Nita, Nīta, Ní tǎ: 23 definitions
Introduction:
Nita 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.
In Hinduism
Vastushastra (architecture)
Nīta (नीत) refers to “(that liṅga which was) taken away” (e.g., by a rat) which is mentioned as one of the possible causes for replacing a Liṅga, according to the section dealing with Jīrṇoddhāra (“renovation”) in verse 119cd-124 of the Prāyaścittasamuccaya of Trilocanaśiva: a 12th century Śaiva manual on expiations.—Accordingly, “If one’s own liṅga is dropped, destroyed, burnt, stolen or taken away (nīta) by a rat, kite, crow, dog or monkey, one will be purified after reciting one lakh of aghora, [and] after installing, according to the rules, another liṅga. And the same [rule] applies for the piṇḍikā. But if the liṅga falls from one’s hand into flowing or stagnant, in that case too one should recite [aghora] one lakh times and [the liṅga] requires re-inauguration. [...]”
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.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
Nita was a brahmin of Savatthi and joined the Order, believing that there he would find pleasure and comfort. He was lazy and indolent, but the Buddha, discerning his antecedents, admonished him, and Nita, developing insight, became an arahant. [...] In the time of Padumuttara Buddha he was a brahmin teacher named Sunanda. [...] One day, as he prepared a Vajapeyya sacrifice, the Buddha visited him and walked through the air above him. Sunanda threw flowers in the sky, and they formed a canopy over the whole town.
He became king thirty five times under the name of Abbhasa (v.l. Ambaramsa). Thag.vs.84; ThagA.i.180f. [...] He is probably identical with Puppachadaniya of the Apadana. Ap.i.166.
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).
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
Nīta (नीत) refers to “explicit (meaning)”, according to the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta (a collection of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras).—Accordingly, “What then, the son of good family, is memory (dhāraṇī)? [...] (9) knowledge of the entrance into understanding the scripture of explicit meaning (nīta-artha-sūtra); (10) knowledge of the entrance into understanding the scripture of implicit meaning; (11) knowledge of the teaching on the imperishable concealed truth; [...]
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.
Chinese Buddhism
泥塔 [ni ta]—Paste pagoda; a mediaeval Indian custom was to make a small pagoda five or six inches high of incense, place scriptures in and make offerings to it. The esoterics adopted custom, and worshipped for the purpose of prolonging life and ridding themselves of sins, or sufferings.
[The following represents an unverified English translation. For all purposes consult the original Chinese text.]
泥塔 [ni ta]—Mud Pagoda — [Term (術語 [shu yu])] Making small stupas with mud, placing scriptures (經文 [jing wen]) inside them, and offering (供養 [gong yang]) them. The Records of the Western Regions (西域記 [xi yu ji]), Chapter 9, states: "According to the Indian method, mud made from incense powder is used to create small stupas (率堵波 [lu du bo]) about five or six inches high, and written scriptures are placed inside them. These are called Dharma-sarira (法舍利 [fa she li]). When their number accumulates, a large stupa is built, and they are all gathered inside, with regular offerings made." Esoteric Buddhism (密教 [mi jiao]) has a method of offering for this, called Mud Pagoda Offering (供 [gong]). It is practiced for extending life (延命 [yan ming]) and eradicating sins (滅罪 [mie zui]).
泥塔—【術語】以泥土作小塔，中納經文而供養之。西域記九曰：「印度之法，香末為泥作小率堵波高五六寸，書寫經文以置其中，謂之法舍利也。數盈積建大率堵波，總聚於內常修供養。」密教有其供養法，謂之泥塔供。為延命滅罪而修之。
[shù yǔ] yǐ ní tǔ zuò xiǎo tǎ, zhōng nà jīng wén ér gōng yǎng zhī. xī yù jì jiǔ yuē: “yìn dù zhī fǎ, xiāng mò wèi ní zuò xiǎo lǜ dǔ bō gāo wǔ liù cùn, shū xiě jīng wén yǐ zhì qí zhōng, wèi zhī fǎ shě lì yě. shù yíng jī jiàn dà lǜ dǔ bō, zǒng jù yú nèi cháng xiū gōng yǎng.” mì jiào yǒu qí gōng yǎng fǎ, wèi zhī ní tǎ gōng. wèi yán mìng miè zuì ér xiū zhī.
[shu yu] yi ni tu zuo xiao ta, zhong na jing wen er gong yang zhi. xi yu ji jiu yue: "yin du zhi fa, xiang mo wei ni zuo xiao lu du bo gao wu liu cun, shu xie jing wen yi zhi qi zhong, wei zhi fa she li ye. shu ying ji jian da lu du bo, zong ju yu nei chang xiu gong yang." mi jiao you qi gong yang fa, wei zhi ni ta gong. wei yan ming mie zui er xiu zhi.
Chinese Buddhism (漢傳佛教, hanchuan fojiao) is the form of Buddhism that developed in China, blending Mahayana teachings with Daoist and Confucian thought. Its texts are mainly in Classical Chinese, based on translations from Sanskrit. Major schools include Chan (Zen), Pure Land, Tiantai, and Huayan. Chinese Buddhism has greatly influenced East Asian religion and culture.
In Jainism
General definition (in Jainism)
Nīta (नीत) refers to “(being) led” (by the king of time), according to the 11th century Jñānārṇava, a treatise on Jain Yoga in roughly 2200 Sanskrit verses composed by Śubhacandra.—Accordingly, “This world totters to the limit of the world of Brahmā with the fear of the beginning of a frown, and mountains immediately fall asunder by force of [the fact that] the earth is overcome by the weight of the heavy feet, of those heroes who are all led to death by the king of time (nīta—kālarājena sarve nītā vārtāvaśeṣaṃ) in [the space of] some days. Nevertheless, desire is intense only in a living being who is bereft of sense”.
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
nīta : (pp. of neti) carried; guided; inferred; led by.
Nīta, (pp.) (pp. of neti) led, guided; ascertained, inferred A. I, 60 (°attha); J. I, 262; II, 215 (kāma°); Nett 21 (°attha, natural meaning, i.e. the primarily inferred sense, opp. neyyattha); Sdhp. 366 (dun°). Cp. vi°. (Page 375)
1) nīta (နီတ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[yadicchā]
[ယဒိစ္ဆာနာမ်]
2) nīta (နီတ) [(ti) (တိ)]—
[nī+ta．(nīta-saṃ,ṇiṇīa-prā)]
[နီ+တ။ (နီတ-သံ၊ ဏိဏီအ-ပြာ)]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) nīta—
(Burmese text): (၁) ဆောင်အပ်သော။ (က) ဆောင်ယူအပ်သော။ (ခ) ထုတ်ဆောင်အပ်သော။ (ဂ) ဆောင်ရွှေအပ်သော။ (၂) တိုက်ရိုက်သိ-ယူ-ဟော-အပ်သော။
(Auto-Translation): (1) To be entrusted. (a) To be taken. (b) To be issued. (c) To be entrusted as a guarantee. (2) To be directly learned or understood.
2) nīta—
(Burmese text): (၁) နီတ အမည်ရှိသော ပစ္စေကဗုဒ္ဓါ၊ နီတ ဘုရားငယ်။ (၂) နီတ အမည်ရှိသော ပုဏ္ဏားလုလင်။ (၃) နီတ အမည်ရှိသော ထေရ်၊ နီတထေရ်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) The item known as Nita, Nita Buddha. (2) The item known as Nita, Nita Punnana. (3) The item known as Nita, Nita Thera.
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
nita (नित).—a & ad Properly nitya.
--- OR ---
nīṭa (नीट).—a (nīti) Straight, direct, not crooked. 2 fig. Right, proper, fit, suitable--things, actions.
--- OR ---
nīta (नीत).—a S Correct, well-behaved, moral, just. 2 p S Taken away, removed.
nīṭa (नीट).—a Straight, direct. Right, proper.
--- OR ---
nīta (नीत).—a Correct, well-behaved. Taken away, removed.
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
Nīta (नीत).—p. p. [nī-karmaṇi kta]
1) Carried, conducted, led.
2) Gained, obtained.
3) Brought or reduced to
4) Spent, passed away; नीतं जन्म नवीननीरजवने पीतं मधु स्वेच्छया (nītaṃ janma navīnanīrajavane pītaṃ madhu svecchayā) Bhramarāṣṭākam
5) Well-behaved, correct; see नी (nī).
-tam 1 Wealth
2) Corn, grain.
Nīta (नीत).—mfn.
(-taḥ-tā-taṃ) 1. Well behaved, correct, modest. 2. Gained, obtained. 3. Led, conducted. n.
(-taṃ) 1. Wealth. 2. Corn, grain. E. nī to get &c. aff. kta.
1) Nīta (नीत):—[from nī] 1. nīta mfn. (for 2. See 4. nī) led, guided, brought etc., [Ṛg-veda] etc. etc.
2) [v.s. ...] gained, obtained, [Horace H. Wilson]
3) [v.s. ...] well-behaved, correct, modest, [ib.]
4) [v.s. ...] n. wealth, corn, grain, [cf. Lexicographers, esp. such as amarasiṃha, halāyudha, hemacandra, etc.]
5) [v.s. ...] = nava-nīta, [Āpastamba-śrauta-sūtra]
6) [from nī] 2. nīta mfn. entered, gone or come to (mṛtyorantikam), [Ṛg-veda; Atharva-veda]
7) a nīti etc. See √nī.
Nīta (नीत):—[nī-ta] (taḥ-tā-taṃ) a. Taken, led; well behaved; gained. n. Wealth; corn.
Nīta (नीत):—
1) adj. s. u. 1. nī . —
2) n. a) Wohlstand. — b) Korn [ŚABDĀRTHAK. im Śabdakalpadruma -] [Trikāṇḍaśeṣa 3, 5, 21] wird ohne Angabe der Bed. nīta als neutr. und fem. (nītā) aufgeführt. — Vgl. asu, triṇītā, durnīta, navanīta, yuṣmā, su .
Nīta (नीत):——
1) Adj. Partic. von 1. nī. —
2) *n. — a) Wohlstand. — b) Korn.
Nīta (नीत) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit words: Ṇia, Ṇīṇia, Ṇīya.
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
Nita (नित):—(adv) every day, daily; —[nita] day-by-day, every day.
...
Kannada-English dictionary
Nīṭa (ನೀಟ):—
1) [adjective] measuring much from end to end in space or from beginning to end in time; not short or brief; long.
2) [adjective] measured from end to end rather than from side to side; long.
--- OR ---
Nīṭa (ನೀಟ):—
1) [noun] distance from end to end; length.
2) [noun] distance from the bottom to the tip; height.
3) [noun] that which is stretched out.
--- OR ---
Nīṭa (ನೀಟ):—[adjective] = ನೀಟು [nitu]2.
--- OR ---
Nīṭa (ನೀಟ):—[noun] = ನೀಟು [nitu]3.
--- OR ---
Nīta (ನೀತ):—
1) [adjective] guided; directed; advised.
2) [adjective] brought near or towards.
--- OR ---
Nīta (ನೀತ):—
1) [noun] that which is apt, fit, right or correct.
2) [noun] a small, black and round stone found in the river Gaṇḍaki, worshipped as a sacred form of Viṣṇu.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Nita (नित):—adv. always; regularly; constantly;
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.
Chinese-English dictionary
泥塔 [ní tǎ] refers to: “paste stūpa”.
泥塔 is further associated with the following language/terms:
[Vietnamese] nê tháp.
[Korean] 이탑 / itap.
[Japanese] デイトウ / deitō.
Chinese language.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Mi, Luo, Da, Ni, Ta.
Starts with (+10): Nita-karanem, Nita-thera, Nitabhikkhu, Nitacanam, Nitaccilaiccutam, Nitadakshina, Nitai, Nitaka, Nitakakalakkini, Nitakakaran, Nitakam, Nitakaranavala, Nitakatthera, Nitakibbisa, Nitakketu, Nitakora, Nitala, Nitalai, Nitalaikkotu, Nitalaksha.
Full-text (+172): Vinita, Apanita, Anita, Upanita, Abhinita, Navanita, Panita, Kuṇita, Anunita, Nirnita, Durnita, Manonita, Pranita, Nitam, Sunita, Unita, Parinita, Vyapanita, Asunita, Yushmanita.
Relevant text
Search found 82 books and stories containing Nita, Ní tǎ, Ni-ta, Nī-ta, Nīta, Nīṭa, Nítǎ, 泥塔; (plurals include: Nitas, Ní tǎs, tas, Nītas, Nīṭas, Nítǎs). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Taisho: Chinese Buddhist Canon
Part 135 - Discourse on Strong Men Trying to Move a Mountain < [Agama Section (Volume 1-2)]
Part 144 - Discourse on the Nirvana of Mahaprajapati < [Agama Section (Volume 1-2)]
Sutta 19: [0084a02] The story of the Buddha's Mind Dharani < [Part 154 - Jataka stories (translated by Dharmaraksha)]
Garga Samhita (English) (by Danavir Goswami)
Verse 6.10.5 < [Chapter 10 - In the Description of the Gomatī River, the Glories of Cakra-tīrtha]
Verse 5.2.21 < [Chapter 2 - The Killing of Keśī]
Verse 6.13.20 < [Chapter 13 - The Glories of Prabhāsa-tīrtha, the Sarasvatī River, etc.]
Brihad Bhagavatamrita (commentary) (by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyana Gosvāmī Mahārāja)
Verse 2.1.162 < [Chapter 1 - Vairāgya (renunciation)]
Verse 2.1.156 < [Chapter 1 - Vairāgya (renunciation)]
Verse 2.2.65-66 < [Chapter 2 - Jñāna (knowledge)]
Krishna Sandarbha of Jiva Goswami (by Kusakratha Prabhu)
Verse 125.1 < [Anuccheda 125]
Tilakamanjari of Dhanapala (study) (by Shri N. M. Kansara)
Appendix 5 - Index of Subhasitas in the Tilakamanjari
Appendix 3 - Index of verses in the Tilakamanjari
5.3. Karuna-rasa or the Pathetic sentiment < [Chapter 15 - The Tilakamanjari as a Prose Poetic work]
Sanskrit Inscriptions of Thailand (by Satya Vrat Shastri)