The Sanskrit term Cañcalākṣī can be transliterated into English as Cancalaksi or Cancalakshi, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).

Alternative spellings of this word include Chanchalakshi.

In Hinduism

Chandas (prosody, study of Sanskrit metres)

Source: Shodhganga: a concise history of Sanskrit Chanda literature

Cañcalākṣī (चञ्चलाक्षी) is the name of a Sanskrit metre (chandas) to which Hemacandra (1088-1173 C.E.) assigned the alternative name of Pramudita-vadanā in his auto-commentary on the second chapter of the Chandonuśāsana. Hemacandra gives these alternative names for the metres by other authorities (like Bharata), even though the number of gaṇas or letters do not differ.

context information

Chandas (छन्दस्) refers to Sanskrit prosody and represents one of the six Vedangas (auxiliary disciplines belonging to the study of the Vedas). The science of prosody (chandas-shastra) focusses on the study of the poetic meters such as the commonly known twenty-six metres mentioned by Pingalas.

Purana and Itihasa (epic history)

Source: archive.org: Puranic Encyclopedia

1) Cañcalākṣī (चञ्चलाक्षी).—A notorious harlot who lived in dvāpara yuga. When one day at midnight she came to the appointed place to meet a paramour the latter had not arrived. While waiting impatiently there she was attacked and killed by a leopard. Emissaries of Viṣṇu as also of Yama arrived to carry away the soul of Cañcalākṣī. Yama’s men argued that she had sinned throughout her life, and therefore claimed the harlot’s soul. But the emissaries of Visṇu countered the argument thus: "once on her way to conduct her trade Cañcalākṣī got into a temple and munched tāmbūla in the course of which she rubbed some lime on the walls of the temple. Taking into consideration this fact of her having spent sometime thus to clean the temple wall her soul deserves to be led to Viṣṇuloka".

In the argument the emissaries of Yama were defeated and the soul of Cañcalākṣī was taken to Vaikuṇṭha by the emissaries of Viṣṇu. (Padma Purāṇa, Chapter 6).

2) Cañcalākṣī (चञ्चलाक्षी).—A vidyādhara girl. Once while she was concentrating her mind in prayer over Mahālaksmī, Rāvaṇa, King of the Rākṣasas, committed rape on her, and she cursed him that he should die on account of Mahālakṣmī herself and accordingly at last he was killed by Rāma on account of Sītā, the incarnation of Mahālakṣmī. (Kaṃpa Rāmāyaṇa).

context information

The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences. The eighteen mahapuranas total over 400,000 shlokas (metrical couplets) and date to at least several centuries BCE.

Languages of India and abroad

Kannada-English dictionary

Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpus

Caṃcalākṣi (ಚಂಚಲಾಕ್ಷಿ):—

1) [noun] a woman who habitually keeps looking this side or that side or who cannot focus her eyes or the mind on something for long.

2) [noun] a woman in general.

context information

Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Starts with: Cancalakshika.

Full-text: Cancalakshika, Pramuditavadana, Vajrabahu.

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Search found 1 books and stories containing Cancalakshi, Cañcalākṣī, Cancalaksi, Camcalakshi, Caṃcalākṣi, Cañcalākṣi, Cancalākṣi, Camcalaksi; (plurals include: Cancalakshis, Cañcalākṣīs, Cancalaksis, Camcalakshis, Caṃcalākṣis, Cañcalākṣis, Cancalākṣis, Camcalaksis). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:

Puranic encyclopaedia (by Vettam Mani)

Story of Sahasramukharāvaṇa

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