समुद्रsamudra

समुद्र (samudra) is a Sanskrit word meaning the sea or ocean, the sky or atmospheric waters, the number four, a large Soma vessel, an immensely high number, rukma. Its 53 recorded definitions are grouped into 11 contexts, among them The Sea or Ocean, Ocean-Associated Concepts, Phenomena, and Entities, Proper Name (Deity, Being, Person, Author).

Root: उद् (ud)
Etymology: E. सम् before उन्दि to be wet, and रक aff.; or स for सह with, and मुद्रा a seal; also thence signifying a limit, (i. e. bounded by continents,) or a jewel, (the receptacle of gems,) or सम with उद्र an otter; or स with, मुद pleasure, or सम् together, उद water, and रा to give or have, aff. क, &c
Definitions: 53

View Declension Tables , 48 forms

Meanings by context

The Sea or Ocean

17 definitions

1. The sea or ocean. 2. The sky or atmospheric waters.

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

The sea

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. A collection of waters. 2. The sea or ocean. 3. A large Soma vat.

— Macdonell Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. Sealed or stamped. 2. A sea or ocean.

— Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. A sea or ocean. 2. Sealed or stamped.

— Yates Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. The sea or ocean. 2. An epithet of Shiva.

— Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. Sealed or stamped. 2. A sea or ocean.

— Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. The sea or ocean. 2. Sealed.

— Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary

The ocean or sea.

— Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary

an ocean or sea

— Lanman's Sanskrit Reader Vocabulary

1. The waters above the firmament or the aerial sky. 2. A collection of water, sea, or ocean. 3. A symbolical expression for the number four. 4. The personified Ocean represented as king of rivers. 5. An epithet of Shiva. 6. A kind of metre.

समुद्र (samudra) [Printed book page 1079-a]
1. sam-udra, as, m. [cf. udra, an-udra], the

waters above the firmament, the aerial ocean or sky

(Ved.; in Naigh. 1. 3. enumerated among the an-

tarikṣa-nāmāni); a collection of water, sea, ocean,

(seven seas are enumerated in Viṣṇu-Purāṇa II. 4,

viz. the sea of Lavaṇa, ‘salt-water;’ Ikṣu, ‘sugar-

cane juice or syrup;’ Surā, ‘wine;’ Ghṛta, ‘clarified

butter;’ Dadhi, ‘curds;’ Dugdha, ‘milk;’ Jala,

‘fresh water’); a symbolical expression for the num-

ber four (the number of oceans being only four,

according to one reckoning); the Ocean (personified

and represented as the king of rivers); epithet of

Śiva; a kind of metre; N. of a place; of a work;

(as, ā, am), Ved. having a collection of water,

watery, flowing; (ā), f. the plant called zedoary

(= saṭī); the Śamī tree. —Samudra-kapha, as,

m. ‘sea-foam,’ cuttle-fish bone. —Samudra-kāntā,

f. ‘sea-beloved,’ a river. —Samudra-kukṣi, is, f.

the shore of the ocean. —Samudra-ga, as, ā, am,

ocean-going, sea-faring; flowing towards the ocean;

(as), m. a sea-farer, seaman; sea-trader; (ā), f. a

river. —Samudra-gamana, am, n. going or voyag-

ing by sea; sea-roving. —Samudra-gāmin, ī, inī,

i, sea-going, sea-faring. —Samudra-gupta, as, m.,

N. of a king of the Gupta dynasty. —Samudra-

gṛha, am, n. a sort of summer-house built in the

midst of water (= jala-yantra-gṛha, q. v.). —Sa-

mudra-culuka, as, m. ‘holding a mouthful of the

ocean,’ epithet of the sage Agastya (fabled to have

drunk up the ocean). —Samudra-ja, as, ā, am,

sea-born, produced in the sea. —Samudra-taṭa, am,

n. the sea-coast. —Samudra-tīra, am, n. the sea-

shore. —Samudra-dayitā, f. ‘sea-beloved,’ a river.

—Samudra-navanīta, am, n. ‘ocean-butter,’ nectar

or ambrosia (= a-mṛta); the moon (as produced

or recovered at the churning of the ocean). —Sa-

mudra-nemi, is, is, i, encircled or surrounded by

the ocean. —Samudra-phala, am, n. ‘sea-fruit,’ a

particular drug or medicament. —Samudra-phena,

as, m. ‘sea-foam,’ cuttle-fish bone; [cf. phena.]

—Samudra-bhava, as, ā, am, being in the ocean,

produced from or in the sea. —Samudra-mekhalā,

f. ‘sea-girdled,’ the earth. —Samudra-yātrā, f. a sea-

voyage. —Samudra-yāna, am, n. a sea-voyage; a

vessel, ship, boat. —Samudra-yāyin, ī, m. a sea-farer,

mariner, sailor, navigator, sea-trader. —Samudra-

yoṣit, t, f. ‘sea-wife,’ a river. —Samudra-raśanā
Page1079-b+ 77

or samudra-rasanā, f. ‘sea-girdled,’ the earth.

—Samudra-lavaṇa, am, n. sea-salt. —Samudra-

varṇana, am, n. ‘description of the ocean,’ N. of

the sixty-eighth chapter of the Sundara-kāṇḍa of the

Rāmāyaṇa. —Samudra-vasanā, f. ‘sea-clothed,’

the earth. —Samudra-vahni, is, m. submarine fire.

—Samudra-vāsas, ās, ās, as, Ved. ‘sea-clothed,’

enveloped by the ocean, surrounded by the sea.

—Samudra-vijaya, as, m., N. of the father of

the twenty-second Arhat of the present Avasarpiṇī.

—Samudra-velā, f. the ocean-tide; an ocean-wave,

wave of the sea. —Samudra-vyacas, ās, ās, as,

Ved. extensive or expanded as the ocean. —Samu-

dra-śoṣa, as, m. the creeping-plant Convolvulus

Argenteus. —Samudra-subhagā, f. ‘ocean-favourite,’

the Ganges. —Samudra-sena, as, m., N. of a king.

—Samudra-snāna, am, n. ablution in the sea.

—Samudrānta (°ra-an°), am, n. the sea-shore;

nutmeg; (ā), f. the shrub Alhagi Maurorum (=

dur-ālabhā); the cotton plant; the plant Trigo-

nella Corniculata; another plant (= yavāsa). —Sa-

mudrāmbarā (°ra-am°), f. ‘sea-clothed,’ the earth.

—Samudrāmbhas (°ra-am°), as, n. sea-water.

—Samudrāru (°ra-aru or -āru), us, m. a croco-

dile, shark; a large fabulous fish (= timiṅ-gila);

Rāma's bridge or the ridge of rocks between India

and Ceylon. —Samudrārtha (°ra-ar°), as, ā, am,

Ved. tending to the sea. —Samudropapluta (°ra-up°),

as, ā, am, inundated or submerged by the ocean. [ID=50377]

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)

the ocean

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)

1. The ocean. 2. An epithet of Shiva.

— Index to the Names in the Mahabharata

1. Personified oceans. 2. An epithet of Shiva.

— Index to the Names in the Mahabharata

The ocean that encircles Jambu Dvipa

— The Purana Index

1. The seven seas. 2. The source of the waters. 3. The lord of rivers. 4. The southern ocean sacred to the ancestors. 5. The residence of the Lord.

— The Purana Index

ocean

समुद्र (samudra) [Printed book page 2-431]
Sam-udra (literally ‘gathering of waters’), ‘ocean,’ is a

frequent word in the Rigveda and later. It is of importance in
Page2-432+ 60

so far as it indicates that the Vedic Indians knew the sea.

This is, indeed, denied by Vivien de Saint Martin,¹ but not

only do Max Müller² and Lassen³ assert it, but even Zimmer,⁴

who is inclined to restrict their knowledge of the sea as far as

possible, admits it in one passage of the Rigveda,⁵ and of

course later.⁶ He points out that the ebb and flow of the sea

are unknown, that the mouths of the Indus are never men-

tioned, that fish is not a known diet in the Rigveda (cf. Matsya),

and that in many places Samudra is metaphorically used, as of

the two oceans,⁷ the lower and the upper oceans,⁸ etc. In

other passages he thinks that Samudra denotes the river Indus

when it receives all its Panjab tributaries.⁹ It is probable that

this is to circumscribe too narrowly the Vedic knowledge of the

ocean, which was almost inevitable to people who knew the

Indus. There are references to the treasures of the ocean,¹⁰

perhaps pearls or the gains of trade,¹¹ and the story of Bhujyu

seems to allude to marine navigation.

That there was any sea trade with Babylon in Vedic times

cannot be proved: the stress Iaid¹² on the occurrence in the

Hebrew Book of Kings¹³ of qof and tukhiīm, ‘monkey’ (kapi)

and ‘peacock,’ is invalidated by the doubtful date of the Book

of Kings. There is, besides, little reason to assume an early

date for the trade that no doubt developed later, perhaps

about 700 B.C.¹⁴
Page2-433+ 52

In the later texts Samudra repeatedly means the sea.¹⁵
[Footnote: 1) Étude sur la géographie du Véda, 62

et seq. Cf. Wilson, Rigveda, 1, xii.]

[Footnote: 2) Sacred Books of the East, 32, 61

et seq., quoting Rv. i. 71, 7; 190, 7;

v. 78, 8; vii. 49, 2; 95, 2; x. 58.]

[Footnote: 3) Indische Alterthumskunde, 1^2, 883.]

[Footnote: 4) Altindisches Leben, 22 et seq. Cf.

Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, 143, 144.]

[Footnote: 5) vii. 95, 2.]

[Footnote: 6) Av. iv. 10, 4 (pearl shell); vi. 105, 3

(the outflow, vi-kṣara, of the ocean);

xix. 38, 2; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vii. 4,

13, 1, etc.]

[Footnote: 7) Rv. x. 136, 5. Cf. Av. xi. 5, 6.]

[Footnote: 8) Rv. vii. 6, 7; x. 98, 5.]

[Footnote: 9) See, e.g., Rv. i. 71, 7; iii. 36, 7;

46, 4; v. 85, 6; vi. 36, 3; vii. 95, 2;

viii. 16, 2; 44, 25; ix. 88, 6; 107, 9;

108, 16 (where reference is made to

streams); or Rv. i. 163, 1; iv. 21, 3;

v. 55, 5; viii. 6, 29, where land and

Samudra are contrasted.]

[Footnote: 10) Cf. Rv. i. 47, 6; vii. 6, 7; ix. 97, 44.]

[Footnote: 11) Cf. Rv. i. 48, 3; 56, 2; iv. 55, 6;

and the general parallelism of the

Dioscuri and the Aśvins.]

[Footnote: 12) E.g., by Weber, Indian Litera-

ture, 3.]

[Footnote: 13) 1. Kings x. 22.]

[Footnote: 14) See Kennedy, Journal of the Royal

Asiatic Society, 1898, 241-288; Bühler,

Indische Studien, 3, 79 et seq.; Indisehe

Palœographie, 17-19, who much exag-

gerates the antiquity of the traffic;

Vincent Smith, Early History of India,

25, n.]

[Footnote: 15) Taittirīya Saṃhitā, ii. 4, 8, 2;

vii. 5, 1, 2. It is described as unfailing

in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, v. 16, 7 (cf.

iii. 39, 7); it encircles the earth, ibid.,

viii. 25, 1. The eastern and western

oceans in Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 6, 3,

11 (cf. x. 6, 4, 1), though metaphorical,

probably indicate an acquaintance with

both seas, the Indian Ocean and the

Arabian Sea.

Cf. Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie,

3, 14-19; Pischel and Geldner, Vedische

Studien, 1, xxiii.]
[ID=3497]

— The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects

Ocean-Associated Concepts, Phenomena, and Entities

9 definitions

1. The sea-shore. 2. Nutmeg.

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. A crocodile. 2. A large fabulous fish. 3. Rama's bridge.

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

cuttle fish-bone

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

sea-faring

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. A sea trader. 2. A seaman or seafaring person.

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

a river

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

mekhala

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

the earth

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

see samudrama

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Proper Name (Deity, Being, Person, Author)

6 definitions

an epithet of Shiva

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

a Daitya

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

of various authors

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

the son of a merchant born on the sea

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

of other men

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

an epithet of Shiva

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Sealed or Stamped

6 definitions

having a stamp or seal

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

Sealed or stamped

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

sealed

— Macdonell Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Sealed with a seal

— Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary

sealed

— Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary

having a stamp or seal, stamped, or having marks

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)

Name of a Specific Entity (Place, Work, Metre, Sāman)

4 definitions

referenced in a work quoted by Padmanabha

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

of a place

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

an epithet of two Samans

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

of various metres

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

Names of Plants or Plant Products

4 definitions

the name of two plants

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

The plant zedoary.

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

The Shami tree

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. The cotton plant. 2. The earth.

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

A Numerical Value

3 definitions

The number four

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

an immensely high number

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

The number four

— Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary

A Large Soma Vessel

1 definition

a large Soma vessel

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

Astronomical or Astrological Configuration

1 definition

a particular configuration of the stars and planets when the seven planets are situated in the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth houses

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

Equivalent to Rukma (Gold/Bright Object)

1 definition

rukma

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

Specific Puranic Divine Association (Agni)

1 definition

Agni located in Brahmasthana

— The Purana Index

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Definitions on this page come from 14 works: Apte Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, Lanman's Sanskrit Reader Vocabulary, Macdonell Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872), Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary, The Purana Index, The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Yates Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Text from the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon.