title: True Cross

text: The Sassanid Emperor Khosrau II ("Chosroes") removed the part of the cross held in Jerusalem as a trophy after he captured the city in 614. Thirteen years later in 628, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeated Khosrau and regained the relic from Shahrbaraz. He placed the cross in Constantinople at first, before restoring it to Jerusalem on 21 March 630. Some scholars disagree with this narrative, with Prof. Constantin Zuckerman going as far as to suggest that the True Cross was actually lost by the Persians and that the wood contained in the allegedly still sealed reliquary brought to Jerusalem by Heraclius in 629 was a fake. In his analysis, the hoax was designed to serve the political purposes of both Heraclius and his former foe, recently turned ally and father-in-law, the Persian general and soon-king Shahrbaraz.


title: True Cross

text: When Jerusalem fell to the Muslims in 638, Heraclius retrieved the True Cross but did not attempt to retake the city.


title: True Cross

text: Around 1009, the year in which Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christians in Jerusalem hid part of the cross and it remained hidden until the city was taken by the European soldiers of the First Crusade. Arnulf Malecorne, the first Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, had the Greek Orthodox priests who were supposedly in possession of the Cross tortured in order to reveal its location. The relic that Arnulf recovered was a small fragment of wood embedded in a golden cross, and it became the most sacred relic of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with none of the controversy that had followed their discovery of the Holy Lance in Antioch. Displayed in a jewel-encrusted housing of gold and silver, it was housed in a northern chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, overseen by its canons and protected by its knights. A second chapel beside it was overseen by the Syrian Orthodox and displayed another reliquary holding their fragment of the cross. The Latin fragment of the cross was repeatedly carried into battle against the Muslims.


title: True Cross

text: Over the course of each liturgical calendar, the Latin patriarch would oversee mass at the various churches around Jerusalem corresponding to the part of Jesus's life being celebrated. The celebrations of Holy Week closely involved the Holy Sepulchre and its fragment of the True Cross. During lauds on each Good Friday, the Latin relic was carried across the church to the chapel of Calvary on its south side, the supposed site of Jesus's crucifixion, and then venerated by the barefoot patriarch, the sepulchre's canons, and the assembled pilgrims until sext. Prior to the liturgy on Holy Saturday, four pilgrims selected by the patriarchpreceded by a thurifer and 2 acolytescarried the Latin relic from its chapel to the edicule of the Holy Sepulchre while the congregation waited with unlit candles. A New Fire would "spontaneously" light within the sepulchre. The crossbearer then would light his own candle from it, transit the entire church, and light the candle of the waiting patriarch. The candles of the canons and then the congregation were then lit from one to another, gradually filling the church with light.


title: True Cross

text: After King BaldwinI of Jerusalem presented King SigurdI of Norway with a splinter of the True Cross following the Norwegian Crusade in 1110, the Cross was captured by Saladin during the Battle of Hattin in 1187. While some Christian rulers like Richard the Lionheart of England, the Byzantine emperor IsaacII, and Queen Tamar of Georgia sought to ransom it from Saladin, the cross was not returned. In 1219 the True Cross was offered to the Knights Templar by Al-Kamil in exchange for lifting the siege of Damietta. The cross was never delivered as Al-Kamil did not, in fact, have it. Subsequently the cross disappeared from historical records. The True Cross was last seen in the city of Damascus.


title: True Cross

text: Currently the Greek Orthodox church presents a small True Cross relic shown in the Greek Treasury within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the foot of Golgotha. The Syriac Orthodox Church also claims a small relic of the True Cross (held in the Monastery of Saint Mark in Jerusalem), as does the Armenian Apostolic Church (in Armenia). According to the 15th-century "Book of Ṭeff Grains", the emperor DawitI received four fragments of the True Cross around the year 1400 from Coptic Christians as thanks for his protection. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims these relics are still held at either Egziabher Ab or Tekle Maryam, two monasteries near the former imperial cemetery on Amba Geshen.


title: True Cross

text: An inscription of 359 found at Tixter, in the neighbourhood of Sétif in Mauretania (in today Algeria), was said to mention, in an enumeration of relics, a fragment of the True Cross, according to an entry in "Roman Miscellanies", X, 441.


title: True Cross

text: Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his "Catecheses", Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ" and, in another, "The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it." Egeria's account testifies to how highly these relics of the crucifixion were prized. Saint John Chrysostom relates that fragments of the True Cross were kept in golden reliquaries, "which men reverently wear upon their persons." Even two Latin inscriptions around 350 from today's Algeria testify to the keeping and admiration of small particles of the cross. Around the year 455, Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem sent to Pope Leo I a fragment of the "precious wood", according to the "Letters" of Pope Leo. A portion of the cross was taken to Rome in the seventh century by Pope Sergius I, who was of Byzantine origin. "In the small part is power of the whole cross", says an inscription in the Felix Basilica of Nola, built by bishop Paulinus at the beginning of 5th century. The cross particle was inserted in the altar.


title: True Cross

text: The Old English poem "Dream of the Rood" mentions the finding of the cross and the beginning of the tradition of the veneration of its relics. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" also talks of King Alfred receiving a fragment of the cross from Pope Marinus (see: Annal Alfred the Great, year 883). Although it is possible, the poem need not be referring to this specific relic or have this incident as the reason for its composition. However, there is a later source that speaks of a bequest made to the 'Holy Cross' at Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset; Shaftesbury abbey was founded by King Alfred, supported with a large portion of state funds and given to the charge of his own daughter when he was aliveit is conceivable that if Alfred really received this relic, that he may have given it to the care of the nuns at Shaftesbury.


title: True Cross

text: Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople. The city was captured and sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The "Chronica Regia Coloniensis" relates that "After the conquest of the city Constantinople inestimable wealth was found: incomparably precious jewels and also a part of the cross of the Lord, which Helena transferred from Jerusalem and [which] was decorated with gold and precious jewels. There it attained [the] highest admiration. It was carved up by the present bishops and was divided with other very precious relics among the knights; later, after their return to the homeland, it was donated to churches and monasteries." The French knight Robert de Clari wrote that "within this chapel were found many precious relics; for therein were found two pieces of the True Cross, as thick as a man's leg and a fathom in length."


title: True Cross

text: By the end of the Middle Ages so many churches claimed to possess a piece of the True Cross, that John Calvin is famously said to have remarked that there was enough wood in them to fill a ship:


title: True Cross

text: Conflicting with this is the finding of Charles Rohault de Fleury, who, in his "Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion" of 1870 made a study of the relics in reference to the criticisms of Calvin and Erasmus. He drew up a catalogue of all known relics of the True Cross showing that, in spite of what various authors have claimed, the fragments of the Cross brought together again would not reach one-third that of a cross which has been supposed to have been in height, with transverse branch of wide, proportions not at all abnormal. He calculated: supposing the Cross to have been of pine-wood (based on his microscopic analysis of the fragments) and giving it a weight of about seventy-five kilogrammes, we find the original volume of the cross to be . The total known volume of known relics of the True Cross, according to his catalogue, amounts to approximately (more specifically 3,942,000 cubic millimetres), leaving a volume of , almost 98%, lost, destroyed, or from which is otherwise unaccounted. Four cross particles – of ten particles with surviving documentary provenances by Byzantine emperors – from European churches, i.e. Santa Croce in Rome, Caravaca de la Cruz, Notre Dame, Paris, Pisa Cathedral and Florence Cathedral, were microscopically examined. "The pieces came all together from olive." It is possible that many alleged pieces of the True Cross are forgeries, created by travelling merchants in the Middle Ages, during which period a thriving trade in manufactured relics existed.


title: True Cross

text: Smyrnakis notes that the largest surviving portion, of 870,760 cubic millimetres, is preserved in the Monastery of Koutloumousiou on Mount Athos, and also mentions the preserved relics in Rome (consisting of 537,587 cubic millimetres), in Brussels (516,090 cubic millimetres), in Venice (445,582 cubic millimetres), in Ghent (436,450 cubic millimetres) and in Paris (237,731 cubic millimetres). (For comparison, the collective volume of the largest of these sets of fragments would be equivalent to a cube of a little less than per side, while the smallest of these would have an equivalent cubic dimension of about per side. The volume figures given by Smyrnakis for these objects—six significant figures and to the cubic millimeter—are undoubtedly the result of multiplying slightly approximate numbers and should not be seen as implying scientific accuracy of the highest order in a book written over a century ago.)


title: True Cross

text: Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain is also said to hold the largest of these pieces and is one of the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites. In Asia, the only place where the other part of the True Cross is located is in the Monasterio de Tarlac at San Jose, Tarlac, Philippines.


title: True Cross

text: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church also claims to have the right wing of the true cross buried in the monastery of Gishen Mariam. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has an annual religious holiday called Meskel (Geez for "Cross") that commemorates the rediscovery of the True Cross by Queen Helena. Meskel, also known as Demara, occurs on 17 Meskerem in the Ethiopian calendar, equivalent to September 27 in most years or September 28 during leap years.


title: True Cross

text: The festival is known as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy cross in other Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant churches. Churches that follow the Gregorian calendar celebrate the feast on September 14.


title: True Cross

text: In February 2020, the Sevastopol district archpriest Sergiy Khalyuta said that a piece of the True Cross was bought by a donor, and will be placed on board the Russian missile cruiser "Moskva", which has a chapel on board. The ship sank in April 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the sinking, there was speculation that the fragment may have gone down with the ship.


title: True Cross

text: The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and a number of Protestant denominations, celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In later centuries, these celebrations also included commemoration of the rescue of the True Cross from the Persians in 628. In the Galician usage, beginning about the seventh century, the Feast of the Cross was celebrated on May 3. According to the "Catholic Encyclopedia", when the Galician and Roman practices were combined, the September date, for which the Vatican adopted the official name "Triumph of the Cross" in 1963, was used to commemorate the rescue from the Persians and the May date was kept as the "Invention of the True Cross" to commemorate the finding. The September date is often referred to in the West as Holy Cross Day; the May date (See also Roodmas.) was dropped from the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in 1960 when the Roman Breviary was reformed by Pope John XXIII. The Orthodox still commemorate both events on September 14, one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the liturgical year, and the Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross on 1 August, the day on which the relics of the True Cross would be carried through the streets of Constantinople to bless the city.


title: True Cross

text: In addition to celebrations on fixed days, there are certain days of the variable cycle when the Cross is celebrated. The Catholic Church has a formal Adoration of the Cross during the services for Good Friday. In Eastern Orthodox churches everywhere, a replica of the cross is brought out in procession during Matins of Great and Holy Friday for the people to venerate. The Orthodox also celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent.


title: Vedanta

text: Vedanta (; , ), also Uttara Mīmāṃsā, is one of the six ("āstika") schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, the speculations and philosophies contained in the Upanishads, specifically, knowledge and liberation. Vedanta contains many sub-traditions, all of which are based on a common group of texts called the "Three Sources" ("prasthānatrayī"): "the Upanishads", the "Brahma Sutras" and the "Bhagavad Gita".


title: Vedanta

text: All Vedanta traditions contain extensive discussions on ontology, soteriology and epistemology, though there is much disagreement among the various schools. The main traditions of Vedanta are: "Advaita" (non-dualism), "Bhedabheda" (difference and non-difference), "Suddhadvaita" (pure non-dualism), "Tattvavada (Dvaita)" (dualism), and "Vishishtadvaita" (qualified non-dualism). Modern developments in Vedanta include Neo-Vedanta, and the growth of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.


title: Vedanta

text: Most major Vedanta schools, except Advaita Vedanta and Neo-Vedanta, are related to Vaishnavism and emphasize devotion (Bhakti yoga) to God, understood as being Vishnu, Krishna or a related manifestation. Advaita Vedanta meanwhile, emphasizes jñana (knowledge) and jñana yoga over theistic devotion. While Advaita monism has attracted considerable attention in the West due to the influence of modern Hindus like Swami Vivekananda and Ramana Maharshi, most of the other Vedanta traditions focus on Vaishnava theology.


title: Vedanta

text: The word "Vedanta" literally means the "end of the Vedas" and originally referred to the "Upanishads". Vedanta is concerned with the or knowledge section of the vedas which is called the "Upanishads". The denotation of Vedanta subsequently widened to include the various philosophical traditions based on to the "Prasthanatrayi".


title: Vedanta

text: Vedanta is one of the six orthodox ("āstika") schools of Indian philosophy. It is also called "Uttara Mīmāṃsā", which means the 'latter enquiry' or 'higher enquiry'; and is often contrasted with "Pūrva Mīmāṃsā", the 'former enquiry' or 'primary enquiry'. "Pūrva Mīmāṃsā" deals with the "karmakāṇḍa" or ritualistic section (the "Samhita" and "Brahmanas") in the "Vedas".


title: Vedanta

text: The main "Upaniṣhads", the "Bhagavadgītā" and the "Brahma Sūtras" are the foundational scriptures in Vedanta. All schools of Vedanta propound their philosophy by interpreting these texts, collectively called the "Prasthānatrayī", literally, "three sources".


title: Vedanta

text: All major Vedantic teachers, including Shankara, Bhaskara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, and Vallabha composed commentaries on these three sources. The "Brahma Sūtras" of "Badarayana" contain a synthesis of the teachings of the "Upaniṣads", which contain a many diverse doctrines and teachings. Other such Vedantic syntheses may have existed, but only the "Brahma Sūtras" survive. The "Bhagavadgītā", due to its syncretism of Samkhya, Yoga, and Upanishadic thought, has also played a major role in Vedantic thought.


title: Vedanta

text: All Vedāntins agree that scripture (śruti) is the only means of knowing (pramāṇa) regarding spiritual matters (which are beyond perception and inference). This is explained by Rāmānuja as follows:A theory that rests exclusively on human concepts may at some other time or place be refuted by arguments devised by cleverer people... The conclusion is that with regard to supernatural matters, Scripture alone is the epistemic authority and that reasoning is to be used only in support of Scripture’ [Śrī Bhāṣya 2.1.12].For specific sub-schools of Vedanta, other texts may be equally important. For example, for Advaita Vedanta, the works of Adi Shankara are central. For the Theistic Vaishnava schools of Vedanta, the "Bhāgavata Purāṇa" is particularly important. The "Bhāgavata Purāṇa" is one of the most widely commented upon works in Vedanta. This text is so central to the Krishna centered Vedanta schools that the Vedantin theologian Vallabha added the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as a fourth text to the praṣṭhāna traya (three classic scriptures of Vedanta).


title: Vedanta

text: Vedanta philosophies discuss three fundamental metaphysical categories and the relations between the three.


title: Vedanta

text: Shankara, in formulating Advaita, talks of two conceptions of "Brahman": The higher "Brahman" as undifferentiated Being, and a lower "Brahman" endowed with qualities as the creator of the universe.


title: Vedanta

text: Ramanuja, in formulating Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, rejects "nirguṇa" – that the undifferentiated Absolute is inconceivable – and adopts a theistic interpretation of the "Upanishads", accepts "Brahman" as "Ishvara", the personal God who is the seat of all auspicious attributes, as the One reality. The God of Vishishtadvaita is accessible to the devotee, yet remains the Absolute, with differentiated attributes.


title: Vedanta

text: Madhva, in expounding Dvaita philosophy, maintains that "Vishnu" is the supreme God, thus identifying the "Brahman", or absolute reality, of the "Upanishads" with a personal god, as Ramanuja had done before him. Nimbarka, in his dvaitadvata philosophy, accepted the "Brahman" both as "nirguṇa" and as "saguṇa". Vallabha, in his shuddhadvaita philosophy, not only accepts the triple ontological essence of the "Brahman", but also His manifestation as personal God ("Ishvara"), as matter and as individual souls.


title: Vedanta

text: The schools of Vedanta differ in their conception of the relation they see between "Ātman" / "Jivātman" and "Brahman" / "Ishvara":


title: Vedanta

text: "Pramāṇa" (Sanskrit: प्रमाण) literally means "proof", "that which is the means of valid knowledge". It refers to epistemology in Indian philosophies, and encompasses the study of reliable and valid means by which human beings gain accurate, true knowledge. The focus of Pramana is the manner in which correct knowledge can be acquired, how one knows or does not know, and to what extent knowledge pertinent about someone or something can be acquired. Ancient and medieval Indian texts identify six "pramanas" as correct means of accurate knowledge and truths:


title: Vedanta

text: The different schools of Vedanta have historically disagreed as to which of the six are epistemologically valid. For example, while Advaita Vedanta accepts all six "pramanas", Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita accept only three "pramanas" (perception, inference and testimony).


title: Vedanta

text: Advaita considers "Pratyakṣa" (perception) as the most reliable source of knowledge, and "Śabda", the scriptural evidence, is considered secondary except for matters related to Brahman, where it is the only evidence. In Vishistadvaita and Dvaita, "Śabda", the scriptural testimony, is considered the most authentic means of knowledge instead.


title: Vedanta

text: All schools of Vedanta subscribe to the theory of "Satkāryavāda", which means that the effect is pre-existent in the cause. But there are two different views on the status of the "effect", that is, the world. Most schools of Vedanta, as well as Samkhya, support "Parinamavada", the idea that the world is a real transformation ("parinama") of Brahman. According to , "the "Brahma Sutras" espouse the realist Parinamavada position, which appears to have been the view most common among early Vedantins". In contrast to Badarayana, Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedantists hold a different view, "Vivartavada", which says that the effect, the world, is merely an unreal ("vivarta") transformation of its cause, Brahman.


title: Vedanta

text: The "Upanishads" present an associative philosophical inquiry in the form of identifying various doctrines and then presenting arguments for or against them. They form the basic texts and Vedanta interprets them through rigorous philosophical exegesis to defend the point of view of their specific "sampradaya". Varying interpretations of the "Upanishads" and their synthesis, the "Brahma Sutras", led to the development of different schools of Vedanta over time.


title: Vedanta

text: Vinayak Sakaram Ghate of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute has done a comparative analysis of the Brahma Sutra commentaries of Nimbarka, Ramanuja, Vallabha, Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya in detail and has written the conclusion that Nimbarka's and Ramanuja's balanced commentaries give the closest meaning of the Brahma_Sutras taking into account of both kinds of Sutras, those which speak of oneness and those which speak of difference. According to Gavin Flood, while Advaita Vedanta is the "most famous" school of Vedanta, and "often, mistakenly, taken to be the only representative of Vedantic thought," and Shankara a Saivite, "Vedanta is essentially a Vaisnava theological articulation," a discourse broadly within the parameters of Vaisnavism." Within the Vaishnava traditions four "sampradays" have special status, while different scholars have classified the Vedanta schools ranging from three to six as prominent ones.


title: Vedanta

text: Bhedābheda means "difference and non-difference" and is more a tradition than a school of Vedanta. The schools of this tradition emphasize that the individual self ("Jīvatman") is both different and not different from "Brahman". Notable figures in this school are Bhartriprapancha, Nimbārka (7th century) who founded the Dvaitadvaita school, Bhāskara (8th–9th century), Ramanuja's teacher Yādavaprakāśa, Chaitanya (1486–1534) who founded the Achintya Bheda Abheda school, and Vijñānabhikṣu (16th century).


title: Vedanta

text: Nimbārka (7th century) sometimes identified with Bhāskara, propounded "Dvaitādvaita". "Brahman" (God), souls "(chit)" and matter or the universe "(achit)" are considered as three equally real and co-eternal realities. "Brahman" is the controller "(niyanta)", the soul is the enjoyer "(bhokta)", and the material universe is the object enjoyed "(bhogya)". The Brahman is "Krishna", the ultimate cause who is omniscient, omnipotent, all-pervading Being. He is the efficient cause of the universe because, as Lord of "Karma" and internal ruler of souls, He brings about creation so that the souls can reap the consequences of their "karma". God is considered to be the material cause of the universe because creation was a manifestation of His powers of soul "(chit)" and matter "(achit)"; creation is a transformation "(parinama)" of God's powers. He can be realized only through a constant effort to merge oneself with His nature through meditation and devotion.


title: Vedanta

text: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 – 1533) was the prime exponent of "Achintya-Bheda-Abheda". In Sanskrit "achintya" means 'inconceivable'. "Achintya-Bheda-Abheda" represents the philosophy of "inconceivable difference in non-difference", in relation to the non-dual reality of "Brahman"-"Atman" which it calls ("Krishna"), "svayam bhagavan". The notion of "inconceivability" ("acintyatva") is used to reconcile apparently contradictory notions in Upanishadic teachings. This school asserts that "Krishna" is "Bhagavan" of the "bhakti yogins", the "Brahman" of the "jnana yogins", and has a divine potency that is inconceivable. He is all-pervading and thus in all parts of the universe (non-difference), yet he is inconceivably more (difference). This school is at the foundation of the "Gaudiya Vaishnava" religious tradition. The ISKCON or the Hare Krishnas also affiliate to this school of Vedanta Philosophy.


title: Vedanta

text: Advaita Vedanta (IAST ""; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त), propounded by Gaudapada (7th century) and Adi Shankara (8th century), espouses non-dualism and monism. "Brahman" is held to be the sole unchanging metaphysical reality and identical to the individual "Atman". The physical world, on the other hand, is always-changing empirical "Maya". The absolute and infinite "Atman"-"Brahman" is realized by a process of negating everything relative, finite, empirical and changing.


title: Vedanta

text: The school accepts no duality, no limited individual souls ("Atman" / "Jivatman"), and no separate unlimited cosmic soul. All souls and their existence across space and time are considered to be the same oneness. Spiritual liberation in "Advaita" is the full comprehension and realization of oneness, that one's unchanging "Atman" (soul) is the same as the "Atman" in everyone else, as well as being identical to "Brahman".


title: Vedanta

text: "Vishishtadvaita", propounded by Ramanuja (11–12th century), asserts that "Jivatman" (human souls) and "Brahman" (as "Vishnu") are different, a difference that is never transcended. With this qualification, Ramanuja also affirmed monism by saying that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the "Brahman". "Vishishtadvaita", like "Advaita", is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta in a qualified way, and both begin by assuming that all souls can hope for and achieve the state of blissful liberation. On the relation between the "Brahman" and the world of matter ("Prakriti"), "Vishishtadvaita" states both are two different absolutes, both metaphysically true and real, neither is false or illusive, and that "saguna" "Brahman" with attributes is also real. Ramanuja states that God, like man, has both soul and body, and the world of matter is the glory of God's body. The path to "Brahman" ("Vishnu"), according to Ramanuja, is devotion to godliness and constant remembrance of the beauty and love of the personal god ("bhakti" of "saguna" "Brahman").


title: Vedanta

text: The Swaminarayan Darshana, also called Akshar Purushottam Darshan by the BAPS, was propounded by Swaminarayan (1781-1830 CE) and is rooted in Ramanuja's "Vishishtadvaita". It asserts that Parabrahman (Purushottam, Narayana) and Aksharbrahman are two distinct eternal realities. Adherents believe that they can achieve moksha, or freedom from the cycle of birth and death, by becoming aksharrup (or brahmarup), that is, by attaining qualities similar to Akshar (or Aksharbrahman) and worshipping Purushottam (or Parabrahman; the supreme living entity; God).


title: Vedanta

text: Tattvavada, propounded by Madhvacharya (13th century), is based on the premise of realism or realistic point of view. The term Dvaita which means dualism was later applied to Madhvacharya's philosophy. "Atman" (soul) and "Brahman" (as "Vishnu") are understood as two completely different entities. "Brahman" is the creator of the universe, perfect in knowledge, perfect in knowing, perfect in its power, and distinct from souls, distinct from matter. In "Dvaita" Vedanta, an individual soul must feel attraction, love, attachment and complete devotional surrender to "Vishnu" for salvation, and it is only His grace that leads to redemption and salvation. Madhva believed that some souls are eternally doomed and damned, a view not found in "Advaita" and "Vishishtadvaita" Vedanta. While the "Vishishtadvaita" Vedanta asserted "qualitative monism and quantitative pluralism of souls", Madhva asserted both "qualitative and quantitative pluralism of souls".


title: Vedanta

text: Shuddhadvaita (pure non-dualism), propounded by Vallabhacharya (1479–1531 CE), states that the entire universe is real and is subtly "Brahman" only in the form of "Krishna". Vallabhacharya agreed with Advaita Vedanta's ontology, but emphasized that "prakriti" (empirical world, body) is not separate from the "Brahman", but just another manifestation of the latter. Everything, everyone, everywhere – soul and body, living and non-living, "jiva" and matter – is the eternal "Krishna". The way to "Krishna", in this school, is "bhakti". Vallabha opposed renunciation of monistic "sannyasa" as ineffective and advocates the path of devotion ("bhakti") rather than knowledge ("jnana"). The goal of "bhakti" is to turn away from ego, self-centered-ness and deception, and to turn towards the eternal "Krishna" in everything continually offering freedom from "samsara".


title: Vedanta

text: The history of Vedanta can be divided into two periods: one prior to the composition of the "Brahma Sutras" and the other encompassing the schools that developed after the "Brahma Sutras" were written. Until the 11th century, Vedanta was a peripheral school of thought.


title: Vedanta

text: Little is known of schools of Vedanta existing before the composition of the "Brahma Sutras" (400–450 CE). It is clear that Badarayana, the writer of "Brahma Sutras", was not the first person to systematize the teachings of the "Upanishads", as he quotes six Vedantic teachers before him – Ashmarathya, Badari, Audulomi, Kashakrtsna, Karsnajini and Atreya. References to other early Vedanta teachers – Brahmadatta, Sundara, Pandaya, Tanka and Dravidacharya – are found in secondary literature of later periods. The works of these ancient teachers have not survived, but based on the quotes attributed to them in later literature, Sharma postulates that Ashmarathya and Audulomi were Bhedabheda scholars, Kashakrtsna and Brahmadatta were Advaita scholars, while Tanka and Dravidacharya were either Advaita or Vishistadvaita scholars.


title: Vedanta

text: Badarayana summarized and interpreted teachings of the "Upanishads" in the "Brahma Sutras", also called the "Vedanta Sutra", possibly "written from a Bhedābheda Vedāntic viewpoint." Badarayana summarized the teachings of the classical Upanishads and refuted the rival philosophical schools in ancient India. The Brahma Sutras laid the basis for the development of Vedanta philosophy.


title: Vedanta

text: Though attributed to Badarayana, the Brahma Sutras were likely composed by multiple authors over the course of hundreds of years. The estimates on when the Brahma Sutras were complete vary, with Nakamura in 1989 and Nicholson in his 2013 review stating, that they were most likely compiled in the present form around 400–450 CE. Isaeva suggests they were complete and in current form by 200 CE, while Nakamura states that "the great part of the "Sutra" must have been in existence much earlier than that" (800 - 500 BCE).


title: Vedanta

text: The book is composed of four chapters, each divided into four-quarters or sections. These sutras attempt to synthesize the diverse teachings of the Upanishads. However, the cryptic nature of aphorisms of the "Brahma Sutras" have required exegetical commentaries. These commentaries have resulted in the formation of numerous Vedanta schools, each interpreting the texts in its own way and producing its own commentary.


title: Vedanta

text: Little with specificity is known of the period between the "Brahma Sutras" (5th century CE) and Adi Shankara (8th century CE). Only two writings of this period have survived: the "Vākyapadīya", written by Bhartṛhari (second half 5th century,) and the "Kārikā" written by Gaudapada (early 6th or 7th century CE).


title: Vedanta

text: Shankara mentions 99 different predecessors of his school in his commentaries. A number of important early Vedanta thinkers have been listed in the "Siddhitraya" by Yamunācārya (c. 1050), the "Vedārthasamgraha" by Rāmānuja (c. 1050–1157), and the "Yatīndramatadīpikā" by Śrīnivāsa Dāsa. At least fourteen thinkers are known to have existed between the composition of the Brahma Sutras and Shankara's lifetime.


title: Vedanta

text: A noted scholar of this period was Bhartriprapancha. Bhartriprapancha maintained that the Brahman is one and there is unity, but that this unity has varieties. Scholars see Bhartriprapancha as an early philosopher in the line who teach the tenet of Bhedabheda.


title: Vedanta

text: Influenced by Buddhism, Advaita vedanta departs from the bhedabheda-philosophy, instead postulating the identity of "Atman" with the Whole ("Brahman"),


title: Vedanta

text: Gaudapada (c. 6th century CE), was the teacher or a more distant predecessor of Govindapada, the teacher of Adi Shankara. Shankara is widely considered as the apostle of Advaita Vedanta. Gaudapada's treatise, the ' – also known as the ' or the "" – is the earliest surviving complete text on Advaita Vedanta.


title: Vedanta

text: Gaudapada's ' relied on the Mandukya, Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya "Upanishads". In the ', Advaita (non-dualism) is established on rational grounds ("upapatti") independent of scriptural revelation; its arguments are devoid of all religious, mystical or scholastic elements. Scholars are divided on a possible influence of Buddhism on Gaudapada's philosophy. The fact that Shankara, in addition to the "Brahma Sutras", the principal "Upanishads" and the "Bhagvad Gita", wrote an independent commentary on the "" proves its importance in literature.


title: Vedanta

text: Adi Shankara (788–820), elaborated on Gaudapada's work and more ancient scholarship to write detailed commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi and the '. The Mandukya Upanishad and the ' have been described by Shankara as containing "the epitome of the substance of the import of Vedanta". It was Shankara who integrated Gaudapada work with the ancient "Brahma Sutras", "and give it a "locus classicus"" alongside the realistic strain of the "Brahma Sutras".


title: Vedanta

text: A noted contemporary of Shankara was Maṇḍana Miśra, who regarded Mimamsa and Vedanta as forming a single system and advocated their combination known as "Karma-jnana-samuchchaya-vada". The treatise on the differences between the Vedanta school and the Mimamsa school was a contribution of Adi Shankara. Advaita Vedanta rejects rituals in favor of renunciation, for example.


title: Vedanta

text: Early Vaishnava Vedanta retains the tradition of "bhedabheda", equating Brahman with Vishnu or Krishna.


title: Vedanta

text: Bhāskara (8th–9th century) also taught Bhedabheda. In postulating "Upadhika", he considers both identity and difference to be equally real. As the causal principle, "Brahman" is considered non-dual and formless pure being and intelligence. The same "Brahman", manifest as events, becomes the world of plurality. "" is "Brahman" limited by the mind. Matter and its limitations are considered real, not a manifestation of ignorance. Bhaskara advocated "bhakti" as "dhyana" (meditation) directed toward the transcendental "Brahman". He refuted the idea of "Maya" and denied the possibility of liberation in bodily existence.


title: Vedanta

text: The Bhakti movement of late medieval Hinduism started in the 7th century, but rapidly expanded after the 12th century. It was supported by the Puranic literature such as the Bhagavata Purana, poetic works, as well as many scholarly bhasyas and samhitas.


title: Vedanta

text: This period saw the growth of Vashnavism Sampradayas (denominations or communities) under the influence of scholars such as Ramanujacharya, Vedanta Desika, Madhvacharya and Vallabhacharya. Bhakti poets or teachers such as Manavala Mamunigal, Namdev, Ramananda, Surdas, Tulsidas, Eknath, Tyagaraja, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and many others influenced the expansion of Vaishnavism. These Vaishnavism sampradaya founders challenged the then dominant Shankara's doctrines of Advaita Vedanta, particularly Ramanuja in the 12th century, Vedanta Desika and Madhva in the 13th, building their theology on the devotional tradition of the Alvars (Shri Vaishnavas), and Vallabhacharya in the 16th century.


title: Vedanta

text: In North and Eastern India, Vaishnavism gave rise to various late Medieval movements: Ramananda in the 14th century, Sankaradeva in the 15th and Vallabha and Chaitanya in the 16th century.


title: Vedanta

text: Rāmānuja (1017–1137 CE) was the most influential philosopher in the Vishishtadvaita tradition. As the philosophical architect of Vishishtadvaita, he taught qualified non-dualism. Ramanuja's teacher, Yadava Prakasha, followed the Advaita monastic tradition. Tradition has it that Ramanuja disagreed with Yadava and Advaita Vedanta, and instead followed Nathamuni and Yāmuna. Ramanuja reconciled the "Prasthanatrayi" with the theism and philosophy of the Vaishnava Alvars poet-saints. Ramanuja wrote a number of influential texts, such as a bhasya on the "Brahma Sutras" and the "Bhagavad Gita", all in Sanskrit.


title: Vedanta

text: Ramanuja presented the epistemological and soteriological importance of bhakti, or the devotion to a personal God (Vishnu in Ramanuja's case) as a means to spiritual liberation. His theories assert that there exists a plurality and distinction between Atman (souls) and Brahman (metaphysical, ultimate reality), while he also affirmed that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the Brahman. Vishishtadvaiata provides the philosophical basis of Sri Vaishnavism.


title: Vedanta

text: Tattvavada or Dvaita Vedanta was propounded by Madhvacharya (1238–1317 CE). He presented the opposite interpretation of Shankara in his Dvaita, or dualistic system. In contrast to Shankara's non-dualism and Ramanuja's qualified non-dualism, he championed unqualified dualism. Madhva wrote commentaries on the chief "Upanishads", the "Bhagavad Gita" and the "Brahma Sutra".


title: Vedanta

text: Madhva started his Vedic studies at age seven, joined an Advaita Vedanta monastery in Dwarka (Gujarat), studied under guru Achyutrapreksha, frequently disagreed with him, left the Advaita monastery, and founded Dvaita. Madhva and his followers Jayatirtha and Vyasatirtha, were critical of all competing Hindu philosophies, Jainism and Buddhism, but particularly intense in their criticism of Advaita Vedanta and Adi Shankara.


title: Vedanta

text: Dvaita Vedanta is theistic and it identifies Brahman with Narayana, or more specifically Vishnu, in a manner similar to Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita Vedanta. But it is more explicitly pluralistic. Madhva's emphasis for difference between soul and Brahman was so pronounced that he taught there were differences (1) between material things; (2) between material things and souls; (3) between material things and God; (4) between souls; and (5) between souls and God. He also advocated for a difference in degrees in the possession of knowledge. He also advocated for differences in the enjoyment of bliss even in the case of liberated souls, a doctrine found in no other system of Indian philosophy.


title: Vedanta

text: "Achintya Bheda Abheda" (Vaishnava), founded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534 CE), was propagated by Gaudiya Vaishnava. Historically, it was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who founded congregational chanting of holy names of Krishna in the early 16th century after becoming a sannyasi.


title: Vedanta

text: The Swaminarayan Darshana, which is rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, was founded in 1801 by Swaminarayan (1781-1830 CE), and is contemporarily most notably propagated by BAPS. Due to the commentarial work of Bhadreshdas Swami, the Akshar-Purushottam teachings were recognized as a distinct school of Vedanta by the "Shri Kashi Vidvat Parishad" in 2017 and by members of the 17th World Sanskrit Conference in 2018. Swami Paramtattvadas describes the Akshar-Purushottam teachings as "a distinct school of thought within the larger expanse of classical Vedanta," presenting the Akshar-Purushottam teachings as a seventh school of Vedanta.


title: Vedanta

text: Neo-Vedanta, variously called as "Hindu modernism", "neo-Hinduism", and "neo-Advaita", is a term that denotes some novel interpretations of Hinduism that developed in the 19th century, presumably as a reaction to the colonial British rule. writes that these notions accorded the Hindu nationalists an opportunity to attempt the construction of a nationalist ideology to help unite the Hindus to fight colonial oppression. Western orientalists, in their search for its "essence", attempted to formulate a notion of "Hinduism" based on a single interpretation of Vedanta as a unified body of religious praxis. This was contra-factual as, historically, Hinduism and Vedanta had always accepted a diversity of traditions. asserts that the neo-Vedantic theory of "overarching tolerance and acceptance" was used by the Hindu reformers, together with the ideas of Universalism and Perennialism, to challenge the polemic dogmatism of Judaeo-Christian-Islamic missionaries against the Hindus.


title: Vedanta

text: The neo-Vedantins argued that the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy were perspectives on a single truth, all valid and complementary to each other. sees these interpretations as incorporating western ideas into traditional systems, especially Advaita Vedanta. It is the modern form of Advaita Vedanta, states , the neo-Vedantists subsumed the Buddhist philosophies as part of the Vedanta tradition and then argued that all the world religions are same "non-dualistic position as the philosophia perennis", ignoring the differences within and outside of Hinduism. According to , neo-Vedanta is Advaita Vedanta which accepts universal realism:


title: Vedanta

text: A major proponent in the popularization of this Universalist and Perennialist interpretation of Advaita Vedanta was Vivekananda, who played a major role in the revival of Hinduism. He was also instrumental in the spread of Advaita Vedanta to the West via the Vedanta Society, the international arm of the Ramakrishna Order.


title: Vedanta

text: writes that the attempts at integration which came to be known as neo-Vedanta were evident as early as between the 12th and the 16th century−


title: Vedanta

text: Matilal criticizes Neo-Hinduism as an oddity developed by West-inspired Western Indologists and attributes it to the flawed Western perception of Hinduism in modern India. In his scathing criticism of this school of reasoning, says:


title: Vedanta

text: Vedanta, adopting ideas from other orthodox ("āstika") schools, became the most prominent school of Hinduism. Vedanta traditions led to the development of many traditions in Hinduism. Sri Vaishnavism of south and southeastern India is based on Ramanuja's "Vishishtadvaita" Vedanta. Ramananda led to the "Vaishnav Bhakti" Movement in north, east, central and west India. This movement draws its philosophical and theistic basis from "Vishishtadvaita". A large number of devotional "Vaishnavism" traditions of east India, north India (particularly the Braj region), west and central India are based on various sub-schools of "Bhedabheda" Vedanta. "Advaita" Vedanta influenced "Krishna Vaishnavism" in the northeastern state of Assam. The Madhva school of Vaishnavism found in coastal Karnataka is based on "Dvaita" Vedanta.


title: Vedanta

text: "Āgamas", the classical literature of "Shaivism", though independent in origin, show Vedanta association and premises. Of the 92 "Āgamas", ten are ("dvaita") texts, eighteen ("bhedabheda"), and sixty-four ("advaita") texts. While the "Bhairava Shastras" are monistic, "Shiva Shastras" are dualistic. finds the link between Gaudapada's "Advaita" Vedanta and "Kashmir Shaivism" evident and natural. Tirumular, the Tamil "Shaiva Siddhanta" scholar, credited with creating "Vedanta–Siddhanta" (Advaita Vedanta and Shaiva Siddhanta synthesis), stated, "becoming "Shiva" is the goal of Vedanta and "Siddhanta"; all other goals are secondary to it and are vain."


title: Vedanta

text: "Shaktism", or traditions where a goddess is considered identical to "Brahman", has similarly flowered from a syncretism of the monist premises of "Advaita" Vedanta and dualism premises of "Samkhya–Yoga" school of Hindu philosophy, sometimes referred to as "Shaktadavaitavada" (literally, the path of nondualistic "Shakti").


title: Vedanta

text: An exchange of ideas has been taking place between the western world and Asia since the late 18th century as a result of colonization of parts of Asia by Western powers. This also influenced western religiosity. The first translation of "Upanishads", published in two parts in 1801 and 1802, significantly influenced Arthur Schopenhauer, who called them the consolation of his life. He drew explicit parallels between his philosophy, as set out in "The World as Will and Representation", and that of the Vedanta philosophy as described in the work of Sir William Jones. Early translations also appeared in other European languages. Influenced by Śaṅkara's concepts of "Brahman" (God) and "māyā" (illusion), Lucian Blaga often used the concepts "marele anonim" (the Great Anonymous) and "cenzura transcendentă" (the transcendental censorship) in his philosophy.


title: Vedanta

text: German Sanskritist Theodore Goldstücker was among the early scholars to notice similarities between the religious conceptions of the Vedanta and those of the Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, writing that Spinoza's thought was


title: Vedanta

text: Helena Blavatsky, a founder of the Theosophical Society, also compared Spinoza's religious thought to Vedanta, writing in an unfinished essay,


title: House of Grimaldi

text: The House of Grimaldi ( , , , ) is the current reigning house of the Principality of Monaco. The house was founded in 1160 by Grimaldo Canella in Genoa and became the ruling house of Monaco when Francesco Grimaldi captured Monaco in 1297. The House of Grimaldi has produced every Prince of Monaco. During much of the Ancien Régime, the family resided in the French court, where from 1642 to 1715 they used the title of Duke of Valentinois.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: The current head of the house is Albert II of Monaco, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, who is the son and successor of Prince Rainier III and the Princess consort Grace of Monaco, formerly known as Grace Kelly.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: The Grimaldis descend from Grimaldo, a Genoese consul who lived during the time of the early Crusades. He may have been a son of Otto Canella, an earlier consul of the Republic of Genoa. His numerous descendants led maritime expeditions throughout the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the North Sea. They quickly became one of the most powerful families of Genoa.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: The Grimaldis feared that the head of a rival Genoese family could break the fragile balance of power in a "coup" and become lord of Genoa, as had happened in other Italian cities. They entered into a Guelphic alliance with the Fieschi family. In 1271, the Guelphs were banned from Genoa, and the Grimaldi took refuge in their castles in Liguria and Provence. They signed a treaty with Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily and Count of Provence to retake control of Genoa. In 1276, they accepted a peace under the auspices of the Pope, but the civil war continued. Not all the Grimaldis chose to return to Genoa and settled in their fiefdoms, where they could raise armies.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: In 1299, the Grimaldis and their allies launched a few galleys to attack the port of Genoa before taking refuge on the Western Riviera. During the following years, the Grimaldis entered into different alliances that would allow them to return to power in Genoa. This time, it was the turn of their rivals, the Spinola family, to be exiled from the city. During this period, both the Guelphs and Ghibellines took and abandoned the castle of Monaco, which was ideally located to launch political and military operations against Genoa. Therefore, the tale of Francis Grimaldi and his faction – who took the castle of Monaco disguised as friars in 1297 – is largely anecdotal.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: In the early 14th century, the Aragonese raided the shores of Provence and Liguria, challenging Genoa and King Robert of Provence. In 1353, the combined fleet of eighty Venetian and Aragonese galleys gathered in Sardinia to meet the fleet of sixty galleys under the command of Anthony Grimaldi. Only nineteen Genoese vessels survived the battle. Fearing an invasion, Genoa requested the protection of the Lord of Milan.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: Several of the oldest feudal branches of the House of Grimaldi appeared during these conflicts, such as the branches of Antibes, Beuil, Nice, Puget, and Sicily. In 1395, the Grimaldis took advantage of the discords in Genoa to take possession of Monaco, which they then ruled as a condominium. This is the origin of today's principality.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: As was customary in Genoa, the Grimaldis organised their family ties within a corporation called . In the political reform of 1528, the Grimaldi became one of the 28 of the Republic of Genoa, which included the Doria and Pallavicini families, and to which other families were formally invited to join. The House of Grimaldi provided several doges, cardinals, cabinet ministers, and military officers of historical note.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: Provence became a part of the Kingdom of France from 1486, and occasionally the Grimaldi relied upon French support to preserve their independence from the Republic of Genoa and the Duchy of Savoy. In the process they married into the French nobility in the 1600s, inherited French estates, and often lived in Paris, latterly at the Hôtel Matignon, until the French Revolution of 1789. Monaco and the neighbouring County of Nice was taken by the revolutionary army in 1792, and were French-controlled until 1815. Nice passed back to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1815; then it was ceded to France by the Treaty of Turin (1860). Monaco was re-established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, with a brief Italian occupation in 1940–43.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: By convention, sovereign European houses are male primogeniture. Therefore, since 1731, it has been determined genealogically that it was in fact the French noble that ruled as Princes of Monaco until 1949. However, one of the terms of James de Goyon de Matignon becoming Prince of Monaco "jure uxoris" was that he adopt the name and arms of Grimaldi so that the house would be preserved on the throne, and the right of succession was through his wife Louise-Hippolyte Grimaldi, who abdicated in her husband's favor. Similarly, when Charlotte Louvet was legitimised in 1911 and made successor to Monaco, her husband, Count Pierre de Polignac, adopted, as a condition of the marriage, the name and arms of Grimaldi, but from this moment all his direct descendants Grimaldi would also have the title of Counts of Polignac. In this way the "Grimaldi" name and arms were continued.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: Until 2002, a treaty between Monaco and France stated that if the reigning Prince ever failed to leave dynastic offspring, then sovereignty over the Grimaldi realm would revert to France. The 2002 agreement modified this to expand the pool of potential heirs to dynastic collaterals of the reigning Prince (excluding adoptive heirs, hitherto allowed, e.g. Princess Charlotte and her descendants), guaranteeing Monegasque independence. Article I of Monaco's house law requires that the reigning Prince or Princess bear the surname of Grimaldi.


title: House of Grimaldi

text: The coat of arms of the House of Grimaldi is simply described as "fusily argent and gules", i.e., a red and white diamond pattern, with no further modifiers.


title: Schwa

text: In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it represents the mid central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded), produced when the lips, tongue, and jaw are completely relaxed, such as the vowel sound of the in the English word "about".


title: Schwa

text: In English, some long-established phonetic transcription systems assert that the mid central vowel as an unstressed vowel and transcribed with schwa (ə) is always a different vowel sound from the open-mid back unrounded vowel as a stressed vowel and transcribed with turned v (ʌ), although they may recognize allophony between the pair. As Geoff Lindsey explains, within these systems, it is said that "schwa is never stressed"; but other authorities (including Lindsey himself) recognize that in some varieties of English, such as General American English, the stressed vowel and the unstressed vowel are the same sound, and therefore the "never stressed" dictum is false. Lindsey gives examples of major dictionaries that use each system.


title: Schwa

text: In Albanian, Romanian, Slovene, Balearic Catalan, Mandarin and Afrikaans, schwa can occur in stressed or unstressed syllables.


title: Schwa

text: The name "schwa" and the symbol may be used for some other unstressed and toneless neutral vowel, not necessarily mid central.


title: Schwa

text: A similar sound is the short French unaccented ⟨e⟩, which is rounded and less central, more like an open-mid or close-mid front rounded vowel.


title: Schwa

text: Sometimes the term "schwa" can be used for any epenthetic vowel. Across languages, schwa vowels are commonly deleted in some instances, such as in Hindi, North American English, French and Modern Hebrew. In phonology, syncope is the process of deleting unstressed sounds, particularly unstressed vowels such as schwa.


title: Schwa

text: The term schwa was introduced by German linguists in the 19th century from the Hebrew (  ,   [ʃə̑wɔː], the name of the sign used to indicate the phoneme. It was first used in English texts in the early 1890s.


title: Schwa

text: The symbol ⟨ə⟩ was used first by Johann Andreas Schmeller for the reduced vowel at the end of the German language term . Alexander John Ellis, in his Palaeotype alphabet, used it for the similar English sound in "but" . The symbol is an ⟨e⟩ rotated by 180 degrees. A subscript small schwa (in Unicode as ) is used in phonetic transcription of Indo-European languages.


title: Schwa

text: In English, schwa is the most common vowel sound. It is a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables especially if syllabic consonants are not used. Depending on dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters:


title: Schwa

text: Schwa is a short neutral vowel sound and, like all other vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent consonants.


title: Schwa

text: In General American English, schwa occurs in both stressed and unstressed syllables, while in Received Pronunciation schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables. For example, the word "above" is pronounced in General American English and in Received Pronunciation. Confusingly, some dictionaries use to represent a stressed schwa in American English (as well as representing the open-mid back unrounded vowel in Received Pronunciation). Dictionaries that do this include the "Longman Pronunciation Dictionary" and the "Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary". Dictionaries that use for schwa regardless of whether it is stressed or unstressed include the "Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary", the "Oxford English Dictionary", and the "Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English".


title: Schwa

text: In New Zealand English, the high front lax vowel (as in the word "bit" ) has shifted open and back to sound like schwa, and both stressed and unstressed schwas exist. To a certain extent, that is true for South African English as well.


title: Schwa

text: In General American English, schwa and are the two vowel sounds that can be r-colored (rhotacized); r-colored schwa is used in words with unstressed ⟨er⟩ syllables, such as "dinner". Some forms of American English have the tendency to delete a schwa when it appears in a mid-word syllable that comes after the stressed syllable. Kenstowicz (1994) states, "American English schwa deletes in medial posttonic syllables". He gives as examples words such as "sep(a)rate" (as an adjective), "choc(o)late", "cam(e)ra" and "elab(o)rate" (as an adjective), where the schwa (represented by the letters in parentheses) has a tendency to be deleted. Other examples include "fam(i)ly" , "ev(e)ry" , and "diff(e)rent" . See also stress and vowel reduction in English.


title: Schwa

text: In Albanian, schwa is represented by the letter , which is also one of the letters of the Albanian alphabet, coming right after the letter . It can be stressed like in words and ('sweet' and 'dream', respectively).


title: Schwa

text: Many Caucasian languages and some Uralic languages (like Komi) also use phonemic schwa, and allow schwas to be stressed. In Armenian, schwa is represented by the letter (capital ). It is occasionally word-initial but usually word-final, as a form of the definite article. Unwritten schwa sounds are also inserted to split initial consonant clusters; for example, () 'sparrow'. In the Azerbaijani alphabet, the schwa character is used, but to represent the sound.


title: Schwa

text: In Dutch, the digraph in the suffix , as in ('probably'), is pronounced as a schwa, while the independent word "lijk" is never a schwa. The article "een" (meaning 'a' or 'an') is pronounced using the schwa, , while the number "een" ('one') is pronounced , which is why it's also written as "één". And if an falls at the ultimate (or penultimate) place before a consonant in Dutch words and is unstressed, it may become a schwa in some accents, as in the verb ending () and the diminutive suffix ().


title: Schwa

text: In German, schwa is represented by the letter and occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in . The vowel alternates freely with syllabic consonants /l, m, n/, as in "Segel" [ˈzeːgəl – ˈzeːglˌ] 'sail'. It also alternates with its absence, as in Segel 'sail' – "Segl-er" 'sailor'. Thirdly, it may be dropped for rhythmical and other stylistic reasons as in "Aug' um Auge, Zahn um Zahn" 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.


title: Schwa

text: Schwa is not native to Bavarian dialects of German spoken in Southern Germany and Austria. Vowels that are realized as schwa in Standard German change to , , or .


title: Schwa

text: In Norwegian, the schwa is often found in the last syllable of definite, masculine nouns, as in ('the man'), as well as in infinitive verbs like ('bite').


title: Schwa

text: Schwa is normally represented in Yiddish by the Hebrew letter (Ayin) and, as in German, occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in () /ɡəˈfɪltə fɪʃ/ ('stuffed fish'). In words derived from Hebrew, which retain their original orthography but undergo significant phonological change, schwa may be represented by another letter, as in () ('rabbi'), or by no letter at all, as in שבת () ('Shabbat').


title: Schwa

text: The inherent vowel in the Devanagari script, an abugida used to write Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and Sanskrit, is a schwa, written either in isolation or word-initially. In most Sanskrit-based languages, the schwa is the implied vowel after every consonant and so has no didactic marks. For example, in Hindi, the character ⟨ क ⟩ is pronounced /kə/ without marking, but ⟨ के ⟩ is pronounced /ke/ (like "kay") with a marking. Although the Devanagari script is used as a standard to write Modern Hindi, the schwa (, sometimes written as ) implicit in each consonant of the script is "obligatorily deleted" at the end of words and in certain other contexts. The phenomenon has been termed the "schwa deletion rule" of Hindi. One formalization of the rule has been summarized as "ə → ∅ /VC_CV". In other words, when a vowel-preceded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted. However, the formalization is inexact and incomplete (it sometimes deletes a schwa that exists, and it fails to delete some schwas that it should) and so can yield errors. Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to building text-to-speech software for Hindi.


title: Schwa

text: As a result of schwa syncope, the correct Hindi pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal rendering of Devanagari. For instance, is (expected: ), is (expected: ), is (expected: ) and is (expected: ).


title: Schwa

text: Correct schwa deletion is critical also because the same Devanagari letter sequence can sometimes be pronounced two different ways in Hindi depending on the context: failure to delete the appropriate schwas can then change the meaning. For instance, the sequence in ("the heart started beating") and in ("beats of the heart") is identical prior to the nasalization in the second usage. However, it is pronounced "dhadak.ne" in the first and "dhad.kaneṁ" in the second.


title: Schwa

text: While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequence differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them "sound very unnatural", making it "extremely difficult for the listener" to grasp the intended meaning.


title: Schwa

text: In Madurese, an in some words, usually in non-final position, would be pronounced as the schwa. When writing Madurese in its traditional abugida, Hanacaraka, such words would not be written with a vowel diacritic denoting a schwa. Nowadays, even after the Madurese people have adopted the Latin alphabet, such writing fashion is still used. Examples are:


title: Schwa

text: In the Indonesian variant, schwa is always unstressed except for Jakarta-influenced informal Indonesian, whose schwa can be stressed. In final closed syllables in the formal register, the vowel is (the final syllable is usually the second syllable since most Indonesian root words consist of two syllables). In some cases, the vowel is pronounced as a stressed schwa (only when the vowel is located between two consonants in a syllable), but never in formal speech:


title: Schwa

text: Indonesian orthography formerly used unmarked only for the schwa sound, and the full vowel was written . Malaysian orthography, on the other hand, formerly indicated the schwa with (called ), and unmarked stood for .


title: Schwa

text: In the 1972 spelling reform that unified Indonesian and Malaysian spelling conventions ("Ejaan yang Disempurnakan", regulated by MABBIM), it was agreed to use neither diacritic. There is no longer an orthographic distinction between and ; both are spelled with an unmarked . For example, the word for 'wheeled vehicle' in Indonesia and Malaysia, which was formerly spelled in Indonesia and in Malaysia, is now spelled in both countries. This means that the pronunciation of any given letter in both Indonesian and Malaysian variants is not immediately obvious to the learner and must be learned separately. However, in a number of Indonesian dictionaries and lesson books for foreign learners, the notation is preserved to help learners.


title: Schwa

text: In Southern Malaysian pronunciation, which is predominant in common Malaysian media, the final letter represents schwa, and final stands for . The dialect of Kedah in northern Malaysia, however, pronounces final as also. In loanwords, a non-final short /a/ may become schwa in Malay such as (<Arabic , Malay pronunciation ).


title: Schwa

text: In European and some African dialects of Portuguese, the schwa occurs in many unstressed syllables that end in , such as ('night'), ('afternoon'), ('peach'), and ('sin'). In Neapolitan, a final, unstressed , and unstressed and are pronounced as a schwa: ('pizza'), ('week'), ('orange').


title: Schwa

text: In the Eastern dialects of Catalan, including the standard variety, based in the dialect spoken in and around Barcelona, schwa (called , 'neutral vowel') is represented by the letters or in unstressed syllables: ('father'), . In the Balearic Islands, the sound is sometimes also in stressed vowels, ('pear').


title: Schwa

text: In Romanian, schwa is represented by the letter , , which is considered a letter on its own (the second in the Romanian alphabet). It can be stressed in words in which it is the only vowel such as ('hair' or 'pear tree') or ('I see'). Some words which also contain other vowels can have the stress on : ('the books') and ('rooms').


title: Schwa

text: In Kashubian schwa is represented by the letter , it derives from historical short "u" and "i" vowels, and thus may alternate with "u" and "i" stemming from historical long vowels in different grammatical forms of a given word. It never appears word initially, except for the word "ë (and)" and its derivates. In most dialects of Russian unstressed ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩ reduce to either or schwa.


title: Schwa

text: In the Bulgarian language, schwa exists as a sound. It is written with the letter ъ. In Serbo-Croatian, schwa is not a phoneme, but it is often colloquially used to pronounce names of consonants. For example, the official name of the letter is pronounced , but in everyday speech, it is often called .


title: Schwa

text: The schwa is denoted in Welsh by the letter to represent schwa, which is a phonemic vowel rather than the realisation of an unstressed vowel. It is a very common letter as is the definite article with being the definite article if the following word starts with a vowel. For example, the word "ysbyty" ("hospital") is pronounced .


title: Roger Vadim

text: Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor. His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, such as "And God Created Woman" (1956), "Blood and Roses" (1960), "Barbarella" (1968), and "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971).


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim was born Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (sometimes transliterated Plemiannikoff) in Paris. His father, Igor Nikolaevich Plemiannikov (), a White Russian military officer and pianist, had emigrated from the Russian Empire and became a naturalized French citizen. He was a vice consul of France to Egypt, stationed in Alexandria, later posting to Mersin, Turkey as a consul. Vadim's mother, Marie-Antoinette (née Ardilouze), was a French actress. Although Vadim lived as a diplomat's child in Northern Africa and the Middle East in his early youth, the death of his father when Vadim was nine years old caused the family to return to France, where his mother found work running a hostel in the French Alps, which was functioning as a way-station for Jews and other fugitives fleeing Nazism.


title: Roger Vadim

text: At age 19, he became assistant to film director Marc Allégret, whom he met while working at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, and for whom he worked on several screenplays. He was an assistant director on Allegret's "Blanche Fury" (1948), a commercially unsuccessful melodrama which Allegret made for a British company in English.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim was one of several writers on Allegret's French-British "The Naked Heart" (1950), aka "Maria Chapdelaine", starring Michèle Morgan, as well as serving as assistant director. It was shot in French and English versions. "Blackmailed" (1951) was another film Allegret directed in England, starring Mai Zetterling and Dirk Bogarde; Vadim was credited as one of the writers. He was also one of several writers on Allegret's, "La demoiselle et son revenant" (1952).


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim did the screenplay and commentary for a documentary, "Le gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Marti" (1953) and was assistant director on Allegret's "Julietta" (1953), a popular romance with Jean Marais, Dany Robin and Jeanne Moreau. Vadim wrote Allegret's "Loves of Three Queens" (1954), with Hedy Lamarr.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim had begun a relationship with model-actress Brigitte Bardot. She was given a good role in a drama directed by Allegret, "School for Love" (1953), aka "Futures Vedettes", starring Jean Marais; Vadim wrote the script with Allegret. The film was a commercial disappointment.


title: Roger Vadim

text: However the next collaboration between Allegret, Bardot and Vadim, "Plucking the Daisy" (1956), aka "Mam'selle Striptease", was a huge success at the French box office. So too was "Naughty Girl" (1956), with Bardot. This allowed Vadim to get backing for his first movie as director.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim's first film as director was based on an original story of his, "And God Created Woman" (1956). Starring Bardot, Curt Jurgens and Christian Marquand and produced by Raoul Levy it was not only a major success in France, but around the world, and established Bardot as a world icon.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim followed it with "No Sun in Venice" (1957) starring Françoise Arnoul and Marquand, produced by Levy, which was considerably less popular than "And God Created Woman". Levy, Vadim and Bardot were to make "Paris by Night" with Frank Sinatra but Bardot refused to spend months in the US and Sinatra felt likewise about filming in France. Instead Vadim made "The Night Heaven Fell" (1958), starring Bardot and Stephen Boyd. He was one of several writers on Allegret's popular comedy, "Be Beautiful But Shut Up" (1958), starring Mylène Demongeot.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadims's next film was an adaptation of the book "Les liaisons dangereuses" (1959), which he wrote and directed. It starred Moreau, Gérard Philipe (in his final film) and Annette Stroyberg, a Danish model who became Vadim's second wife. The film became a huge hit in France.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim was reunited with Bardot for "Please, Not Now!" (1961), a popular comedy. He was one of several directors of the anthology film, "The Seven Deadly Sins" (1962).


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim began a relationship with a young Catherine Deneuve. She starred in a segment of the anthology film "Tales of Paris" (1962), which was written by Vadim and directed by Allegret. She starred in a film Vadim helped write and produce, "And Satan Calls the Turns" (1962), and was also in "Vice and Virtue" (1963), which Vadim directed.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim had another success writing and directing for Bardot, "Love on a Pillow" (1962), but found less favour with "Nutty, Naughty Chateau" (1963) starring Monica Vitti.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim tried another adaptation of a classic erotic text, "La Ronde" (1964). He said at the time, "When I make a picture about relations between people, something erotic comes through; I can't help it! But sex has been an inspiration, the greatest inspiration, since art exists." One of the film's many stars was rising American actress Jane Fonda who began a romantic relationship with Vadim.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim devised a vehicle for Fonda, "The Game Is Over" (1966), based on a book by Émile Zola. Shot in French and English versions, it was very popular in France, though less so in the US.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Dino de Laurentiis wanted Fonda to star in a science fiction sex comedy, "Barbarella" (1968) and she agreed provided Vadim could direct. Following this he directed Fonda in a segment of the omnibus horror film "Spirits of the Dead" (1968) along with her brother Peter Fonda.


title: Roger Vadim

text: During his marriage to Fonda, Vadim would accompany her back to the US periodically while she made movies there. He and Fonda broke up and Vadim directed "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971) for MGM, starring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson. It was a commercial disappointment.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim returned to France. He wrote and directed "Hellé" (1972), starring Gwen Welles, which was a flop. He was reunited with Bardot for "Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman" (1973), which was Bardot's penultimate movie and a commercial disappointment.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Not particularly successful either were "Charlotte" (1974), and "Game of Seduction" (1976) with Sylvia Kristel and Nathalie Delon. He directed a TV movie "Bonheur, impair et passe" (1977), starring Danielle Darrieux.


title: Roger Vadim

text: In the 1980s Vadim based himself in the US. He directed "Night Games" (1980), where he attempted to make a star of Cindy Pickett, with whom he became romantically involved. He directed a caper film in Canada, "The Hot Touch" (1981), starring Marie-France Pisier. Back in France he wrote and directed "Surprise Party" (1983). He directed episodes of "Faerie Tale Theatre" (1984) and "Deadly Nightmares" (1986).


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim attempted to recapture his former success with a new version of "And God Created Woman" (1988), with Rebecca de Mornay. Very different from the original – it only really used the same title – it failed critically and commercially.


title: Roger Vadim

text: His final years were spent working in TV, where he directed "Safari" (1991) and wrote and directed "Amour fou" (1993), starring Marie-Christine Barrault who became his final wife. She was also in "La Nouvelle tribu" (1996) and its sequel "Un coup de baguette magique" (1997), which Vadim wrote and directed.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim was famous for his romances and marriages to beautiful actresses. In his mid-30s, he lived with the teenaged Catherine Deneuve, by whom he had a child, Christian Vadim, prior to his marriage to Fonda. He was also involved with American actresses Margaret Markov and Cindy Pickett. Later, he cohabited with screenwriter Ann Biderman for several years, announcing their engagement in 1984, but the couple never wed.


title: Roger Vadim

text: He also had two stepsons from his marriage to Schneider (younger sister of novelist Dominique Schneidre and heiress to the Schneider-Creusot steel and armaments firm) as well as adult stepchildren from Barrault's first marriage to Daniel Toscan du Plantier, also a friend of Vadim's, who called him "a happy man. He was someone in whom there was so much satisfaction to the end of his life. The films merely reflected his happiness." Nathalie, his eldest daughter, told Fonda biographer Patricia Bosworth: "Jane was the love of my father's life."


title: Roger Vadim

text: In addition to Vadim's theatre and film work, he also wrote several books, including the memoirs "Memoires du Diable", "Le Gout du Bonheur: Souvenirs 1940–1958" and an autobiography, "D'une étoile à l'autre" ("From One Star to the Next") as well as a tell-all about his most famous exes, "Bardot, Deneuve & Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World", published in 1986. "My attitude is that if this book makes me a little money it will be a tiny compensation for all the money I helped those actresses make", Vadim explained.


title: Roger Vadim

text: Vadim died of cancer at age 72 on 11 February 2000. Ex-wives Bardot, Fonda, Schneider and Stroyberg were all in attendance at his funeral. He is buried at St. Tropez Cemetery.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer that forms in the bile ducts. Symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma may include abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, generalized itching, and fever. Light colored stool or dark urine may also occur. Other biliary tract cancers include gallbladder cancer and cancer of the ampulla of Vater.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma include primary sclerosing cholangitis (an inflammatory disease of the bile ducts), ulcerative colitis, cirrhosis, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, infection with certain liver flukes, and some congenital liver malformations. However, most people have no identifiable risk factors. The diagnosis is suspected based on a combination of blood tests, medical imaging, endoscopy, and sometimes surgical exploration. The disease is confirmed by examination of cells from the tumor under a microscope. It is typically an adenocarcinoma (a cancer that forms glands or secretes mucin).


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma is typically incurable at diagnosis which is why early detection is ideal. In these cases palliative treatments may include surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stenting procedures. In about a third of cases involving the common bile duct and less commonly with other locations the tumor can be completely removed by surgery offering a chance of a cure. Even when surgical removal is successful chemotherapy and radiation therapy are generally recommended. In certain cases surgery may include a liver transplantation. Even when surgery is successful the 5-year survival is typically less than 50%.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma is rare in the Western world, with estimates of it occurring in 0.5–2 people per 100,000 per year. Rates are higher in Southeast Asia where liver flukes are common. Rates in parts of Thailand are 60 per 100,000 per year. It typically occurs in people in their 70s; however, in those with primary sclerosing cholangitis it often occurs in the 40s. Rates of cholangiocarcinoma within the liver in the Western world have increased.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: The most common physical indications of cholangiocarcinoma are abnormal liver function tests, jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin occurring when bile ducts are blocked by tumor), abdominal pain (30–50%), generalized itching (66%), weight loss (30–50%), fever (up to 20%), and changes in the color of stool or urine. To some extent, the symptoms depend upon the location of the tumor: people with cholangiocarcinoma in the extrahepatic bile ducts (outside the liver) are more likely to have jaundice, while those with tumors of the bile ducts within the liver more often have pain without jaundice.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Blood tests of liver function in people with cholangiocarcinoma often reveal a so-called "obstructive picture", with elevated bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma glutamyl transferase levels, and relatively normal transaminase levels. Such laboratory findings suggest obstruction of the bile ducts, rather than inflammation or infection of the liver parenchyma, as the primary cause of the jaundice.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Although most people present without any known risk factors evident, a number of risk factors for the development of cholangiocarcinoma have been described. In the Western world, the most common of these is primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), an inflammatory disease of the bile ducts which is closely associated with ulcerative colitis (UC). Epidemiologic studies have suggested that the lifetime risk of developing cholangiocarcinoma for a person with PSC is on the order of 10–15%, although autopsy series have found rates as high as 30% in this population. For inflammatory bowel disease patients with altered DNA repair functions, the progression from PSC to cholangiocarcinoma may be a consequence of DNA damage resulting from biliary inflammation and bile acids.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Certain parasitic liver diseases may be risk factors as well. Colonization with the liver flukes "Opisthorchis viverrini" (found in Thailand, Laos PDR, and Vietnam) or "Clonorchis sinensis" (found in China, Taiwan, eastern Russia, Korea, and Vietnam) has been associated with the development of cholangiocarcinoma. Control programs (Integrated Opisthorchiasis Control Program) aimed at discouraging the consumption of raw and undercooked food have been successful at reducing the incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in some countries. People with chronic liver disease, whether in the form of viral hepatitis (e.g. hepatitis B or hepatitis C), alcoholic liver disease, or cirrhosis of the liver due to other causes, are at significantly increased risk of cholangiocarcinoma. HIV infection was also identified in one study as a potential risk factor for cholangiocarcinoma, although it was unclear whether HIV itself or other correlated and confounding factors (e.g. hepatitis C infection) were responsible for the association.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Infection with the bacteria "Helicobacter bilis" and "Helicobacter hepaticus" species can cause biliary cancer.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Congenital liver abnormalities, such as Caroli disease (a specific type of five recognized choledochal cysts), have been associated with an approximately 15% lifetime risk of developing cholangiocarcinoma. The rare inherited disorders Lynch syndrome II and biliary papillomatosis have also been found to be associated with cholangiocarcinoma. The presence of gallstones (cholelithiasis) is not clearly associated with cholangiocarcinoma. However, intrahepatic stones (called hepatolithiasis), which are rare in the West but common in parts of Asia, have been strongly associated with cholangiocarcinoma. Exposure to Thorotrast, a form of thorium dioxide which was used as a radiologic contrast medium, has been linked to the development of cholangiocarcinoma as late as 30–40 years after exposure; Thorotrast was banned in the United States in the 1950s due to its carcinogenicity.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma can affect any area of the bile ducts, either within or outside the liver. Tumors occurring in the bile ducts within the liver are referred to as "intrahepatic", those occurring in the ducts outside the liver are "extrahepatic", and tumors occurring at the site where the bile ducts exit the liver may be referred to as "perihilar". A cholangiocarcinoma occurring at the junction where the left and right hepatic ducts meet to form the common hepatic duct may be referred to eponymously as a Klatskin tumor.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Although cholangiocarcinoma is known to have the histological and molecular features of an adenocarcinoma of epithelial cells lining the biliary tract, the actual cell of origin is unknown. Recent evidence has suggested that the initial transformed cell that generates the primary tumor may arise from a pluripotent hepatic stem cell. Cholangiocarcinoma is thought to develop through a series of stages – from early hyperplasia and metaplasia, through dysplasia, to the development of frank carcinoma – in a process similar to that seen in the development of colon cancer. Chronic inflammation and obstruction of the bile ducts, and the resulting impaired bile flow, are thought to play a role in this progression.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Histologically, cholangiocarcinomas may vary from undifferentiated to well-differentiated. They are often surrounded by a brisk fibrotic or desmoplastic tissue response; in the presence of extensive fibrosis, it can be difficult to distinguish well-differentiated cholangiocarcinoma from normal reactive epithelium. There is no entirely specific immunohistochemical stain that can distinguish malignant from benign biliary ductal tissue, although staining for cytokeratins, carcinoembryonic antigen, and mucins may aid in diagnosis. Most tumors (>90%) are adenocarcinomas.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: There are no specific blood tests that can diagnose cholangiocarcinoma by themselves. Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA19-9 are often elevated, but are not sensitive or specific enough to be used as a general screening tool. However, they may be useful in conjunction with imaging methods in supporting a suspected diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Ultrasound of the liver and biliary tree is often used as the initial imaging modality in people with suspected obstructive jaundice. Ultrasound can identify obstruction and ductal dilatation and, in some cases, may be sufficient to diagnose cholangiocarcinoma. Computed tomography (CT) scanning may also play an important role in the diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: While abdominal imaging can be useful in the diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma, direct imaging of the bile ducts is often necessary. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), an endoscopic procedure performed by a gastroenterologist or specially trained surgeon, has been widely used for this purpose. Although ERCP is an invasive procedure with attendant risks, its advantages include the ability to obtain biopsies and to place stents or perform other interventions to relieve biliary obstruction. Endoscopic ultrasound can also be performed at the time of ERCP and may increase the accuracy of the biopsy and yield information on lymph node invasion and operability. As an alternative to ERCP, percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) may be utilized. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is a non-invasive alternative to ERCP. Some authors have suggested that MRCP should supplant ERCP in the diagnosis of biliary cancers, as it may more accurately define the tumor and avoids the risks of ERCP.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Surgical exploration may be necessary to obtain a suitable biopsy and to accurately stage a person with cholangiocarcinoma. Laparoscopy can be used for staging purposes and may avoid the need for a more invasive surgical procedure, such as laparotomy, in some people.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Histologically, cholangiocarcinomas are classically well to moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas. Immunohistochemistry is useful in the diagnosis and may be used to help differentiate a cholangiocarcinoma from hepatocellular carcinoma and metastasis of other gastrointestinal tumors. Cytological scrapings are often nondiagnostic, as these tumors typically have a desmoplastic stroma and, therefore, do not release diagnostic tumor cells with scrapings.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Although there are at least three staging systems for cholangiocarcinoma (e.g. those of Bismuth, Blumgart, and the American Joint Committee on Cancer), none have been shown to be useful in predicting survival. The most important staging issue is whether the tumor can be surgically removed, or whether it is too advanced for surgical treatment to be successful. Often, this determination can only be made at the time of surgery.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma is considered to be an incurable and rapidly lethal disease unless all the tumors can be fully resected (cut out surgically). Since the operability of the tumor can only be assessed during surgery in most cases, a majority of people undergo exploratory surgery unless there is already a clear indication that the tumor is inoperable. However, the Mayo Clinic has reported significant success treating early bile duct cancer with liver transplantation using a protocolized approach and strict selection criteria.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Adjuvant therapy followed by liver transplantation may have a role in treatment of certain unresectable cases. Locoregional therapies including transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), transarterial radioembolization (TARE) and ablation therapies have a role in intrahepatic variants of cholangiocarcinoma to provide palliation or potential cure in people who are not surgical candidates.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: If the tumor can be removed surgically, people may receive adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy after the operation to improve the chances of cure. If the tissue margins are negative (i.e. the tumor has been totally excised), adjuvant therapy is of uncertain benefit. Both positive and negative results have been reported with adjuvant radiation therapy in this setting, and no prospective randomized controlled trials have been conducted as of March 2007. Adjuvant chemotherapy appears to be ineffective in people with completely resected tumors. The role of combined chemoradiotherapy in this setting is unclear. However, if the tumor tissue margins are positive, indicating that the tumor was not completely removed via surgery, then adjuvant therapy with radiation and possibly chemotherapy is generally recommended based on the available data.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: The majority of cases of cholangiocarcinoma present as inoperable (unresectable) disease in which case people are generally treated with palliative chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy. Chemotherapy has been shown in a randomized controlled trial to improve quality of life and extend survival in people with inoperable cholangiocarcinoma. There is no single chemotherapy regimen which is universally used, and enrollment in clinical trials is often recommended when possible. Chemotherapy agents used to treat cholangiocarcinoma include 5-fluorouracil with leucovorin, gemcitabine as a single agent, or gemcitabine plus cisplatin, irinotecan, or capecitabine. A small pilot study suggested possible benefit from the tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib in people with advanced cholangiocarcinoma.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Radiation therapy appears to prolong survival in people with resected extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and the few reports of its use in unresectable cholangiocarcinoma appear to show improved survival, but numbers are small.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Infigratinib (Truseltiq) is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) that was approved for medical use in the United States in May 2021. It is indicated for the treatment of people with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring an FGFR2 fusion or rearrangement.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Pemigatinib (Pemazyre) is a kinase inhibitor of fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) that was approved for medical use in the United States in April 2020. It is indicated for the treatment of adults with previously treated, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with a fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) fusion or other rearrangement as detected by an FDA-approved test.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Ivodesinib (Tibsovo) is a small molecule inhibitor of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1. The FDA approved ivosidenib in August 2021 for adults with previously treated, locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with an isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Durvalumab, (Imfinzi) is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that blocks the PD-L1 protein on the surface of immune cells, thereby allowing the immune system to recognize and attack tumor cells. In Phase III clinical trials, durvalumab, in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival and progression-free survival versus chemotherapy alone as a 1st-line treatment for patients with advanced biliary tract cancer.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Surgical resection offers the only potential chance of cure in cholangiocarcinoma. For non-resectable cases, the five-year survival rate is 0% where the disease is inoperable because distal lymph nodes show metastases, and less than 5% in general. Overall mean duration of survival is less than 6 months in people with metastatic disease.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: For surgical cases, the odds of cure vary depending on the tumor location and whether the tumor can be completely, or only partially, removed. Distal cholangiocarcinomas (those arising from the common bile duct) are generally treated surgically with a Whipple procedure; long-term survival rates range from 15 to 25%, although one series reported a five-year survival of 54% for people with no involvement of the lymph nodes. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (those arising from the bile ducts within the liver) are usually treated with partial hepatectomy. Various series have reported survival estimates after surgery ranging from 22 to 66%; the outcome may depend on involvement of lymph nodes and completeness of the surgery. Perihilar cholangiocarcinomas (those occurring near where the bile ducts exit the liver) are least likely to be operable. When surgery is possible, they are generally treated with an aggressive approach often including removal of the gallbladder and potentially part of the liver. In patients with operable perihilar tumors, reported 5-year survival rates range from 20 to 50%.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: The prognosis may be worse for people with primary sclerosing cholangitis who develop cholangiocarcinoma, likely because the cancer is not detected until it is advanced. Some evidence suggests that outcomes may be improving with more aggressive surgical approaches and adjuvant therapy.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Cholangiocarcinoma is a relatively rare form of cancer; each year, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States, translating into an annual incidence of 1–2 cases per 100,000 people. Autopsy series have reported a prevalence of 0.01% to 0.46%. There is a higher prevalence of cholangiocarcinoma in Asia, which has been attributed to endemic chronic parasitic infestation. The incidence of cholangiocarcinoma increases with age, and the disease is slightly more common in men than in women (possibly due to the higher rate of primary sclerosing cholangitis, a major risk factor, in men). The prevalence of cholangiocarcinoma in people with primary sclerosing cholangitis may be as high as 30%, based on autopsy studies.


title: Cholangiocarcinoma

text: Multiple studies have documented a steady increase in the incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; increases have been seen in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The reasons for the increasing occurrence of cholangiocarcinoma are unclear; improved diagnostic methods may be partially responsible, but the prevalence of potential risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma, such as HIV infection, has also been increasing during this time frame.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu () is a 2022 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Tirumala Kishore. Produced by SLV Cinemas, the film stars Sharwanand, Rashmika Mandanna, Khushbu Sundar, Raadhika Sarathkumar and Urvashi.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: Tirumala initially planned the film in 2016 with Venkatesh and Nithya Menen as the leads but it did not materialize. The project was revived in October 2020 with Sharwanand and Mandanna replacing them. Principal photography of the film commenced in July 2021 and ended in February 2022 with the filming primarily taking place in Hyderabad and Rajahmundry. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Devi Sri Prasad. Sujith Sarang and A. Sreekar Prasad performed the cinematography and editing respectively.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: "Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu" was released on 4 March 2022 and opened to mixed reviews from critics. The film was a commercial failure.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: Chiranjeevi grows up in the company of five strong headed women, including his mother Aadhi Lakshmi and aunts Padmamma, Sharadamma, Gouramma and Krishnamma. Though they love and dote on him, they nitpick and reject almost every bride match he gets, The film deals with his journey in finding a suitable bride who is approved by all the five. At last, The right girl comes in the form of Aadhya (Rashmika Mandanna)


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: In 2016, director Kishore Tirumala teamed up with actors Venkatesh and Nithya Menen for the romantic comedy titled "Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu." However, the project was kept on back burner. In an interview in 2017, Tirumala stated, "I feel the story for "Adavallu"… needs improvisation and so, I asked Venky sir sometime to arrive with a convincing script. The film is definitely on but it will take some time to hit the floors." Tirumala later wrote a different version of the story while retaining the basic premise.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: The project was revived in 2020 with actor Sharwanand replacing Venkatesh. The film was formally announced on 25 October 2020 with a launch ceremony, marking Sharwanand's first collaboration with Tirumala. Actresses like Menen and Sai Pallavi were considered for the female lead role but Rashmika Mandanna was finalized. Veteran actresses Raadhika Sarathkumar, Khushbu Sundar and Urvashi joined the production in August 2021.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: Principal photography of the film began on 20 July 2021 in Hyderabad. Filming also took place in Rajahmundry where majority of the film is shot. The shoot was completed in February 2022.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: The music was composed by Tirumala Kishore's usual composer Devi Sri Prasad. Lahari Music acquired the film's audio rights. The first single, "Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu" was released on 4 February 2022, and was sung by Devi Sri Prasad himself with lyrics written by Sri Mani.


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: "Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu" was released on 4 March 2022. The film was initially scheduled for release on 25 February but was deferred by a week to avoid a clash with "Bheemla Nayak".


title: Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu (2022 film)

text: The film made a pre-release business of crore from its theatricals. The Telangana theatrical rights are given to Sri Karthikeya Cinemas. SonyLIV acquired the film's digital streaming rights.