# स्पर्श (sparśa)

Canonical page: https://sanskritlexicon.com/word/sparsha

स्पर्श (sparśa) is a Sanskrit word meaning touching, touch or the sense of touch, contact, the twenty-five stop consonants from k to m, the quality of tangibility, feeling, sensation. Its 28 recorded definitions are grouped into 14 contexts, among them Touch, Contact, Sensation, Tangibility / Specific Tactile Qualities, Cross-Reference / Meta-Information.

- **Root:** स्पृश् (spṛś)
- **Etymology:** E. स्पृश् to touch, aff. घञ्; or स्पर्श् to take, &c., अच् aff — E. spṛś to touch, aff. ghañ; or sparś to take, &c., ac aff
- **SLP1:** `sparSa`  **IAST:** sparśa  **Devanagari:** स्पर्श
- **Wikipedia:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spar%C5%9Ba
- **Declensions:** 48 forms — https://sanskritlexicon.com/word/sparsha/declensions.md
- **Other headwords romanised the same way:** स्पर्शा (sparśā)

## Meanings by context

### Touch, Contact, Sensation (11 definitions)
- touching  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > (H2) [Printed book page 1269,1] स्पर्श (sparśa) b mfn. touching (in अ - भूतल - स्प् (a-bhūtala-sp) ° (°), मनः - स्प् (manaḥ-sp) ° (°), q.v. ) [ ID=256604 ]
- 1. Touch or the sense of touch. 2. Contact.  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) m. ( ifc. f( आ (ā) ). ) touch, sense of touch ( - तस् (-tas) ind., e.g. स्पर्श (sparśa)- तः सुखं तत् (sparśa-taḥ sukhaṃ tat), ‘that is pleasant to the touch’), contact ( fig. applied to the beginning of an eclipse or to any astron. contact), Mn.; MBh.; VarBṛS. &c. [ ID=256605 ]
- feeling, sensation  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > feeling, sensation ( e.g. सिरः - शूल - स्प् (siraḥ-śūla-sp) ° (°), ‘sensation of headache’), ŚBr. &c. &c. [ ID=256609 ]
- 1. Touching. 2. Touch, contact, or sensation. 3. The sense of touch. 4. A mute or nasal letter.  
  *Macdonell Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 367-2 ] स्पर्श (sparśa) sparś-á, a. ( —° ); [√spṛś] touching ( rare ); m. touch, contact; feeling, sensation, of ( —°, headache, jealousy ); pleasant feeling ( rare ); sense of touch; (contact =) mute or nasal letter ( gr. ); sts. incorr. for spaśa: -kliṣṭa, pp. painful to the touch; -kṣama, a. tangible. [ ID=20028 ]
- 1. Touch or contact. 2. The thing touching or feeling. 3. A gift or donation. 4. Sickness or disease. 5. Morbid heat. 6. A consonant of the first five classes of the alphabet. 7. An enemy, disease, or source of distress. 8. Air or wind. 9. An unchaste woman.  
  *Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) m. ( - र्शः (-rśaḥ) ) 1 Touch, contact. 2 The thing touching or feeling. 3 Gift, donation. 4 Sickness, disease. 5 Morbid heat. 6 A consonant of either of the five first classes of the alphabet. 7 An enemy, a disease, &c., the agent or instrument of pain, trouble, or distress. 8 Air, wind. f. ( - र्शा (-rśā) ) A wanton, an unchaste woman. E. स्पृश (spṛśa) to touch, aff. घञ् (ghañ). [ ID=43300 ]
- 1. Touch, the thing touching, air, gift, sickness, or cause of trouble. 2. A wanton woman.  
  *Yates Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 879-b ] स्पर्श (sparśa) ( र्शः ) ((rśaḥ)) 1. m. Touch, the thing touching; air; gift; sickness; cause of trouble. 1. f. A wanton woman. [ ID=43096 ]
- 1. Touching or contact. 2. Sexual union. 3. Collision or conflict. 4. Tangibility. 5. Feeling or sensation. 6. Anything that touches. 7. Sickness or fever. 8. Air or wind. 9. A class of consonants in Sanskrit grammar. 10. Contact in astronomy. 11. A presentation or gift. 12. A spy.  
  *Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 813-09 ] स्पर्श (sparśa) m. 1. Touching, touch, perception by touch, contact, तव स्पर्श (sparśa) े स्पर्श (sparśa) े मम हि परिमूढेंद्रियगणः (tava sparśe sparśe mama hi parimūḍheṃdriyagaṇaḥ) Ut. i.; 2. sexual union; 3. collision, conflict, encounter; 4. the quality of tangibility; 5. feeling, sensation; 6. anything which touches or comes in contact; 7. morbid affection or influence, disorder, sickness, fever; 8. air, wind; 9. a consonant of any of the five classes, ( कादयो मांताः स्पर्श (sparśa) ाः (kādayo māṃtāḥ sparśāḥ) Pan. ); 10. contact (in astronomy); 11. presentation, gift, donation; 13. a spy. [ ID=42318 ]
- 1. Touch or contact. 2. The agent of touch. 3. A gift. 4. Sickness or disease. 5. Morbid heat. 6. A plosive consonant. 7. An enemy or source of distress. 8. Air or wind. 9. Sexual union. 10. Collision or conflict. 11. Astronomical contact. 12. Tangibility. 13. Feeling or sensation. 14. A spy. 15. An unchaste woman.  
  *Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 815-b ] स्पर्श (sparśa) m. ( - र्शः (-rśaḥ) ) 1. Touch, contact. 2. The thing touching or feeling. 3. Gift, donation. 4. Sickness, disease. 5. Morbid heat. 6. A consonant of either of the five first classes of the alphabet. 7. An enemy, a disease, &c., the agent or instrument of pain, trouble, or distress. 8. Air, wind. 9. Sexual union. 10. Collision, conflict, encounter. 11. Contact, (in astronomy.) 12. The quality of tangitility. 13. Feeling, sensation. 14. Anything which touches or comes in contact. 15. A spy. f. ( - र्शा (-rśā) ) A wanton, an unchaste woman. E. स्पृश् (spṛś) to touch, aff. घञ्; (ghañ;) or स्पर्श (sparśa) ् (sparś) to take, &c., अच् (ac) aff. [ ID=45778 ]
- 1. Touch, feeling, contact. 2. Sexual intercourse. 3. Gift or donation. 4. The thing touching. 5. Air or wind. 6. An agent of pain. 7. Morbid heat. 8. A wanton woman.  
  *Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 1084-b ] स्पर्श (sparśa) sparśa, i. e. spṛś + a, I. m. 1. Touch, Vikr. 47, 12; feeling, Man. Page1085-a+ 41 1, 76; Vedāntas. in Chr. 208, 23; Bhāṣāp. 3; touching, Śāk. d. 27; Mālav. 29, 13; contact, Bhag. 2, 14. 2. Sexual intercourse, Rājat. 5, 401. 3. Gift, donation. 4. The thing touching. 5. Air, wind, Arj. 5, 14. 6. The agent of pain, as sickness ( Daśak. in Chr. 190, 19, śiras-śūla-, headache, or literally, ‘the perceiving as of a sharp spear in my head’). 7. Morbid heat. II. f. śā, A wanton woman. — Comp. Dus-, adj. 1. of diffi- cult or disagreeable touch, MBh. 13, 2109. 2. affecting disagreeably, Bhāg. P. 3, 17, 5 (of wind). Sama-, adj. literally, having the same contact, i. e. 1. wounding like, Chr. 39, 5. 2. the touching of which has the same effect, viz. to defile, Pañc. iii. d. 118. [ ID=16686 ]
- 1. Touching or penetrating. 2. Touch, contact, or the perception of feeling.  
  *Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 645 ] स्पर्श (sparśa) a. touching, penetrating (—°); m. touch, contact; perception of touch, feeling, sensation. Abstr. ° ता (°tā) † f., ° त्व (°tva) † n. [ ID=38629 ]
- 1. Touching or touch. 2. Sexual union. 3. Collision or conflict. 4. Tangibility. 5. Feeling or sensation. 6. Disease or fever. 7. Wind. 8. A consonant. 9. A gift or offering. 10. A spy. 11. A wanton woman.  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)*
  > [Printed book page 1151-a ] Sparśa, as, m. touching, touch, perception by touch, handling, contact; sexual union; collision, con- flict, encounter ( = sam-parāya ); the quality of tangi- bility (which is the Viṣaya for the skin; see sāṅ- khya ); feeling, sensation; anything which touches or comes in contact, (eleven such Sparśas are enume- rated, viz. 1. uṣṇa, hot; 2. śīta, cold; 3. sukha, pleasant; 4. duḥkha, painful; 5. snigdha, greasy; 6. viśada, clean; 7. khara, hard; 8. mṛdu, soft; 9. ślakṣṇa, smooth; 10. laghu, light; 11. guru, heavy); who or what affects or acts upon or in- fluences; affection, morbid affection or influence, any- thing the contact or influence of which causes pain or disease, disorder, sickness, fever; air, wind; a consonant of any of the five classes of Gutturals, Palatals, Cerebrals, Dentals, and Labials (so called be- cause the first four are pronounced by the contact of the tongue with the four places of utterance [see sthāna, spṛṣṭa ], throat, palate, top of palate, and teeth; the fifth class or labials being formed by contact of the lips); contact (in astron.); presentation, gift, donation, offering, ( kāka-sparśa, a particular cere- mony on the tenth day after a death, putting out a lump of rice as an offering for the crows); a spy (probably for spaśa, q. v.); ( ā ), f. a wanton or unchaste wo- man. —Sparśa-tanmātra, am, n. the subtile ele- ment of tangibility, (see sāṅkhya. ) —Sparśa-tā, f. a state of contact, touching. —Sparśa-maṇi, is, m. ‘touch-stone,’ a kind of stone (supposed to turn everything it touches to gold), the philo- sopher's stone. —Sparśamaṇi-prabhava, am, n. ‘touchstone-production,’ gold. —Sparśa-lajjā, f. ‘shrinking from touch,’ the sensitive plant, Mimosa Pudica. —Sparśa-vat, ān, atī, at, having tangi- bility, palpable; agreeable to the touch, smooth, soft. —Sparśa-varga, as, m. a class of consonants, (see under sparśa ). —Sparśa-vedya, as, ā, am, to be known or apprehended by the sense of touch. —Sparśa-śuddhā, f. ‘pure to the touch,’ the plant Asparagus Racemosus. —Sparśa-sukha, am, n. the pleasure of touch. —Sparśa-snāna, am, n. ablution at the ingress of the sun or moon into an eclipse. —Sparśa-syanda, as, m. a frog (also written sparśa-spanda ). —Sparśānandā (°śa-ān°), f. ‘touch-delighting,’ N. of an Apsaras. —Sparśodaya (°śa-ud°), as, ā, am, having a consonant succeed- ing, followed by a consonant. [ ID=53357 ]

### Tangibility / Specific Tactile Qualities (3 definitions)
- the quality of tangibility  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > (in phil. ) the quality of tangibility (which constitutes the skin's विषय (viṣaya), q.v. ), Indian Wisdom, by Sir M. Monier-Williams (Title) 68 [ ID=256607 ]
- a quality perceptible by touch such as heat, cold, smoothness, or softness  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > any quality which is perceptible by touching any object ( e.g. heat, cold, smoothness, softness &c.), MBh. &c. [ ID=256608 ]
- temperature  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > ( accord. to some) temperature, Nyāyad. [ ID=256613 ]

### Cross-Reference / Meta-Information (2 definitions)
- See page 1269  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > (H1) [Printed book page 1268,2] स्पर्श (sparśa) a, ° शन (°śana) &c. See p. 1269. [ ID=256548 ]
- See sparshana  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 1150-b ] स्पर्श (sparśa) sparśa, sparśana, &c. See p. 1151. [ ID=53332 ]

### Proper Name / Personification (2 definitions)
- touch  
  *Index to the Names in the Mahabharata*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 648-2 ] Sparśa (“touch”, personif.). § 270 (Brahmasabhāv.): II, 11, 438 ( Śabda-S°au, in the palace of Brahmán). [ ID=10011 ]
- a Tushita  
  *The Purana Index*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 3-720 ] Sparśa — a Tuṣita. Br. III. 3. 19; Vā. 66. 18. [ ID=16974 ]

### Air or Wind (1 definition)
- air or wind  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > air, wind, L. [ ID=256612 ]

### Gift or Offering (1 definition)
- a gift or offering  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > a gift, offering (see काक - स्प् (sp) (kāka-sp) ° (°) and स्प् (sp) ° (°)- यज्ञ (° (°)-yajña) below) [ ID=256615 ]

### Grammatical Term: Consonants (1 definition)
- the twenty-five stop consonants from k to m  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) m. (in gram. ) collective N. of the twenty-five consonants constituting the five classes from क् (k) to म् (m) (so-called because formed by complete contact of the organs of utterance; cf. स्थान (sthāna) and स्पृष्ट (spṛṣṭa) ), Prāt.; ChUp.; BhP. [ ID=256606 ]

### Meaning Unknown in Context (1 definition)
- A word of unknown meaning.  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > (a word of unknown meaning), Harivaṃśa (Title) 10243. [ ID=256618 ]

### Pleasant Sensation (1 definition)
- pleasant feeling  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > pleasant feeling, Mahābhārata (Title) v, 1366 [ ID=256610 ]

### Sexual Union (1 definition)
- a kind of sexual union  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > a kind of sexual union, L. [ ID=256614 ]

### Spy / Incorrect Reading for Spaśa (1 definition)
- a spy  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > w.r. for स्पश (spaśa), a spy, MBh.; Śiś. [ ID=256616 ]

### Unchaste Woman (sparśā) (1 definition)
- an unchaste woman  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > (H2B) [Printed book page 1269,1] स्पर्शा (sparśā) ( आ (ā) ), f. an unchaste woman, L. [ ID=256617 ]

### Unpleasant Sensation / Illness (1 definition)
- An unpleasant or morbid sensation, or illness.  
  *Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)*
  > unpleasant or morbid sensation, illness, Pāṇini (Author) iii, 3, 16, Vārtt. 1, Pat. [ ID=256611 ]

### Verbal Root Meaning (1 definition)
- 1. To take. 2. To unite or join.  
  *Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary*
  > स्पर्श (sparśa) [Printed book page 956 ] स्पर्श (sparśa) r. 10th cl. ( स्पर्श (sparśa) यति (sparśayati) ) 1 To take. 2 To unite, to join. [ ID=43299 ]

## Sources

Definitions from Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Index to the Names in the Mahabharata; Macdonell Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872); Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899); Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary; The Purana Index; Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary; Yates Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
Text from the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, University of Cologne.

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