Mayas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Groups of indigenous peoples of southern Mexico and Central America who share a common ancestry and culture ; in Hindu philosophy, the illusory veil that makes the material world seem real
2. The indigenous communities of Mesoamerica known for their ancient civilization ; the deceptive power in Hindu thought that causes the world to appear as something it is not
3. Native peoples of the Yucatan region and neighboring lands ; the cosmic illusion described in Hindu and Buddhist teachings that hides the true nature of reality

Etymology: The plural "mayas" simply counts the peoples called Maya, a name whose own history is more tangled than its spelling suggests. The Maya of Mesoamerica call themselves something close to "maya'", a self-designation that appears in phrases such as "maya' wíinik", meaning "Maya man," in their own languages. That self-name is what outsiders later borrowed as a label for the civilisation and its descendants. The name also has a second, unrelated life in Europe. Maya was a personal name in the classical and medieval worlds, borne by figures linked to Maia, a Roman goddess, and to Maria. It is this personal name, not the Mesoamerican one, that gave the word its ordinary English sense, so the same spelling covers two independent origins that happen to coincide.