Ashta Dikpalas- Hindu GroupCollective"Guardians of the Eight Quarters"
Also known as: Ashtadikpalakas, अष्ट दिक्पाल, and Aṣṭa Dikpāla
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Eight deities who stand at the compass points of the cosmos, forming a divine perimeter around Mount Meru. Where one direction ends and another begins, a god stands guard: Indra in the east with the dawn, Yama in the south with the dead.
Mythology & Lore
Guardians of Space
The Ashta Dikpalas hold the eight directions of the cosmos in place. Indra guards the east, where the sun rises. Yama guards the south, the quarter of the ancestors and the dead. Kubera guards the north, where wealth lies buried in the Himalayan mountains. Varuna guards the west with his noose. Between them, at the intercardinal points, Agni holds the southeast with his fire, Vayu the northwest with his wind, Nirrti the southwest with dissolution, and Ishana, a form of Shiva, the auspicious northeast.
Every Hindu temple places their images on the exterior walls in proper position, each god facing outward from his quarter, transforming the building into a small model of the ordered universe. Before major ceremonies, a priest invokes the eight in sequence, binding the directions and sealing the ritual space.