{{Short description|Brahmanical exegesis and philosophy term}} {{For|the butterfly genus|Rachana (butterfly){{!}}''Rachana'' (butterfly)}} {{Hindu philosophy}} '''Rachanā''' (Sanskrit: रचना) is derived from the root verb – रच् - meaning – to arrange. ''Rachanā'' (रचनम् - ना = रचना) means – arrangement, preparation, disposition, formation, creation, production, performance, completion, array of troops, literary work, a creation of the mind, contrivance, invention e.g. '' chitra-rachana '' (drawing/painting), '' kāvya-rachana '' (poetic composition), ''anvaya-rachana'' (indeclinable/undistributable middle sentence construction).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary|publisher=Digital Dictionaries of South Asia|page=1324|url= http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/contextualize.pl?p.4.apte.2856822 }}</ref>
Proponents of Advaita Vedanta use this term to refer to the composition or structure of Brahman; Shankara explains that Brahman cannot be described by any name or form, the mind cannot think about Its composition (''rachanā'').<ref>{{cite book|title=Foundations of Education|author=S.P.Chaube|date=November 2009|publisher=Vikas Publishing|page=219|isbn=9788125911319|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=b3BY_dNrRJMC&q=rachana+upanishads&pg=PA219 }}</ref> Even Badarayana in his Brahma Sutras (Sutra II.ii.1) states :-
:रचनाऽनुपपत्तेश्च नानुमानम् |
:"The inferred one (pradhana) is not (the cause) owing to the impossibility of explaining the design, as also for other reasons."
Badarayana uses the word ''rachanā'' to mean - 'design', he explains that on no account can the insentient ''pradhana'' create this universe, which cannot even be mentally conceived of by the intelligent (skilful persons, architects).
==Notable people== * Rachana Narayanankutty: an actress and television anchor from Kerala, India. * Rachana Banerjee: an Indian Bengali actress in Calcutta-based Bengali Cinema at Tollywood. * Rachana Maurya: an Indian dancer and film actress. * Rachana Kamtekar: an American philosopher
==Other uses== ''Rachana'' is also the title of a 1983 film and a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae.<ref>{{cite book|title=Brahma sutra Bhasya of Sankaracarya|publisher=Advaita Ashrama|page=367|url=http://advaitaashrama.org/Book/Detail/8121|archive-date=2014-12-16|access-date=2014-12-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216090248/http://advaitaashrama.org/Book/Detail/8121|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Indian philosophy|state=collapsed}}
Category:Vedanta Category:Sanskrit words and phrases Category:Hindu philosophical concepts