Darshan (Indian religions)

This article is about the Hindu and Buddhist meanings of the term. For the Jewish lay leader also called Darshan, see Darshan (Judaism). For the Bangladesh border township, see Darshana, Chuadanga.
"Darshana" redirects here. For other uses, see Darshana (disambiguation).

A darshana literally means a 'glimpse' or 'view'. In a Hindu temple, the term refers to viewing the garbhagriha 'inner sanctum' of the temple, which hosts the murti 'image of a god'. Devotees taking darshana of the god Vishnu in the inner sanctum of the Chennakeshava Temple, Belur.

In Indian religions, a darshan (Sanskrit: दर्शन, IAST: darśana; lit. 'showing, appearance,[1] view, sight') or darshanam is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person.[2]

The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference AESD was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Flood 2011, p. 194.
  3. ^ Klostermaier 2008, p. 26.