The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2259 page)

Sicilian Vespers
.

A massacre of 3,000–4,000 French in Sicily, 30 Mar. 1282, initiated when the bell for
vespers
was rung. It marked the end of the plans of Pope Martin IV and Charles of Anjou to reconquer Constantinople, and led indirectly to the decline of papal power. The theme supplied (remotely) the libretto for Verdi's
I vespri siciliani
.

 
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(Skt., ‘perfect, complete’). In E. religions, one who has attained the supreme goal, who may also have acquired the siddhi powers. The siddhi powers of a
yogi
include becoming invisible, leaving the body and re-entering it at will, reducing the size of one's body to that of a seed, or increasing it to that of a mountain. For
aivites,
iva
is the supreme Siddha,
din
tha, of whom all other siddhas are incarnations. In Buddhism the
iddhi
powers are comparable. For Tantric Buddhism, see
SIDDHA TRADITION
. Among Jains, siddhas are souls (
j
va
) which have attained release from
karma
and attained the goal. See also
FIVE SUPREME BEINGS
.

 
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see
SIDDHATTA
.

 
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(‘The Sun’,
c.
4th/5th cent. CE).
Jain logician. He appears to have been a
brahman
who was converted after losing a debate with a Jain monk, V
ddhav
din, who then performed many miracles disclosing the truth of his new faith. The major works attributed to him are
Ny
y
vat
ra
(The Descent of Logic) and
Sammatitarka
(The Examination of True Doctrine, tr. S. Sanghavi and B. J. Doshi). He also wrote verse compositions of a more devotional kind, e.g.
Dv
tri
ika
.