Wiktionary
n. 1 A geometrical diagram used as a meditation aid in tantric worship. 2 (context religion English) Any object used as a meditation aid in tantric worship.
Wikipedia
Yantra may refer to:
- Yantra (river), a river in Bulgaria
- Yantra, Gabrovo Province, a village in the Dryanovo municipality, Gabrovo Province, Bulgaria
- Yantra, Veliko Tarnovo Province, a village in Gorna Oryahovitsa municipality, Veliko Tarnovo Province, Bulgaria
- FC Yantra, a football club from Gabrovo, Bulgaria
- Yantra, a pattern used in Hinduism for worship
- Yantra yoga
- Yantra tattoo
- Yantra Corporation, a software company acquired by Sterling Commerce
The Yàntra is a river in northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. It is 285 km long (the third longest Bulgarian tributary of the Danube) and has a watershed of 7,862 km².
The Yantra has its source from the northern foot of Hadzhi Dimitar Peak in Central Stara Planina, at 1,340 m. In its upper course, it is often called Etar (Етър), its older name. The river flows into the Danube close to Svishtov.
A special feature of the river are the many gorges it forms by crossing the Forebalkan area, the largest one being close to Veliko Tarnovo, 7 km in length, albeit actually two times longer due to the river's many turns.
Major cities on the river are Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Polski Trambesh, and Byala, close to which is the famous bridge Belenski most over the Yantra.
Yantra (यन्त्र) is the Sanskrit word for a mystical diagram, especially diagrams from the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions. They are used for worship of deities in temples or at home; as an aid in meditation; used for the benefits given by their supposed occult powers based on Hindu astrology and tantric texts.
In Classical Sanskrit, the generic meaning of yantra is "instrument, contrivance, apparatus". In Rigvedic Sanskrit, it meant an instrument for restaining or fastening, a prop, support or barrier, etymologically from the root yam "to sustain, support" and the -tra suffix expressing instruments. The literal meaning is still evident in the medical terminology of Sushruta, where the term refers to blunt surgical instruments such as tweezers or a vice. The meaning of "mystical or occult diagram" arises in the medieval period ( Kathasaritsagara, Pancharatra).
Madhu Khanna in linking Mantra, Yantra, Ishta-devata, and thoughtforms states:
Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are essentially "thought forms" representing divinities or cosmic powers, which exert their influence by means of sound-vibrations.
Usage examples of "yantra".
The apartment was a box clock, a cubicular extrapolation of the facial planes of the yantra, the cheekbones of Marilyn Monroe.
Northern Bulgaria is watered by the Lom, Ogust, Iskr, Vid, Osem, Yantra and Eastern Lom, all, except the Iskr, rising in the Balkans, and all flowing into the Danube.
In an instant the burly innkeeper was up from his seat-the seat where unhappy Yantra had sat-and over a table in a heavy but fast vault.
The opposing slopes, inclined at all angles to the sun like an immense Hindu yantra, were marked with the muffled ciphers left by his sliding feet.
He watched her dance, a random cipher drawing its signature across the time-slopes of this dissolving yantra, a symbol in a transcendental geometry.