Nupura, Nūpura: 26 definitions
Introduction:
Nupura means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, 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.
Alternative spellings of this word include Nupur.
Images (photo gallery)
In Hinduism
Natyashastra (theatrics and dramaturgy)
1) Nūpura (नूपुर).—One of the 108 karaṇas (minor dance movement) mentioned in the Nāṭyaśāstra chapter 4. The instructions for this nūpura-karaṇa is as follows, “the Trika to be gracefully turned round, [in the Bhramarī Cārī] the two hands to show respectively Latā and Recita gestures, and the Nūpurapāda Cārī with the feet.”.
A karaṇa represents a minor dance movements and combines sthāna (standing position), cārī (foot and leg movement) and nṛttahasta (hands in dancing position).
2) Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to a type of ornament (ābharaṇa) for the ankels (gulpha) to be worn by females, according to Nāṭyaśāstra chapter 23. Nūpura is classified as an prakṣepya, or “ornaments that are to be worn”. Such ornaments for females should be used in cases of human females and celestial beings (gods and goddesses).
Ābharaṇa (‘ornaments’, eg., kalāpa) is a category of alaṃkāra, or “decorations”, which in turn is a category of nepathya, or “costumes and make-up”, the perfection of which forms the main concern of the Āhāryābhinaya, or “extraneous representation”, a critical component for a successful dramatic play.
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to one of the 108 kinds of Karaṇa (“coordination of precise movements of legs and hands”), according to the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, an ancient Sanskrit text which (being encyclopedic in nature) deals with a variety of cultural topics such as arts, architecture, music, grammar and astronomy.—According to the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, karaṇas are the coordination of precise movements of legs and hands performed in a particular posture. The Nāṭyaśāstra also gives its view point in the same spirit. In the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa, one hundred and eight kinds of karaṇas are accepted, e.g., Nūpura.
Natyashastra (नाट्यशास्त्र, nāṭyaśāstra) refers to both the ancient Indian tradition (shastra) of performing arts, (natya—theatrics, drama, dance, music), as well as the name of a Sanskrit work dealing with these subjects. It also teaches the rules for composing Dramatic plays (nataka), construction and performance of Theater, and Poetic works (kavya).
Shilpashastra (iconography)
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to an “anklet” and represents a type of “ornaments of leg” (padabhūṣaṇa), as defined in treatises such as the Pāñcarātra, Pādmasaṃhitā and Vaikhānasa-āgamas, extensively dealing with the technical features of temple art, iconography and architecture in Vaishnavism.—The ornaments for the legs and feet are common in Indian sculptures as well in day-to-day life. Bharata (cf. Nāṭyaśāstra 23.38-39) mentions some of the ornaments [viz. nūpura (anklet) for the upper part of the ankle (gulpha)].
Shilpashastra (शिल्पशास्त्र, śilpaśāstra) represents the ancient Indian science (shastra) of creative arts (shilpa) such as sculpture, iconography and painting. Closely related to Vastushastra (architecture), they often share the same literature.
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to “anklets” and is used to visualize Bhairava, 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, “[...] His body is adorned on the left (by his consort) and he is adorned with a garland of wild flowers. He wears earrings made of snakes and his sacred thread is Vāsuki. The Lord is adorned with tinkling anklets [i.e., kiṅkiṇī-dhāra-nūpura] and sits on a ghost in the lotus posture. He is adorned with the five insignia and a garland of severed heads that hangs from his neck up to his feet. He dances with the bliss of wine and is accompanied by heroes and Bhairavas. Sixty-four Yoginīs and great mothers encompass him. He is endowed with sixty-four energies and adorned with ghosts and demons. O Śambhu, Bhairava is said to have as his seat (āsana) the Supreme Goddess”.
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to “(decorative) anklets”, according to the King Vatsarāja’s Pūjāstuti called the Kāmasiddhistuti (also Vāmakeśvarīstuti), guiding one through the worship of the Goddess Nityā.—Accordingly, “[...] She has braided hair. Her limbs are adorned with bracelets, earrings, necklaces, twining laces, girdles, jewels, and anklets (nūpura). Her clothes resemble Bandhūka flowers. She is full of affection, and the hue of her body is brightened up with saffron and sandal paste.. [...]”.
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.
Shaivism (Shaiva philosophy)
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to “anklets”, according to the Śrīmatottara-tantra, an expansion of the Kubjikāmatatantra: the earliest popular and most authoritative Tantra of the Kubjikā cult. Accordingly, “O goddess, Svacchanda is in the middle, within the abode of the triangle. Very powerful, he has five faces with three times five flaming eyes. He has ten arms and, very fierce, is adorned with many garlands, ornaments, necklaces and anklets [i.e., hāra-nūpura-maṇḍita]. He has beautiful matted hair and the half moon is his crest jewel. O beloved, the face in the east is white like cow’s milk, it shines brilliant white. Generating great energy, contemplate it thus. One should think that the northern face is like the young rising sun, the form of a pomegranate flower and (red) like a Bandhūka”.
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to a “woman’s anklet”, according to the Guhyasūtra chapter 9.—Accordingly, “[...] [The Lord spoke]:—[...] On one half, there should be a forehead mark; on one half a [forehead] eye. A ring [should be] in one ear; a [pendant] ear-ornament in one ear. He should put a trident in his right hand and a breast on his left side, a girdle on the left half, a bangle on the left arm, a woman’s anklet (nūpura) on the left leg, a man’s anklet on the right leg and a muñja-grass belt. At the hips, he should put a loin-cloth on the right and wear a woman’s garment on the left.”.
Shaiva (शैव, śaiva) or Shaivism (śaivism) represents a tradition of Hinduism worshiping Shiva as the supreme being. Closely related to Shaktism, Shaiva literature includes a range of scriptures, including Tantras, while the root of this tradition may be traced back to the ancient Vedas.
Vedanta (school of philosophy)
Nūpura (नूपुर) refers to “anklets” (used in a simile to indicate the absence of distinctions regarding one’s true self), according to the Aṣṭāvakragītā (5th century BC), an ancient text on spirituality dealing with Advaita-Vedānta topics.—Accordingly, [as Aṣṭavakra says to Janaka]: “[...] Whatever you see, it is you alone manifest in it. How could bracelets, armlets and anklets (nūpura) be different from the gold? [kiṃ pṛthagbhāsate svarṇātkaṭakāṅgadanūpuram] Giving up such distinctions as ‘This is what I am’, and ‘I am not that’, recognise that ‘Everything is myself’, and be without distinction and happy. It is through your ignorance that all this exists. In reality you alone exist. Apart from you there is no one within or beyond Saṃsāra. [...]”.
Vedanta (वेदान्त, vedānta) refers to a school of orthodox Hindu philosophy (astika), drawing its subject-matter from the Upanishads. There are a number of sub-schools of Vedanta, however all of them expound on the basic teaching of the ultimate reality (brahman) and liberation (moksha) of the individual soul (atman).
In Buddhism
General definition (in Buddhism)
Nūpura (नूपुर) is the name of an ancient king from the Solar dynasty (sūryavaṃśa) and a descendant of Mahāsaṃmata, according to the Dulva (the Tibetan translation of the Vinaya of the Sarvāstivādins). Nūpura is known as Nipuṇa according to the Dīpavaṃśa and the Mahāvaṃśa. Nūpura is known as Nipura according to the Mahāvastu chapter II.32 of the Mahāsaṃghikas (and the Lokottaravāda school).
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
nūpura : (nt.) anklet.
Nūpura, (Sk. nūpura; Non-Aryan. Cp. Prk. ṇeura & nīdhura (nīyura)) an ornament for the feet, an anklet Th. 2, 268; DA. I, 50. Ne, Nesan see na3. (Page 376)
1) nupura (နုပုရ) [(pu,na) (ပု၊န)]—
[uīna+pūra (=pūra+ṇa)．uīnaṃ pādaṃ pūretīti nūpuro．vaṇṇavipariyāyo．,ṭī．288．(ṇiura-ṇūura-prā)]
[ဦန+ပူရ (=ပူရ+ဏ)။ ဦနံ ပါဒံ ပူရေတီတိ နူပုရော။ ဝဏ္ဏဝိပရိယာယော။ ဓာန်၊ ဋီ။ ၂၈၈။ (ဏိဥရ-ဏူဥရ-ပြာ)]
2) nūpura (နူပုရ) [(pu,na) (ပု၊န)]—
[uīna+pūra (=pūra+ṇa)．uīnaṃ pādaṃ pūretīti nūpuro．vaṇṇavipariyāyo．,ṭī．288．(ṇiura-ṇūura-prā)]
[ဦန+ပူရ (=ပူရ+ဏ)။ ဦနံ ပါဒံ ပူရေတီတိ နူပုရော။ ဝဏ္ဏဝိပရိယာယော။ ဓာန်၊ ဋီ။ ၂၈၈။ (ဏိဥရ-ဏူဥရ-ပြာ)]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) nupura—
(Burmese text): (၁) ခြေကျင်၊ ခြေ၌ ဝတ်ဆင်အပ်သော တန်ဆာ။ (၂) လက်ကောက်၊ (သစ်ပင်းအထူး,ခြေတန်ဆာ,ခြေကျင်။ ပြာ၊ ဓာန်း)။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Footwear, items worn on the feet. (2) Accessories for the hands, specifically made from wood, footwear accessories, and foot coverings.
2) nūpura—
(Burmese text): (၁) ခြေကျင်၊ ခြေ၌ ဝတ်ဆင်အပ်သော တန်ဆာ။ (၂) လက်ကောက်၊ (သစ်ပင်းအထူး,ခြေတန်ဆာ,ခြေကျင်။ ပြာ၊ ဓာန်း)။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Footwear, accessories worn on the feet. (2) Handbag (special for handbags, footwear, and footwear accessories).
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
nūpura (नूपुर).—m n (S) An ornament for the feet (of females and children).
nūpura (नूपुर).—m n An ornament for the feet.
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
Nūpura (नूपुर).—An anklet, ornament for the feet; न हि चूडामणिः पादे नूपुरं मूर्ध्नि धार्यते (na hi cūḍāmaṇiḥ pāde nūpuraṃ mūrdhni dhāryate) H.2.71; गूढा नूपुरशब्दमात्रमपि मे कान्ता श्रुतौ पातयेत् (gūḍhā nūpuraśabdamātramapi me kāntā śrutau pātayet) V.3.15.
Derivable forms: nūpuraḥ (नूपुरः), nūpuram (नूपुरम्).
Nūpura (नूपुर).—mn.
(-raḥ-raṃ) An ornament for the toes and feet. E. ṇu to praise or be praised, aff. kvip; or nū an ornament, pur to precede, aff. ka.
Nūpura (नूपुर).—m. and n. An ornament for the ancles or toes, [Rāmāyaṇa] 3, 58, 32.
Nūpura (नूपुर).—[masculine] [neuter] an ornament for the toes or ankles of women; p. nūpurin & nūpuravant.
1) Nūpura (नूपुर):—mn. (ifc. f(ā). ) an ornament for the toes or ankles or feet, an anklet, [Mahābhārata; Kāvya literature] etc.
2) m. Name of a descendant of Ikṣvāku, [cf. Lexicographers, esp. such as amarasiṃha, halāyudha, hemacandra, etc.]
Nūpura (नूपुर):—[nū-pura] (raḥ-raṃ) 1. m. n. An ornament for the ancles or toes.
Nūpura (नूपुर):—
1) m. n. [Trikāṇḍaśeṣa 3, 5, 10.] Fussschmuck, Fussring (insbes. bei Weibern) [Amarakoṣa 2, 6, 3, 11.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 665.] [Halāyudha 2, 406.] apsaronūpuraravaiḥ [Mahābhārata 3, 11092.] śiñjita [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 9, 17. 2, 60, 19. 3, 58, 32.] [Mṛcchakaṭikā 15, 3.] [Ṛtusaṃhāra 1, 5.] [KĀM. NĪTIS. 7, 53.] [Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka S. 47, 14. 77, 1.] [Hitopadeśa II, 70.] [Kathāsaritsāgara 25, 159. 173.] [Devīmāhātmya 2, 26.] [Vetālapañcaviṃśati] in [Lassen’s Anthologie 21, 1.] bei Kṛṣṇa [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 4, 8, 49. 6, 4, 38.] Am Ende eines adj. comp. f. ā [Harivaṃśa 3629.] [Gītagovinda 2, 16.] —
2) m. Nomen proprium eines Nachkommen des Ikṣvāku [Lebensbeschreibung Śākyamuni’s 233 (3)]; aus dem Tibet. zurückübersetzt.
Nūpura (नूपुर):——
1) m. n. (adj. Comp. f. ā [322,28]) Fussschmuck , Fussring (insbes. bei Weibern) [293,10.] —
2) *m. Nomen proprium eines Nachkommen des Ikṣvāku.
Nūpūra (नूपूर) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit words: Ṇiura, Ṇeura.
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
Nūpura (नूपुर) [Also spelled nupur]:—(nm) an anklet; -[dhvani] melodious sound of an anklet.
...
Kannada-English dictionary
Nūpura (ನೂಪುರ):—[noun] an anklet with a series of small jingling bells.
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 (+0): Pura, Nu.
Starts with (+0): Nupuram, Nupuramandita, Nupurapada, Nupurapadika, Nupuravant, Nupuravat, Nupuraviddhaka, Nupuraviddhaka.
Full-text (+34): Sanupura, Nupuravat, Nupuram, Nupurapadika, Icainupuram, Viranupura, Nupuravant, Nupurapada, Manjira, Nupuramandita, Nupurin, Ratnanupura, Nupuraviddhaka, Naupura, Manjir, Nupurottama, Pariyakam, Niura, Nepura, Neura.
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Search found 60 books and stories containing Nupura, Nūpura, Nu-pura, Nū-pura, Ṇūpura, Nūpūra, Uina-pura, Uīna-pūra, Uina-pura, Uīna-pūra; (plurals include: Nupuras, Nūpuras, puras, Ṇūpuras, Nūpūras, pūras). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Tirumantiram by Tirumular (English translation)
Verse 1049: Tiripurai's Form < [Tantra Four (nankam tantiram) (verses 884-1418)]
Garga Samhita (English) (by Danavir Goswami)
Verse 1.1.2 < [Chapter 1 - Description of Śrī-Kṛṣṇa’s Glories]
Verse 6.2.23 < [Chapter 2 - Residence in Śrī Dvārakā]
Verses 5.13.12-14 < [Chapter 13 - The Arrival of Sri Uddhava]
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī)
Verse 2.1.375 < [Part 1 - Ecstatic Excitants (vibhāva)]
Verse 2.1.302 < [Part 1 - Ecstatic Excitants (vibhāva)]
Society as depicted in the Chaturbhani (study) (by Mridusmita Bharadwaj)
Part 4.6 - Ornaments in ancient India < [Chapter 4 - Critical assessment of the Society as depicted in the Caturbhāṇī]
Part 4.3 - Music in ancient India < [Chapter 4 - Critical assessment of the Society as depicted in the Caturbhāṇī]
Part 6.4 - Comparison of Socio-cultural Aspects reflected in the Caturbhāṇī < [Chapter 4 - Critical assessment of the Society as depicted in the Caturbhāṇī]
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 635 < [Hindi-Malayalam-English Volume 2]
Page 185 < [Hindi-English-Nepali (1 volume)]
Page 371 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 2]
Mahabharata (English) (by Kisari Mohan Ganguli)
Section LXXIX < [Anusasanika Parva]
Section CVI < [Anusasanika Parva]
Section CVII < [Anusasanika Parva]