lokapala
लोकपाल lokapālaA 'world-protector' or guardian of a direction; the eight (or ten) dikpalas who hold the quarters of space: Indra (E), Agni (SE), Yama (S), Nirriti (SW), Varuna (W), Vayu (NW), Kubera (N), Ishana (NE), with Brahma above and Vishnu below.
Where this term appears
- Arrival at Kailasa Treatise
The guardians of the directions, the officers we will meet as the lokapalas , the planetary powers, the sages who keep the order of the ages — these are the ministries of a governed world.
- Cousins Across Cultures Treatise
…nese celestial bureaucracy and the Hindu government of navagrahas and lokapālas we met in the last chapter but one — these are genuine family resemblances, and in some cases more than resemblances.
- The Government of the Cosmos Treatise
The Hindu tradition assigns each of the directions of space its own divine guardian — the lokapālas , "world-protectors," or dikpālas , "direction-protectors" — and the roll-call is precise.