthemselves, their function and meaning, and the experiencesassociated with them.

Vivid images of the axis of the universe vary widely,since they depend on the particular worldview entertainedby a specific culture. Foremost among the images designatedby the term axis mundi is the cosmic mountain, a sacredplace deemed to be the highest point of the universe and per-haps identified with the center of the world and the placewhere creation first began. Well-known examples of the cos-mic mountain are Mount Meru of South Asian cosmology,Haraberazaiti of Iranian tradition, and Himinbjorg of Scan-dinavian mythology.

The cosmic tree, at whose top abides the celestial divini-ty, is another frequent image standing for the axis of theworld. The roots of such a tree may sink into the under-worlds, while its branches traverse the multiple world planes.At the center of the classical Maya vision of the world stoodYaxche, the "first tree," the "green tree," whose place markedthe center of all meaningful directions and colors of the uni-verse.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

A cosmic pillar may also serve as an axis mundi. Suchis the case with the Delaware (Lenape) Indians and otherEastern Woodland peoples of North America. The centerpost of their ceremonial cult house supports the sky and pass-es into the very hand of the celestial deity. The Milky Wayis often viewed as another form of cosmic pillar that supportsthe heavens and connects them with earth.

Many other images fall under the designation axismundibecause they share in the symbolic meaning represent-ed by a cosmic mountain, tree, or pillar that joins heaven,earth, and underworld. This category includes cities, espe-cially imperial capitals deemed "heavenly" sites by virtue ofproximity to the divine realm; palaces or temples that contin-ue the imagery of the cosmic mountain (e.g., the Babylonianziggurat); vines or ropes that pass from heaven to earth; andsacred ladders such as the seven-rung ladder, described byOrigen, that brings the candidate in the cult of Mithrathrough the seven heavens.

None of these images has a static function. They are allplaces of active passage and transition. As places of dynamicunion where beings of quite different natures come togetheror pass into one another, the images of axis mundi may beassociated with the coincidence of opposites-that is, the res-olution of contradictions by their progress onto a more spiri-tual plane.

Because the axis mundi serves as the locus where cosmicregions intersect and where the universe of being is accessiblein all its dimensions, the hub of the universe is held to bea place sacred above all others. It defines reality, for it marksthe place where being is most fully manifest. This connectionof the axis mundi with the full manifestation of being is oftenexpressed as an association with the supreme being to whomthe axis provides access. This axis mundi is often traversedand its heights attained in a state of ecstasy brought aboutby spiritual techniques. Hence the term axis mundi impliesan intersection of planes through which transcendence toother kinds of being may be achieved.

There is a tendency to replicate the image of the axismundi in multiple forms. Such is the case with the cross-thecosmic tree of Christianity. Re-creating the image of the axismundi in the form of village sites, house plans, ritual furnish-ings, personal ornaments, and even kitchen items tends toidentify the universe as a whole with the fullness of beingcharacteristic of action at that sacred place. It ensures thatcontact with the fullness of reality is everywhere possible. Asa result, the meaning and function of the axis mundi rest notin abstract and geometrical concepts alone but in everydaygestures that can effect the same transcendence.

All these symbols imply a particular quality of experi-ence. The symbols of axis mundi are ambivalent: on the onehand, they connect realms of being but on the other handthey emphasize the distance between such realms. In short,they point to the need for a rupture of planes of existence,for experience of an order quite different from that of the or-dinary world.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITION

AYURVEDA 713

SEE ALso Architecture; Mountains; Trees.

BIBLIOGRAPHYFor a wide-ranging discussion of the general concept of axis

mundi, see Mircea Eliade's Patterns in Comparative Religion(New York, 1958), pp. 367-387, which concern the "centerof the world," and pp. 265-303, which treat the question ofthe axis mundi manifest as cosmic tree. See also Eliade's TheSacred and the Profone: The Nature of Religion (New York,1959), pp. 20-67, and Images and Symbols: Studies in Reli-gious Symbolism (New York, 1961), pp. 27-56, which pro-vide bibliographies tracing the history of this concept inscholarly study of religion.

For contemporary studies representing investigations of specificaspects of axis mundi, the following may serve as illustrations:for the image of mountain, 1.W. Mabbett's "The Symbolismof Mount Meru," History of Religions 23 (August 1983): 64-83; for cosmic tree, Y. T. Hosoi's "The Sacred Tree in Japa-nese Prehistory," History of Religions 16 (November 1976):95-119; as a city, Werner Muller's Die heilige Stadt (Stutt-gart, 1961) and Paul Wheatley's The Pivot of the Four Quar-ters:A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character ofthe Ancient Chinese City (Chicago, 1971), esp. pp. 411-476.For an examination of the temple as place of union of beingsand manifestation of sacred presence, see David Dean Shul-man's Tamil Temple Myths (Princeton, 1980).

For a consideration of the liturgical function of sacred geographyand spatial images when seen as expressions of being, seeKeesW. Bolle's "Speaking of a Place," in Myths and Symbols,edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles H. Long (Chica-go, 1969), pp. 127-140.

New SourcesFeuerstein, Georg, Subhash Kak, and David Frawley. In Search of

the Cradle of Civilization. Wheaton, Ill., 1995.

Michell, John, and Christine Rhone. Twelve-Tribe Nations and theScience of Enchanting the Landscape. Grand Rapids, Mich.,1991.

Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York, 1995.

LAWRENCE E. SULLIVAN (1987)Revised Bibliography

AYUft:VEDA. 'fne traditional Hindu system ~kinidely practiced in India, Ayurveda is based on authorit ·eeatises written in Sanskrit over approximately t~ ast twoillenn . Three major classical medical syst mShave flour-

i hed on t Indian subcontinent: Ayurv a among Hindus,un am amo Muslims, and Si . a among Tamils inuth India. The! aborate textual traditions

from the assorted medical