Nilaya: 22 definitions
Introduction:
Nilaya means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit, the history of ancient India, 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.
In Hinduism
Vastushastra (architecture)
Nilaya (निलय) is a Sanskrit technical term denoting a “residence” in general, according to the lists of synonyms given in the Mayamata XIX.10-12, the Mānasāra XIX.108-12 and the Samarāṅgaṇa-sūtradhāra XVIII.8-9, all populair treatises on Vāstuśāstra literature.
Vastushastra (वास्तुशास्त्र, vāstuśāstra) refers to the ancient Indian science (shastra) of architecture (vastu), dealing with topics such architecture, sculpture, town-building, fort building and various other constructions. Vastu also deals with the philosophy of the architectural relation with the cosmic universe.
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Nilaya (निलय) refers to “abode”, according to the Manthānabhairavatantra, a vast sprawling work that belongs to a corpus of Tantric texts concerned with the worship of the goddess Kubjikā.—Accordingly, “(The sacred seat) Oṃkāra is in the centre. It is white and is the supreme energy. Oḍikā, (the goddess who resides here) is the mother Carcikā (of this seat). [...] The gesture is Kārālyā and it sustains the Krama that is supreme (transcendent) and inferior (immanent) and the Samayā Raudra. The current is that of the Aged, the mother is Maṅgalā who removes the impurity of the Age of Strife. (This), the First Seat, is Śivahood. (This) is the sacred seat of the Rudra called Ucchuṣma. It is endowed with the most excellent Vaṭuka and the guardian of the field is called Vara. I praise the first sacred seat, the abode of many qualities [i.e., bahuguṇa-nilaya], divided into sixteen divisions”.
Shakta (शाक्त, śākta) or Shaktism (śāktism) represents a tradition of Hinduism where the Goddess (Devi) is revered and worshipped. Shakta literature includes a range of scriptures, including various Agamas and Tantras, although its roots may be traced back to the Vedas.
Yoga (school of philosophy)
Nilaya (निलय) refers to the “abode (of splendour)”, according to the according to the Amaraughaprabodha (6): a short 13th century treatise on Yoga attributed to Gorakṣanātha which teaches the fourfold system of yoga (Mantra, Laya, Haṭha and Rāja).—Accordingly, “That which causes the gains of the six acts [of magic] does not manifest through Mantra; the mind does not become immersed in the [space between] the eyebrows, [the tip of] the nose and so on, by some method †[like an insect]†; and the Yogins’ breath does not go into the base [of the spine] because of various practices, without the respected Rājayoga, which is an abode of splendour (prabhāva-nilaya) full of eternal bliss”.
Yoga is originally considered a branch of Hindu philosophy (astika), but both ancient and modern Yoga combine the physical, mental and spiritual. Yoga teaches various physical techniques also known as āsanas (postures), used for various purposes (eg., meditation, contemplation, relaxation).
In Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)
Nilaya (निलय) refers to the “abode (of strong essence)”, according to the Guru-maṇḍala-arcana [i.e., “Guru Mandala Worship]” ritual often performed in combination with the Cakrasaṃvara Samādhi, which refers to the primary pūjā and sādhanā practice of Newah Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhists in Nepal.—Accordingly, “The letter E shape, abode of strong essence (sāraśukra-nilaya), the womb space of the lotus, Therein the midst, a secret Vaṃ, a beautiful bowl, the origin of all one’s self, An abode of perfectly pure awakened omniscience, beautiful divine power, And I, innately pure, praise the highest pleasure, the innate heroic couple”.
Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayāna) are collected indepently.
In Jainism
General definition (in Jainism)
Nilaya (निलय) refers to the “abode (of the highest bliss)”, according to the 11th century Jñānārṇava, a treatise on Jain Yoga in roughly 2200 Sanskrit verses composed by Śubhacandra.—Accordingly, “The one who is doing good actions, whose conduct is pure, is engaged in external asceticism to such an extent and then there is the highest meditation which is abstaining from anything perceptible by the senses [and] resting in the self. He destroys the mass of karmas accumulated for a very long time which is sticking within then he is immersed in the ocean of knowledge which is the abode of the highest bliss (paramānanda-nilaya). [Thus ends the reflection on] wearing away karma”.
Synonyms: Āspada, Mandira, Geha, Gṛha, Sthāna.
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.
India history and geography
Nilaya.—(EI 9), cf. grāma-nilaya-nāḍa-sarva-bādhā-parihāreṇa; probably a territorial unit like a Parganā; the inhabited area of a district. Note: nilaya is defined in the “Indian epigraphical glossary” as it can be found on ancient inscriptions commonly written in Sanskrit, Prakrit or Dravidian languages.
The history of India traces the identification of countries, villages, towns and other regions of India, as well as mythology, zoology, royal dynasties, rulers, tribes, local festivities and traditions and regional languages. Ancient India enjoyed religious freedom and encourages the path of Dharma, a concept common to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
nilaya : (m.) home; lair; habitation; dwelling place.
Nilaya, (fr. ni+lī) a dwelling, habitation, lair, nest J. III, 454. (Page 371)
nilaya (နိလယ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ni+lī+ṇa．,ṭī．2va6．(nīlaya-saṃ,addhamāgadhī,ṇilaya-prā)]
[နိ+လီ+ဏ။ ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၂ဝ၆။ (နီလယ-သံ၊ အဒ္ဓမာဂဓီ၊ ဏိလယ-ပြာ)]
[Pali to Burmese]
nilaya—
(Burmese text): (၁) အိမ်။ (၂) အသိုက်။ (၃) ကျောင်း။ (ငှက်သိုက်၊ တည်းခိုရာအိမ် စရပ်,ကိုယ်တိုင် ရိုက်နှက်ခြင်း၊ စုစုပေါင်း,မြို့ဖျက်ခြင်း,ထားခြင်း။ အိမ်,နေရာ,တည်ရာ။ ပြာ၊ဓာန်)။
(Auto-Translation): (1) House. (2) Residence. (3) School. (bird nest, lodging, self-attack, aggregation, urban destruction, placement. House, place, location. White, energy).
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.
Sanskrit dictionary
Nilaya (निलय).—
1) A hiding place, the lair or den of animals, a nest (of birds); निलयाय शाखिन इवाह्वयते (nilayāya śākhina ivāhvayate) Śiśupālavadha 9.4.
2) A cellar; अम्बराख्याननिलयौ कण्ठदध्नं समन्ततः (ambarākhyānanilayau kaṇṭhadadhnaṃ samantataḥ) Parṇāl. (Two cellars known as Ambarakhānā.)
3) An abode, residence, house, dwelling; oft. at the end of comp. in the sense of 'living or residing in'; नित्यं निर्मूलयेयुर्निचिततरममी भक्तिनिघ्नात्मनां नः पद्माक्षस्याङ्घ्रिपद्मद्वयतलनिलयाः पां (nityaṃ nirmūlayeyurnicitataramamī bhaktinighnātmanāṃ naḥ padmākṣasyāṅghripadmadvayatalanilayāḥ pāṃ)सवः पापपङ्कम् ॥ --विष्णुपादाति स्तोत्रम् (savaḥ pāpapaṅkam || --viṣṇupādāti stotram) 1.
4) Hiding oneself; तस्मान्निलय- मुत्सृज्य यूयं सर्वे त्रिविष्टपम् । यात कालं प्रतीक्षन्तो यतः शत्रोर्विपर्ययः (tasmānnilaya- mutsṛjya yūyaṃ sarve triviṣṭapam | yāta kālaṃ pratīkṣanto yataḥ śatrorviparyayaḥ) || Bhāgavata 8.15.31.
5) Total destruction.
6) Setting, disappearance; दिनान्ते निलयाय गन्तुम् (dinānte nilayāya gantum) R.2.15. (where the word is used in sense I also).
Derivable forms: nilayaḥ (निलयः).
Nilaya (निलय).—m.
(-yaḥ) 1. A house, a habitation. 2. Abiding place, a den of animals. E. ni in, lī to embrace, affix ādhāre ac.
Nilaya (निलय).—i. e. ni-lī + a, m. A dwelling-place, a nest, a house, [Rāmāyaṇa] 2, 46, 3; 25, 45.
Nilaya (निलय).—[masculine] settling down, rest, repose; hiding-place, dwelling, abode, receptacle; [adjective] —° living or staying in.
1) Nilaya (निलय):—[=ni-laya] a etc. See ni-lī.
2) [=ni-laya] [from ni-lī] b m. rest, resting-place (cf. a-nil)
3) [v.s. ...] hidingor dwelling-place, den, lair, nest
4) [v.s. ...] house, residence, abode (often ifc. [f(ā). ] = living in, inhabiting, inhabited by), [Mahābhārata; Varāha-mihira; Kāvya literature] etc.
5) Nilāya (निलाय):—[=ni-lāya] [from ni-lī] m. place of refuge, [Atharva-veda iv, 16, 2.]
6) Nīlāya (नीलाय):—[from nīl] [Nominal verb] [Parasmaipada] [Ātmanepada] yati and te, to begin to become blue or dark-coloured, [Kādambarī] (cf. [Pāṇini 3-1, 13]).
Nilaya (निलय):—[ni-laya] (yaḥ) 1. m. A house.
Nilaya (निलय):—(von lī mit ni) m. [Vopadeva’s Grammatik 26, 171.]
1) das Sichverstecken: a sich nicht verbergend: anilayā cāpabhayā ca [Aitareyabrāhmaṇa 5, 25]; nach dem BRĀHMAṆA so v. a. nicht ruhend: anilayā tadvāyurnahyeṣa kadācana nilayati ebend. —
2) Versteck der Thiere, Wohnstätte, Residenz, Aufenthaltsort [Amarakoṣa 2, 2, 5. 3, 4, 24, 147.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 990.] [Halāyudha 2, 136.] aheḥ [Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka S. 53, 88.] kākasya [94, 50.] [Rāmāyaṇa 2, 46, 3.] [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 5, 20, 8.] [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 72, 21. 74, 6. 4, 58, 22. 5, 56, 64.] [Raghuvaṃśa 2, 15.] [Kathāsaritsāgara 15, 34.] [Rājataraṅgiṇī 3, 106.] [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 2, 7, 35. 3, 23, 16.] [Mārkāṇḍeyapurāṇa 18, 49.] sītā [Rāmāyaṇa 2, 25, 45.] hitvā prāsādanilayam [Mahābhārata 1, 4475.] laṅkā [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 3, 27 (21 Gorresio).] vila [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 5, 24, 19.] [Gītagovinda 11, 13.] Ein adj. comp. auf nilaya bedeutet a) seine Wohnung in habend, wohnend —, sich aufhaltend in: kailāsa [Mahābhārata 2, 275. 3, 827. 4, 2041.] [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 75, 26. 2, 45, 3. 3, 27, 13.] [Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka S. 69, 12.] [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 3, 16, 1. 6. 9, 44.] janānta [Suśruta 1, 204, 5.] āsanna 7. — b) wo der und der seine Wohnung hat, bewohnt von, eine Wohnstätte für seiend: sādhusiddha (sthāna) [Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka S. 50, 2.] khaga (taru) [52, 120.] madhu (taru) [57, 3.] bhūta (deva) [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 8, 1, 11.] [Vetālapañcaviṃśati] in [Lassen’s Anthologie 5, 4.] vaira (niṣāda) [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 2, 13.] pratāpa (mahīpati) [Geschichte des Vidūṣaka 2.] trivarga (ātman) [Pañcatantra III, 243.] f. āḥ dvārakāṃ vṛṣṇinilayām [Harivaṃśa 15062]; vgl. gandhanilayā . Wenn dieses f. nicht wäre, könnten die unter b aufgeführten Composita auch einfach in der Bed. die Wohnstätte von aufgefasst werden. nilaya [Bhartṛhari 1, 80] falsche Lesart für valaya .
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Nilaya (निलय):—
2) ayaṃ (das Meer) vārāmeko nilayaḥ der einzige Behälter für die Gewässer [Spr. 3573.]
Nilaya (निलय):—1. m. (adj. Comp. f. ā) —
1) Rast , Ruhe in a. —
2) Versteck der Thiere , Wohnstätte , Residenz , Aufenthaltsort , Behälter. Am Ende eines adj. Comp. — a) seine Wohnung habend — , wohnend — , sich aufhaltend in. — b) wo der und der seine Wohnung hat , bewohnt von , eine Wohnstätte seiend für. —
3) verwechselt mit valaya.
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Nilaya (निलय):—2. m. = niraya (so v.l. ) Hölle [Āpastamba’s Dharmasūtra]
Nilaya (निलय) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Ṇilaya.
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
Nilaya (निलय) [Also spelled nilay]:—(nm) abode, habitat; dwelling (place), nacelle.
...
Prakrit-English dictionary
Ṇilaya (णिलय) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Nilaya.
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
Nilaya (ನಿಲಯ):—
1) [noun] a building to live; a place where a person normally lives in; a house.
2) [noun] any of the eleven stages one has to go through to achieve the highest knowledge in Jainism.
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Niḷaya (ನಿಳಯ):—
1) [noun] a building to live; a place where a person normally lives in; a house.
2) [noun] any of the eleven stages one has to go through to achieve the highest knowledge in Jainism.
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: Laya, Mi, Ni, Li, Na.
Starts with: Nilayaikavritti, Nilayakanu, Nilayam, Nilayamari, Nilayami, Nilayampiti, Nilayana, Nilayanakrida, Nilayanakride, Nilayanam, Nilayashtika, Nilayasundara, Nilayati, Nilayavarai, Nilayavedi.
Full-text (+67): Kulayanilaya, Patalanilaya, Nilayam, Gandhanilaya, Yathanilayam, Shmashananilaya, Nilayasundara, Yoganilaya, Shatrunilaya, Anilaya, Adhonilaya, Vindhyanilaya, Shrikanthanilaya, Shatcakranilaya, Chattranilaya, Durejanantanilaya, Minanilayam, Shrinilaya, Naipathyanilaya, Sarvanilaya.
Relevant text
Search found 53 books and stories containing Nilaya, Ni-laya, Ni-lāya, Ni-li-na, Ni-lī-ṇa, Nilāya, Nīlāya, Ṇilaya, Niḷaya; (plurals include: Nilayas, layas, lāyas, nas, ṇas, Nilāyas, Nīlāyas, Ṇilayas, Niḷayas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Hari-bhakti-kalpa-latikā (by Sarasvati Thkura)
Text 1 < [Second Stabaka]
Brihad Bhagavatamrita (commentary) (by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyana Gosvāmī Mahārāja)
Verse 1.5.21 < [Chapter 5 - Priya (the beloved devotees)]
Verse 2.1.30 < [Chapter 1 - Vairāgya (renunciation)]
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 236 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 3]
Page 182 < [Hindi-English-Nepali (1 volume)]
Page 118 < [Hindi-Marathi-English Volume 2]
Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts (by Rajendralala Mitra)
Further sources of Vijayanagara history (by K. A. Nilakanta Sastri)
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Madras (by M. Seshagiri Sastri)
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