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(South and Central Asian mythology)

Avalokitesvara, in Tibetan Buddhism, is accompanied by a spouse, Tara. She is the sakti of the bodhisattva, the energy of his essence. It was she who aroused him to bring into existence on earth Gautama Siddhartha. The two wives, the Chinese and the Nepalese princesses, of Sron-btsan-sgam-po, the first Buddhist king of Tibet, are held to have been incarnations of the white and green aspects of Tara.

Though the first record of her worship is a Javanese inscription of 778, there is reason to believe that the great Chinese pilgrim Hsuan-tsang, who travelled in India between 629 and 640, encountered Tara at a shrine near Nalanda. He reports that an image accompanying Avalokitesvara and known as to-lo was a ‘popular object of worship’. On the other hand, a Bon myth relating to the origins of the Tibetan people claims that ‘a devil and an ogress held sway, and that the country was called Land of the Two Ogres. As a result, red-faced flesh-eating creatures were born.’ An adaptation of this legend to suit Buddhism says that the monkey Boddhisattra, an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, and the lustful rock ogress, an incarnation of Tara, sprang the Tibetan nation. Most likely the introduction of Tara's cult in Tibet occurred through the agency of Sron-btsan-sgam-po's Nepalese wife. She is known to have brought with her a sandalwood statue of a goddess.

The worship of Tara is one of the most widespread of Tibetan cults: she transcends social distinctions and offers a personal relationship to her devotees unmatched by any other single deity. She is kind and loving, despite the gulf of being which necessarily separates her from ordinary people.

 
 
Dictionary: Tar·a  (tăr'ə) pronunciation

A village of eastern Ireland northwest of Dublin. It was the seat of Irish kings from ancient times until the sixth century A.D.

 

 

( fl c. 1560-1600). Indian miniature painter. His work conformed to the conventions of the period of patronage of the Mughal emperor Akbar (reg 1556-1605), and he contributed to at least five manuscripts during this time. His work is characterized by a love of bright primary colours and a lively sense of movement and realism. By 1590 his work shows an experienced hand and a firm handling of the brush, with a clear grasp of the techniques of stippling and feathered shading. Possibly a Hindu, Tara appears fairly low on the list of 17 prized artists compiled by Abu'l-Fazl, Akbar's court biographer, in the Ayin-i Akbari. In a detailed study of the Tutinama ('Tales of a parrot'; c. 1560-65; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A., MS. 62.279), two folios are assigned to this artist. This would place Tara on the level of the more senior artists in the workshop in the early years of Akbar's patronage.

See the Abbreviations for further details.



 

White Tara, gilt copper repoussé statue from Nepal, 18th century; in the Asian Art Museum of …
(click to enlarge)
White Tara, gilt copper repoussé statue from Nepal, 18th century; in the Asian Art Museum of … (credit: Courtesy of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection; photograph, Martin Grayson)
In Buddhism, a saviour-goddess with numerous forms. Her worship is widely popular in Nepal, Tibet, and Mongolia. She is the feminine counterpart of Avalokitesvara. She came into existence when his tear fell to the ground and formed a lake; out of its waters rose a lotus, which, on opening, revealed the goddess. She is the protector of navigation and earthly travel, as well as of spiritual travel along the path to enlightenment. In art she typically holds a lotus and has a third eye. She is represented in various colours, signifying different aspects of her powers.

For more information on Tara, visit Britannica.com.

 

Tara (Old Irish Temair, Modern Irish Teamhair, meaning ‘place of assembly’), the seat of the High King (ard-rí) of Ireland for centuries, and the site of his inauguration. Known as Temair na Rig (Tara of the Kings), it comprises a complex of earthworks and lies south-east of Navan, Co. Meath. It was a place of ritual burial from c.2000 BC, long before the arrival of the Celts in Ireland. A large oval enclosure called Ráth na Ríg (Fort of the Kings) contains two earth-works known as Forad (Royal Seat) and Tech Cormaic (Cormac's House). A pillar-stone at the latter is referred to as Lia Fáil, the inauguration stone of the High King, but it is unlikely that this is the original monument. A rectangular earthwork is known as Tech Midchuarta and is said to have been a banqueting-hall. The five main roads of Ireland radiated from Tara. Tara symbolized the unity of Ireland, which had its human embodiment in the King inaugurated at the site. The ritual known as Feis Temrach (Mating of Tara), where the King was mated with the tutelary goddess of Ireland, confirmed the monarch's sovereignty [see Irish mythology].

 
Archaeology Dictionary: Tara, Co. Meath, Ireland

[Si]

A low hill on which lies an extensive series of later prehistoric, pre-Christian, and early Christian monuments and structures forming one of the royal seats of early Ireland. The earliest upstanding monument on the hilltop is the Neolithic passage grave known as the Duma na nGiall (the Mound of the Hostages). Built about 3000 bc, but reused in the earlier Bronze Age, it lies within an oval ditched enclosure, the Ráith na Ríg, some 300m by 250m, which also contains two conjoined ringforts, one a bivallate structure known as Forradh (the Royal Seat), the other a univallate example known as Cormac's House. A decorated stone known as the Lia Fail (the Stone of Destiny) now stands within the Forradh, although originally it stood on the Duma na nGiall. It was used in the inauguration of Irish kings from at least the 8th century ad, and was widely regarded as having magic powers.

Two small enclosures lie outside the Ráith na Ríg, one to the north, the other to the south. Northwards there is also a long rectangular structure defined by parallel ditches 250m long and 30m wide. It is known as the Banqueting Hall, and may have been used for this purpose in medieval times even though its origins are probably far earlier. West of the Banqueting Hall is a group of three further ringforts. As a whole the site shows evidence for occupation and use over a very long period.

[Sum.: C. Newman, 1997, Tara: an archaeological survey. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy].

 

Temair, Teamhair, Temuir; the anglicized Tara derives from the genitive form Teamhrach
[Irish Temair, dark one (?); spectacle (?); elevated place (?); assembly hall (?); free-standing eminence of wide prospect; the Lebor Gabála contrives the etymology téa múr, Téa's wall]

Hill (507 feet) in Co. Meath, 6 miles SE of Navan, where the Irish ard rí [high king] is said to have had his seat. One of the most famous sites in the Celtic world, partially because of well-meaning but romantic misreadings of evidence by 19th-century poets and fiction-writers, Tara is unspectacular to visit, yet excavations there have yielded abundant and interesting information. According to the pseudo-history Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions], the mortal Milesians named the site Temair after Éremón's queen, Téa, displacing the earlier name, Druim Caín. Other names applied to Tara are: Cathair Crofhind, Druim Léith, and Fordruim. Forms of the name Temair survive elsewhere, e.g. Tara hill (831 feet), 4 miles NE of Gorey, Co. Wexford.

From the earliest Irish history Tara was an important centre of religious ceremony, sacred to Medb, then considered a goddess, or to her double, Medb Lethderg [red side]. It had been a burial site as early as the second millennium BC. Tara was the seat of kings who were also over-kings of the region and heads of the Uí Néill federation, and thus the most powerful leaders in all Ireland. Central to each kingship was the ritual mating with the local earth-goddess in a ritual banquet, the feis temrach [feast of Tara] at Samain time; see also KINGSHIP; BANAIS RÍGHE. The Uí Néill were named for Niall Noígiallach [of the Nine Hostages], who had supposedly seized Tara from the Leinstermen in the 5th century, before Christianization. As the Irish rule of descent (see DERBFHINE) did not foster an orderly distribution of property, Niall's many sons carved up what had been his hegemony. Later ‘king of Tara’ was only an honorary title for a ruler whose seat was often far distant. Beginning with Sláinge, said to have reigned in the 20th century BC, the Annals list many monarchs of Tara, both pagan and Christian. The advance of Christianity may have led to the suppression of the highly pagan feis temrach; Diarmait mac Cerbaill was the last to celebrate it. Later ecclesiastical writers invented the story of St Rúadán's curse upon Diarmait in a Church/State dispute. Testimony in the Annals implies that Tara was by no means abandoned even two centuries later. The Uí Néill continued to refer to their leaders as ‘kings of Tara’, although the site itself became overgrown. In time the hill also attracted one of the largest of the medieval fairs [Old Irish óenach; Modern Irish aonach], held triennially at Samain, and comparable to those held at Tailtiu, Tlachtga, and Uisnech; the legendary king Ollam Fódla is thought to have begun the fair.

Much of the action of early Irish literature either takes place at Tara or touches upon it, but always from a distant narrative point of view, i.e. on the assumption that events portrayed had taken place in the past. The stories of Conaire Mór depict a magical kingdom at Tara. The most important mythical king of Tara is Cormac mac Airt, whose court may have been derived from Uí Néill ambitions or aspirations. The young Fionn mac Cumhaill earns his first heroic distinction by slaying the ‘burner’, Aillén mac Midgna, who comes to prey upon the ‘palace’ each year. Lóegaire mac Néill is the king of Tara who meets St Patrick.

Many features of the Tara site bear English names of modern provenance, some from an imaginative reading of the Dindshenchas; their long-term popularity makes them irresistible, even when there is scant evidence to shore up their purported associations. These include:

Adamnán's Cross. Upright stone attributed to St Adamnán, St Colum Cille's biographer, containing vague outlines of a female figure, possible a Sheela-na-gig.

The ‘Banqueting Hall’ [Irish tech midchuarta, teach miodhchuarta]. Rectangular earthwork, 750 by 90 feet, which does not match the descriptions of the five-sided banqueting hall in medieval literature. Recent scholarship favours an entrance-way for horses and chariots.

Cormac's House [Irish teach Cormaic]. Small earthwork enclosed by the Fort/Rath of Kings (see below) at whose centre stands the Lia Fáil (see below). Named for the mythical king of Tara, Cormac mac Airt.

Fort/Rath of the Kings [Irish ráth na ríogh]. Also known as the Royal Enclosure. Large, oval hill-fort, 950 by 800 feet, which nearly encircles three other earthworks (Cormac's House, the Mound of Hostages, the Royal Seat) and the Lia Fáil.

Fort/Rath of the Synods. Trivallate earth-work once thought to have been the site of a meeting between St Patrick and St Brendan as well as other non-contemporaries. In the late 19th century British Israelites mutilated portions of the earthworks looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Later excavations showed timber palisades from the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.

Lia Fáil [stone of destiny]. Twelve-foot erect pillar-stone, 6 feet above ground, made of granular limestone, not quarried in the district, raised to honour the dead of the 1798 revolution. Found lying horizontally near the Mound of Hostages, it was moved to the centre of Cormac's House and is now marked with the letters ‘R.I.P.’ Assertions that it is identical with the ancient Lia Fáil or mythical Fál are less than convincing.

Mound of the Hostages [Irish dumha na ngiall]. Small earthworks at the north end of the Fort/ Rath of the Kings. Records indicate that the ‘Lia Fáil’ now standing at Cormac's House (see above) should have been here before 1798.

Ráth Gráinne [Gráinne's fort, Gráinne's enclosure]. A burial-mound between the Banqueting Hall and the Sloping Trenches, fancifully thought to be the place whence Gráinne eloped with Diarmait while betrothed to Fionn mac Cumhaill.

Ráth Lóegaire, Ráth Laoghaire [Laoghaire's fort, Leary's fort]. Large, univallate ring-fort associated with Lóegaire mac Néill, the king of Tara at the time of St Patrick.

Ráth Meidbe, Rath Maeve [Irish, Maeve's fort]. A univallate hill-fort, 750 feet in diameter, half a mile S of the centre of Tara. Although queen of Connacht, Medb is cited at Tara in Fled Bricrenn [Briccriu's Feast] and elsewhere.

Royal Seat [Irish Forradh]. Small earthworks adjacent to Cormac's House (see above).

Sloping Trenches [Irish Claoin-fhearta]. Two unusual ring-earthworks in the far north-west of the site.

Bibliography

  • George Petrie, History and Antiquities of Tara Hill (Dublin, 1839)
  • Josef Baudiš, “‘On the Antiquity of the Kingship at Tara’”, Ériu, 8 (1916), 101–7
  • R. A. S. Macalister, Tara: A Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland (London, 1931)
  • Seán P. Ó Ríordáin, Tara: The Monuments on the Hill (Dundalk, 1954, 1971)
  • “‘Tara’”, in G. E. Daniel (ed.), Myth of Legend (London, 1954), 49–59
  • D. A. Binchy, “‘The Fair of Tailtiu and the Feast of Tara’”, Ériu, 18 (1958), 113–38
  • E. Estyn Evans, Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland, a Guide (London, 1966)
  • Francis J. Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings (London, 1973)
  • Michael Herity and George Eogan, Ireland in Prehistory (London, 1977)
 
(târ'ə) , village, Co. Meath, E Republic of Ireland. The Hill of Tara (507 ft/155 m high) was the seat of the high kings of Ireland from ancient times until the 6th cent. and may have been the site of religious ceremonies in prehistoric times. A statue of St. Patrick, who preached there, is supposed to mark the location of the Lia Fail, the Coronation Stone of the ancient high kings (see under coronation). There are six raths (earthwork enclosures), the largest of which is 850 ft (259 m) in diameter. The hill was the scene of the defeat of the Danes in 980 and, some believe, the Irish insurgents in 1798, and of a mass meeting in 1843 addressed by Daniel O'Connell; hence its importance as a symbol of Irish nationalism.


 
Wikipedia: Tara (disambiguation)

Tara, tara or TARA may refer to

Places

Natural features:

Towns:

Other:

People

Deities

  • Tara (Devi), a Mahavidya of Mahadevi, Kali or Parvati.
  • Another name for Taraka, the second wife of Brihaspati
  • Tara (Ramayana), the wife of the monkey king Vali, who married Vali's brother and successor, Sugriva, after Vali's death.

Companies and organizations

Fiction

Characters:

  • Tara King, one of The Avengers (TV series)
  • Tara of Helium, a fictional character appearing in the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Tara Fremont, or called "Tara, the Jungle Girl" and "Too Tall Tara", a fictional character appearing in AC Comics
  • Tara Maclay, a character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Tara (comics), gynoid member of the New Invaders
  • Tara, a sword and sorcery heroine appearing in DC Comics' Warlord series
  • Tara Mehta, from the Devi comic book by Virgin Comics.
  • Tara (Kim Possible), a cheerleader in Kim Possible

Other:

  • Tara (1992 film), an Indian film directed by Bijaya Jena
  • Tara (2001 film), an American film known in the USA as Hood Rat, directed by Leslie Small and starring Isaiah Washington and Ice T
  • Tara Plantation, fictional home of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind
  • "The Androids of Tara", a Doctor Who serial (in which Tara is the name of a planet)
  • Tara Road, novel by Irish writer Maeve Binchy

Science

Other

See also


 
 

Did you mean: Tara (city, Ireland), Tārā (Asian Mythology), Tara (Polynesian mythology), Tara (first name), Tara (first name), Tara (Buddhism), Tara (Devi), Tara (Macintosh Game) More...

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World Mythology Dictionary. A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.  Read more
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