Tri-dasha

The Sanskrit term "tri-dasha" literally translates to "three tens," signifying thirty. In its cosmological application, it expands to thirty-three, a number representing a pantheon of deities. The root "tri" means three, and "dasha" means ten. This numerical grouping reflects ancient Indo-Aryan conceptions of divine hierarchies.

Three times ten or "thirty". This is in round riuiiil)crs the sum of the Indian Pantlieon — the thirty-thn'e crorrs of deities — the twelve Adityas. tiie eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras and the two Ashvins. or thirty-tJin r kotis, or 330 millions of gods. Trig^nas (Sk.). The three divisions of the inherent qualities of differentiated matter — i.e., of pure quiescence (satva), of activity and desire (rnjaa), of stagnation and decay (tnnias). They corresjiond with Vishnu, Brail lua. and Shiva. (See "Trimurti".") Trijnana, fSk.). Lit., "triple knowledge". This consists of three degrees: (1) l)elief on faith ; (2) belief on theoretical knowledge ; and (3) belief through personal and practical knowledge.

The concept of the Tri-dasha, as rendered by Blavatsky, points toward a fascinating aspect of Hindu cosmology: the structured enumeration of the divine. It’s not simply a headcount of gods, but a symbolic ordering of the celestial bureaucracy that governs the cosmos. Mircea Eliade, in his studies of comparative religion, often highlighted how ancient cultures sought to map the sacred, to understand the divine not as an amorphous presence but as a patterned reality. The thirty-three deities, a number that appears in various Indo-European traditions, suggest a shared ancient impulse to categorize and comprehend the forces that shape human destiny.

Blavatsky’s inclusion of the three gunas—Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas—as potentially related to the Tri-dasha, though distinct concepts, reveals a deeper hermeneutic. The gunas are the fundamental qualities of Prakriti, or material nature, and their interplay dictates the phenomenal world. To link them, even loosely, to a divine assembly suggests that the gods themselves are seen as embodying or orchestrating these fundamental qualities. This is not unlike the Hermetic principle that "as above, so below," where the macrocosm of the divine pantheon mirrors the microcosm of the material world's constituent forces. The Tri-dasha, therefore, becomes a lens through which to view the intricate dance between the transcendent and the immanent, the celestial order and the very fabric of existence. It invites us to consider the universe not as a chaotic expanse, but as a divinely ordered manifestation, where even the seemingly myriad deities can be understood through numerical and qualitative frameworks.

RELATED_TERMS: Devas, Trimurti, Gunas, Brahman, Indra, Surya, Agni, Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma