Damsha, Daṃśa, Ḍaṃsa, Damsa: 25 definitions
Introduction:
Damsha means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit, Marathi, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
The Sanskrit term Daṃśa can be transliterated into English as Damsa or Damsha, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).
Alternative spellings of this word include Dansh.
In Hinduism
Purana and Itihasa (epic history)
Daṃśa (दंश).—The giant who took birth as the worm 'Alarkkaṃ'. This giant came in the shape of a beetle and pierced the leg of Karṇa, the disciple of Paraśurāma. Daṃśa once kidnapped the wife of Bhṛgu, and the hermit cursed the giant and turned him to a beetle. He also said that Parameśvara would absolve him from the curse. (See Karṇa, Para 4).
Daṃśa (दंश) refers to “mosquitoes”, according to the Rāmāyaṇa chapter 2.28. Accordingly:—“[...] soothening with kind words to Sītā, when eyes were blemished with tears, the virtuous Rāma spoke again as follows, for the purpose of waking her turn back: ‘[...] Oh, frail princess! Flying insects, scorpions insects including mosquitoes (daṃśa) and flies always annoy every one. Hence, forest is full of hardship’”.
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.
Ayurveda (science of life)
Toxicology (Study and Treatment of poison)
Daṃśa (दंश) refers to “snake-bites”, as taught in the Damśarūpa (“aspects of snake-bites”) section of the Kāśyapa Saṃhitā: an ancient Sanskrit text from the Pāñcarātra tradition dealing with both Tantra and Viṣacikitsā, which represents the Ayurvedic study on Toxicology (Agadatantra or Sarpavidyā).—The author of the Kāśyapasaṃhitā discusses conditions under which snakes bite, types of fangs and bites, vital spots of bite which can be fatal, stages of envenomation and astrological considerations for snake-bite effect.
The Kāśyapasaṃhitā details various types of bites (daṃśa):
- non-poisonous bite;
- poisonous and curable bites;
- impossible to cure;
- poisonous and curable bites;
- fatal bite;
The Kāśyapa Saṃhitā cites eight reasons that cause snake-bites which are—fear, intoxication, hunger, attack, pride, lack of dwelling, previous enmity and fate. The symptoms, soon after snake-bite range from stupor, confusion, delirium to deep coma with total extinction of conciousness and lack of sensibility to external impressions
Unclassified Ayurveda definitions
Daṃśa (दंश):—Biting
Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद, ayurveda) is a branch of Indian science dealing with medicine, herbalism, taxology, anatomy, surgery, alchemy and related topics. Traditional practice of Āyurveda in ancient India dates back to at least the first millenium BC. Literature is commonly written in Sanskrit using various poetic metres.
General definition (in Hinduism)
Daṃśa (दंश, lit., ‘biter’), ‘gad-fly’ is mentioned in the Chāndogya-upaniṣad (vi. 9, 3; 10, 2).
In Buddhism
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
Daṃśa (दंश) refers to “stinging insects” (causing crop destruction), according to the Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja, an ancient Buddhist ritual manual on agriculture from the 5th-century (or earlier), containing various instructions for the Sangha to provide agriculture-related services to laypeople including rain-making, weather control and crop protection.—Accordingly, [As the Bhagavān teaches an offering manual]: “[...] All crops, all flowers and fruits will be well protected. [...] All pests will be destroyed. Snakes, mice, mongooses, porcupines, goats, frogs, stinging insects (daṃśa), mosquitos (maśaka), locusts and so on, flocks of birds will perish. All worms will be destroyed. Furthermore, flying insects and so on do not occur. They are never able to destroy. [...]”.
Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.
In Jainism
General definition (in Jainism)
Daṃśa (दंश) refers to “stinging insects” and represents one of the hardships (parīṣaha), or “series of trials hard to endure” according to the Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra 10.1 (Incarnation as Nandana). While practicing penance for a lac of years, Muni Nandana also endured a series of trials hard to endure (e.g., daṃśa). Nandana is the name of a king as well as one of Mahāvīra’s previous births.
Jainism is an Indian religion of Dharma whose doctrine revolves around harmlessness (ahimsa) towards every living being. The two major branches (Digambara and Svetambara) of Jainism stimulate self-control (or, shramana, ‘self-reliance’) and spiritual development through a path of peace for the soul to progess to the ultimate goal.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
ḍaṃsa : (m.) a gadfly.
1) ḍaṃsa (ဍံသ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ḍaṃsa+a．ḍaṃsa ḍaṃsane,ḍaṃso,daṃsopi．ḍaṃsa khādane vā．,ṭī.645.]
[ဍံသ+အ။ ဍံသ ဍံသနေ၊ ဍံသော၊ ဒံသောပိ။ ဍံသ ခါဒနေ ဝါ။ ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၆၄၅။]
2) ḍaṃsa (ဍံသ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ḍaṃsa+a．ḍaṃsa ḍaṃsane,ḍaṃso,daṃsopi．ḍaṃsa khādane vā．,ṭī.645.]
[ဍံသ+အ။ ဍံသ ဍံသနေ၊ ဍံသော၊ ဒံသောပိ။ ဍံသ ခါဒနေ ဝါ။ ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၆၄၅။]
3) daṃsa (ဒံသ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[daṃsa+a dhātvattha 185]
[ဒံသ+အ ဓာတွတ္ထ ၁၈၅]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) daṃsa—
(Burmese text): (၁) ကိုက်-ခဲ-ဖြတ်-ဖျက်ဆီး-ခြင်း၊ (၂) မှက်၊ ယင်ကောင်၊ တောယင် (၃) ချပ်မိန်ညို၊ စစ်ဝတ်တန်ဆာ။ (ထက်မြက်-ပြင်းထန်- နာကျင်-ထိခိုက်-ထိုး-တုပ်-စူးရှ-မြွေကိုက်-သော၊ အရသာစူးရှခြင်း၊ မြင်းဇက် ကိုက်ဖြတ်ရာ သံချပ်အင်္ကျီ၊ စိတ်-ကြွ-ထိခိုက်-ခြင်း၊ အဆက်၊အဆစ်၊အပြစ်၊ p.s.d၊ စိန္တာမဏိ။ ခြင်၊ တောခြင်၊ မှက်၊ အဒ္ဓမာဂဓီ၊ ဓာန်။ ခြင်ကြီး အမရ၊သျ။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Biting, tearing, cutting, and destroying; (2) insects, pests, wild animals; (3) medicinal plants, military uniforms. (Venomous, intense, painful, harmful, piercing, striking, manifesting; distinct taste; a specific type of garment worn when riding; mental disruption; connection, link, guilt; p.s.d, diamond. Pests, wild pests, insects, botany, poison. Big pests, amara, etc.)
2) ḍaṃsa—
(Burmese text): (၁) မှက်၊ (၂) ကင်ယန်း၊ ယင်မမဲရိုင်း။ (၃) ကိုက်-ခဲ-သွေးစုတ်-တတ်သော သတ္တဝါ၊ ယင်မျိုး။ (၄) ကိုက်-ခဲ-ခြင်း။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Mosquito, (2) Canyon, insect; (3) A creature that can bite, stab, and draw blood, of the insect type. (4) Biting and stabbing.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Marathi-English dictionary
ḍaṃśa (डंश).—m (daṃśa S) The bite or sting of a venomous creature. v kara, māra. 2 fig. Rancour, malice, hate. v rākha, ṭhēva, dhara.
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ḍāṃsa (डांस).—m (daṃśa S through () A large stinging fly, a gadfly. 2 A mosquito. 3 or ḍāsa m C or ḍāsā m C A morsure or bite. v ghē. 4 The part bitten.
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daṃśa (दंश).—m (S) Stinging or biting. 2 A morsure or bite. 3 fig. The point or sting (of a speech or of an affair). 4 fig. Spite, malice, rancor. 5 fig. A perplexing passage (in a book). 6 A gadfly.
ḍaṃśa (डंश).—m The bite or sting of a venomous creature. Rancour, malice.
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ḍāṃsa (डांस).—m A large stinging fly, a gadfly. A mosquito.
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daṃśa (दंश).—a A bite. Stinging. Fig. Spite, malice, rancour. The point or sting (of a speech or an affair).
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Sanskrit dictionary
Daṃśa (दंश).—[daṃś-aca bhāve ghañ vā]
1) Biting, stinging; मुग्धे विधेहि मयि निर्दयदन्तदंशम् (mugdhe vidhehi mayi nirdayadantadaṃśam) Gītagovinda 1.
2) The sting of a snake.
3) A bite, the spot bitten; छेदो दंशस्य दाहो वा (chedo daṃśasya dāho vā) M.4.4; Uttararāmacarita 3.35.
4) Cutting, tearing.
5) A gad-fly; R.2.5; Manusmṛti 1.4; Y.3.215.
6) A flaw, fault, defect (in a jewel).
7) A tooth; प्रुत्युप्तमन्तः सविषश्च दंशः (prutyuptamantaḥ saviṣaśca daṃśaḥ)
8) Pungency.
9) An armour; शितविशिखहतो विशीर्णदंशः (śitaviśikhahato viśīrṇadaṃśaḥ) Bhāgavata 1.9.38.
1) A joint, limb.
Derivable forms: daṃśaḥ (दंशः).
Daṃśa (दंश).—m.
(-śaḥ) 1. A gadfly. 2. A tooth. 3. Biting, stinging. 4. Armour, mail. 5. Cutting, dividing, tearing. 6. Fault, defect. 7. A joint, a limb. 8. The sting of a snake. 9. Pungency. f. (-śī) A small gadfly. E. daṃś to bite or sting, affix ac, diminutive affix ṅīṣ .
Daṃśa (दंश).—[daṃś + a], m. 1. Biting, [Gītagovinda. ed. Lassen.] 10, 11. 2. Bite, [Mālavikāgnimitra, (ed. Tullberg.)] 47, 4. 3. A tooth, [Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, (ed. Burnouf.)] 5, 13, 3. 4. A gad-fly, [Mānavadharmaśāstra] 12, 62. 5. A coat of mail, [Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, (ed. Burnouf.)] 3, 18, 9. 6. A proper name, Mahābhārata 12, 93.
Daṃśa (दंश).—[masculine] biting, a bite or the spot bitten; gadfly; armour, mail.
1) Daṃśa (दंश):—[from daṃś] mfn. ‘biting’ See mṛga-
2) [v.s. ...] m. a bite, sting, the spot bitten (by a snake etc.), [Suśruta; Mālavikāgnimitra iv, 4 & 4/5, 3; Gīta-govinda x, 11; Kathāsaritsāgara lx, 131]
3) [v.s. ...] snake-bite, [Horace H. Wilson]
4) [v.s. ...] pungency, [Horace H. Wilson]
5) [v.s. ...] a flaw (in a jewel), [cf. Lexicographers, esp. such as amarasiṃha, halāyudha, hemacandra, etc.]
6) [v.s. ...] a tooth, [cf. Lexicographers, esp. such as amarasiṃha, halāyudha, hemacandra, etc.]
7) [v.s. ...] a stinging insect, gnat, gad-fly, [Chāndogya-upaniṣad; Manu-smṛti xii, 62; Yājñavalkya iii, 215; Mahābhārata] etc.
8) [v.s. ...] Name of an Asura, [xii, 93]
9) [v.s. ...] armour, mail, [Bhāgavata-purāṇa i, iii]
10) [v.s. ...] a joint of the body, [cf. Lexicographers, esp. such as amarasiṃha, halāyudha, hemacandra, etc.]
11) [from daṃś] cf. kṣamā-, vṛṣa-.
Daṃśa (दंश):—(śaḥ) 1. m. A gadfly; a tooth; a biting; a sting; a fault; pungency; mail. f. (śī) Small gadfly.
Daṃśa (दंश):—(von 1. daṃś)
1) m. a) Biss, die gebissene Stelle, = daṃśana [Medinīkoṣa] = khaṇḍana und bhujagakṣata [Hemacandra’s Anekārthasaṃgraha] = sarpakṣata [Trikāṇḍaśeṣa 3, 3, 427.] [VIŚVA im Śabdakalpadruma] [Suśruta 1, 40, 16. 2, 281, 17. 282, 6. 291, 19. 293, 19. 296, 18.] danta [Gītagovinda 10, 11.] kaṭhoradaṃśairmaśakaiḥ [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 5, 13, 3.] aviṣo pi kadāciddaṃśo (sarpasya) bhavet [Mālavikāgnimitra 47, 4.] chedo daṃśasya [62.] — b) = doṣa [Hemacandra’s Anekārthasaṃgraha] [VIŚVA.] Wohl Riss, Fehler in einem Edelstein u.s.w. — c) Zahn [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 584.] — d) Bremse [Amarakoṣa 2, 5, 27. 3, 1, 51.] [Trikāṇḍaśeṣa 2, 5, 33.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 1215.] [Anekārthasaṃgraha 2, 548.] [Medinīkoṣa śeṣa (s. II.). 6.] [Chāndogyopaniṣad 6, 9, 3.] daṃśamaśakam [Manu’s Gesetzbuch 1, 40. 45. 12, 62.] [Yājñavalkya’s Gesetzbuch 3, 215.] [Mahābhārata 18, 44.] [Rāmāyaṇa 2, 25, 16. 5, 34, 17.] [Suśruta 1, 67, 5.] [Raghuvaṃśa 2, 5.] [Pañcatantra III, 98.] [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 3, 30, 27. 31, 27. 7, 3, 18.] [Mārkāṇḍeyapurāṇa 15, 24.] — e) Harnisch (beissend so v. a. drückend, eng anliegend) [Trikāṇḍaśeṣa 3, 3, 427.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 766.] [Hemacandra’s Anekārthasaṃgraha] [Medinīkoṣa] kāñcanacitra [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 3, 18, 9.] viśīrṇa [1, 9, 39.] — f) Gelenk am Körper [Hemacandra’s Anekārthasaṃgraha] [VIŚVA im Śabdakalpadruma] Beruht viell. nur auf einer Verwechselung von marman mit varman . — g) Nomen proprium eines Asura [Mahābhārata 12, 93.] —
2) f. ī eine kleine Bremsenart [Amarakoṣa 2, 5, 27.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 1215.] — Vgl. kṣamādaṃśa, vṛṣa .
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Daṃśa (दंश):—
1) a) kiṃ tvasya rājño nākāle daṃśo deyastvayā du (eine Wanze wird angeredet) darfst aber den Fürsten nicht zur Unzeit stechen [Kathāsaritsāgara 60, 131. fg.] [?Z. 4 Bhāgavatapurāṇa 5, 13, 3] fasst der [Scholiast] daṃśa in der Bed. d. —
3) adj. beissend in mṛga. daṃśa [Mahābhārata 9, 2582] fehlerhaft für śaśa, wie die ed. Bomb. liest.
Daṃśa (दंश):——
1) Adj. beissend in mṛgadaṃśa. —
2) m. — a) Biss , die gebissene Stelle daṃśaṃ dā Jmd (Gen.) beissen , stechen (von einer Wanze). — b) *Riss , Fehler in einem Edelstein u.s.w. — c) *Zahn. — d) Bremse. — e) Harnisch. — f) *Gelenk am Körper. — g) Nomen proprium eines Asura. — h) [Mahābhārata 9,2582] fehlerhaft für śaśa. —
3) *f. ī eine kleine Bremsenart.
Daṃśa (दंश) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit words: Ḍaṃsa, Daṃsa.
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Hindi dictionary
1) Ḍāṃsa (डांस) [Also spelled dance]:—(nm) a kind of large-sized mosquito.
2) Daṃśa (दंश) [Also spelled dansh]:—(nm) a sting; bite, biting; ~[na] stinging, biting; [daṃśita] bitten, stung.
...
Prakrit-English dictionary
1) Ḍaṃsa (डंस) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Daṃś.
2) Ḍaṃsa (डंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Daṃśa.
3) Ḍaṃsa (डंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Daṃśa.
4) Daṃsa (दंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Darśa.
5) Daṃsa (दंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Daṃś.
6) Daṃsa (दंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Daṃśa.
7) Daṃsa (दंस) also relates to the Sanskrit word: Darśa.
Prakrit is an ancient language closely associated with both Pali and Sanskrit. Jain literature is often composed in this language or sub-dialects, such as the Agamas and their commentaries which are written in Ardhamagadhi and Maharashtri Prakrit. The earliest extant texts can be dated to as early as the 4th century BCE although core portions might be older.
Kannada-English dictionary
Daṃśa (ದಂಶ):—
1) [noun] the act of biting or stinging; a bite.
2) [noun] a kind of fly that bites; a gadfly.
3) [noun] a wound caused by biting.
4) [noun] a tooth or stinging organ.
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Daṃsa (ದಂಸ):—[noun] = ದಂಶ - [damsha -] 2.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Daṃśa (दंश):—n. 1. biting; stinging; 2. the sting of a snake, wasp, etc.; 3. a bite; the spot bitten; 4. a gad-fly;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches (+0): Damsha, A.
Starts with (+1): Damshabhiru, Damshabhiruka, Damshaccheda, Damshaceshta, Damshaceshtita, Damshadesha, Damshadvaya, Damshaka, Damshakarana, Damshaki, Damshakotha, Damshamashaka, Damshamula, Damshana, Damshanashini, Damsharupa, Damshavadana, Damshavadarana, Damshavedana, Damsheccha.
Full-text (+185): Datha, Dattha, Dasana, Upadamsha, Daka, Vidamsha, Purudamshas, Damshi, Vrishadamsha, Uddamsha, Adamsha, Mrigadamsha, Damse, Damsas, Damshamula, Damshabhiru, Vrikadamsha, Damsanta, Avadamsha, Damshamashaka.
Relevant text
Search found 36 books and stories containing Damsha, Daṃśa, Ḍaṃsa, Damsa, Ḍaṃśa, Ḍāṃsa, Daṃsa, Damśa, Damsa-a, Ḍaṃsa-a, Damsa-a, Ḍaṃsa-a, Damsa-a, Daṃsa-a; (plurals include: Damshas, Daṃśas, Ḍaṃsas, Damsas, Ḍaṃśas, Ḍāṃsas, Daṃsas, Damśas, as). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Nirukta and the Vedic interpretation (study) (by Shruti S. Pradhan)
Rig Veda (translation and commentary) (by H. H. Wilson)
Nighantu (critical study) (by Gopalakrishna N. Bhat)
Part 1 - Karmanāmāni (Karma Nama) < [Chapter 4 - Second Adhyaya (chapter) of the Nighantu (study)]
World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
Ayurvedic view of vrichika damsha and its ayurvedic management < [2017: Volume 6, October issue 12]
Review on lootha damsha lakshana and management w.s.r. to prayoga samucchayam < [2022: Volume 11, December issue 16]
Review of yogas for managing mandali damsa vrana per Kriyakaumudi. < [2023: Volume 12, December issue 21]
Yajnavalkya-smriti with Mitakshara and Viramitrodaya (by J. R. Gharpure)
Verses 3.214-215 < [Chapter 5 - On Penances (Prāyaścitta)]