Nigantha, Nigaṇṭha, Niganthā, Nigamtha, Ni-gantha: 8 definitions
Introduction:
Nigantha means something in Buddhism, Pali, Jainism, Prakrit. 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.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
The name given to the Jains, the followers of Nigantha Nataputta. Unlike the Acelakas, they wore one garment, a covering in front. But when praised for their modesty, they answered that their reason for wearing a garment was to prevent dust and dirt from falling into their alms dishes. For even dust and dirt are actual individuals and endowed with the principle of life (DhA.iii.489).
The chief precepts of the Nigantha are included in the catuyamasamvara - the fourfold restraint (for their beliefs and practices see Nigantha Nataputta). The chief centres of the Niganthas, in the time of the Buddha, seem to have been Vesali (e.g., J.iii.1; M.i.228) and Nalanda (M.i.371), though they had settlements in other important towns, such as Rajagaha (e.g., at Kalasila, on the slopes of Isigili, M.i.92).
The chief patrons of the Buddhas time were:
Sihasenapati in Vesali, Upaligahapati in Nalanda and Vappa the Sakyan in Kapilavatthu (AA.ii.751).The books contain several names besides that of Nataputta of distinguished members of the Nigantha Order - e.g., Digha Tapassi, and Saccaka, and also of several women, Sacca, Lola, Avavadaka and Patacara (J.iii.1).
The lay followers of the Niganthas wore white garments (M.ii.244).
In the Chalabhijati classification of Purana Kassapa, the Ekasataka Niganthas occupied the third rank, the red (A.iii.384). The Buddha condemned the Niganthas as unworthy in ten respects:
they were without faith, unrighteous, without fear and shame, they chose wicked men as friends, extolled themselves and disparaged others, were greedy of present gain, obstinate, untrustworthy, sinful in their thoughts, and held wrong views (A.v.150).Their fast resembled a herdsman looking after the kine by day, which were restored to their owners at eventide (Ibid., i.205f). The Niganthas were so called because they claimed to be free from all bonds (amhakam ganthanakileso palibujjhanakileso natthi, kilesaganthirahita mayan ti evam vaditaya laddhanamavasena Nigantho) (E.g., MA.i.423).
The Buddhist books record (M.ii.243f.; D.iii.117, 210) that there was great dissension among the Niganthas after the death of Nataputta at Pava. The Commentaries state (DA.iii.906; MA.ii.831) that Nataputta, realizing on his death bed the folly and futility of his teaching, wished his followers to accept the Buddhas teaching In order to bring this about, he taught his doctrine in two different ways to two different pupils, just before his death. To the one he said that his teaching was Nihilism (uccheda), and to the other that it was Eternalism (sassata). As a result, they quarrelled violently among themselves, and the Order broke up.
That the Niganthas lasted till, at least, the time of Nagasena,
Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).
In Jainism
General definition (in Jainism)
Nigaṇṭha (निगण्ठ) or Niyaṇṭha or Nirgrantha refers to a Jain monk or ascetic (i.e., a follower of Mahāvīra).
Nigaṇṭha (निगण्ठ) is clearly recognized as a Jain term is shown by the etymological explanation occasionally recorded in the Pāli commentaries, an etymology which is ascribed to the Jains and actually attested in their own tradition: “we do not have defilements which are like knots, we are free of the defilements of obstruction, hence the name Nigaṇṭha”. This statement accords with Jain texts, where the traditional image of the spiritual “knots” (already known from several Upanișads) is felt as being conveyed by the word ṇiggantha in the commentaries. Thus Pāli sources do not seem to bear trace of any malicious or derogatory interpretation of the term. The fact that nigaṇṭha is used as the normal designation of Jain ascetics in the oldest Jain sources (Śramaṇic poetry as well as disciplinary books) confirms its antiquity. The phonetic aspect of the word (nigaṇṭha, with a single -ga-, and the prefix ni- instead of nir-) are supported by Prakrit niyaṇṭha and also point to an old form.
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
nigaṇṭha : (m.) a member of the Jain Order. Naked ascetic.
Nigaṇṭha, (BSk. nirgrantha (Divy 143, 262 etc.) “freed from all ties, ” nis+gaṇṭhi. This is the customary (correct?) etym. Prk. niggantha, cp. Weber, Bhagavatī p. 165) a member of the Jain order (see M. I, 370—375, 380 & cp. jaṭila) Vin. I, 233 (Nātaputta, the head of that Order, cp. D. I, 57; also Sīho senāpati n-sāvako); S. I, 78, 82 (°bhikkhā); A. I, 205 sq. (°uposatha), cp. 220; II, 196 (°sāvaka); III, 276, 383; V, 150 (dasahi asaddhammehi samannāgata); Sn. 381; Ud. 65 (jaṭilā, n. , acelā, ekasātā, paribbājakā); J. II, 262 (object to eating flesh); DA. I, 162; DhA. I, 440; III, 489; VvA. 29 (n. nāma samaṇajāti).—f. nigaṇṭhī D. I, 54 (nigaṇṭhi-gabbha). (Page 354)
1) nigantha (နိဂန္ထ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ni+gaṇṭha(gantha),ni+gantha+a．nthaṇṭhapru．thīnitea nigaṇṭhī．(nigrantha-saṃ,ṇiaṃṭha,ṇiggaṃṭha-prā)]
[နိ+ဂဏ္ဌ(ဂန္ထ)၊နိ+ဂန္ထ+အ။န္ထကိုဏ္ဌပြု။ ထီ၌ နိဂဏ္ဌီ။ (နိဂြန္ထ-သံ၊ ဏိအံဌ၊ဏိဂ္ဂံဌ-ပြာ)]
2) nigaṇṭha (နိဂဏ္ဌ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ni+gaṇṭha(gantha),ni+gantha+a．nthaṇṭhapru．thīnitea nigaṇṭhī．(nigrantha-saṃ,ṇiaṃṭha,ṇiggaṃṭha-prā)]
[နိ+ဂဏ္ဌ(ဂန္ထ)၊နိ+ဂန္ထ+အ။န္ထကိုဏ္ဌပြု။ ထီ၌ နိဂဏ္ဌီ။ (နိဂြန္ထ-သံ၊ ဏိအံဌ၊ဏိဂ္ဂံဌ-ပြာ)]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) nigantha—
(Burmese text): မူရင်းကြည့်ပါ။
(Auto-Translation): Please check the original.
2) nigaṇṭha—
(Burmese text): မူရင်းကြည့်ပါ။
(Auto-Translation): Please look at the original.
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.
Kannada-English dictionary
Nigaṃṭha (ನಿಗಂಠ):—[noun] a male religious monk of Jainism who is completely unclothed.
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)
Partial matches: Mi, Gantha, Ni.
Starts with: Nigantha Nataputta, Nigantha Uposatha, Niganthacaritta, Niganthapabbajja, Niganthaparisa, Niganthaputta, Nigantharama, Niganthasamana, Niganthasamaya, Niganthasavaka, Niganthasutta, Niganthavada, Niganthavatthu, Niganthupatthaka, Nigganthi.
Full-text (+114): Niganthaparisa, Niganthasamana, Niganthasutta, Niganthapabbajja, Niganthasavaka, Niganthupatthaka, Addhapalakanigantha, Niganthacaritta, Nagganiganthadisamana, Nigganthika, Nigantha Nataputta, Nigantharama, Niganthavatthu, Niganthasamaya, Nigantha Uposatha, Ruo ti zi, Sankha Sutta, Pandukabhaya, Ajatasatru, Mahanigantha.
Relevant text
Search found 38 books and stories containing Nigantha, Ni-gantha, Ni-gaṇṭha, Nigamtha, Ṇigaṃṭha, Nigaṃṭha, Nigaṇṭha, Niganthā, Ṇigaṇṭha; (plurals include: Niganthas, ganthas, gaṇṭhas, Nigamthas, Ṇigaṃṭhas, Nigaṃṭhas, Nigaṇṭhas, Niganthās, Ṇigaṇṭhas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Uttaradhyayana Sutra (by Hermann Jacobi)
Taisho: Chinese Buddhist Canon
Scroll 32 - Part 133: Upāli-sutta < [Part 26 - Middle Length Discourses]
Scroll 4b - Part 19: Devadaha-sutta < [Part 26 - Middle Length Discourses]
Sutta 110: Saccaka the Nigantha < [Part 99 - Samyukta-Agama (Connected Discourses)]
Vinaya (2): The Mahavagga (by T. W. Rhys Davids)
Mahavagga, Khandaka 6, Chapter 31 < [Khandaka 6 - On Medicaments]
Dhammapada (Illustrated) (by Ven. Weagoda Sarada Maha Thero)
Verse 316-317 - The Story of A Group of Bad Ascetics < [Chapter 22 - Niraya Vagga (Hell)]
Verse 318-319 - The Story of the Disciples of Non-Buddhist Teachers < [Chapter 22 - Niraya Vagga (Hell)]
Verse 53 - The Story of Visākhā < [Chapter 4 - Puppha Vagga (Flowers)]
Maha Buddhavamsa—The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
Abhaya Rājakumāra Sutta in Brief < [Chapter 42 - The Dhamma Ratanā]
Part 2 - The Sandal-Wood Bowl < [Chapter 24 - The Buddha’s Sixth Vassa at Mount Makula]
Aṭṭhanga Uposatha Sīla (The Eight-Precept Observance) < [Chapter 6 - On Pāramitā]
Guide to Tipitaka (by U Ko Lay)
Part I - Devadaha Vagga < [(c) Uparipannasa Pali]
Part I - Gahapati Vagga < [(b) Majjihma Pannasa Pali]
(d) Salayatana Vagga Samyutta Pali < [Chapter VI - Samyutta Nikaya]