Pandava, Pāṇḍava, Pamdava: 34 definitions
Introduction:
Pandava means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit, the history of ancient India, Marathi, Hindi, biology. 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.
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In Hinduism
Vaishnavism (Vaishava dharma)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—The five pious ksatriya brothers Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. They were intimate friends of Lord Kṛṣṇa's and inherited the leadership of the world upon their victory over the Kurus in the Battle of Kurukṣetra.
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) refers to “(1) A name for Arjuna (2) A son of King Pāṇḍu”. (cf. Glossary page from Śrīmad-Bhagavad-Gītā).
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) refers to:—The five sons of Pāṇḍu: Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. (cf. Glossary page from Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta).
Vaishnava (वैष्णव, vaiṣṇava) or vaishnavism (vaiṣṇavism) represents a tradition of Hinduism worshipping Vishnu as the supreme Lord. Similar to the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions, Vaishnavism also developed as an individual movement, famous for its exposition of the dashavatara (‘ten avatars of Vishnu’).
Purana and Itihasa (epic history)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) is the name of a mountain situated at lake Asitoda and mount Vipula, according to the Varāhapurāṇa chapter 75. The Vipula mountain lies on the western side of mount Meru, which is one of the seven mountains located in Jambūdvīpa, ruled over by Āgnīdhra, a grandson of Svāyambhuva Manu, who was created by Brahmā, who was in turn created by Nārāyaṇa, the unknowable all-pervasive primordial being.
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—Origin. Śantanu, a celebrated King of Candravaṃśa (lunar dynasty) had two wives, Gaṅgā and Satyavatī. Bhīṣma was the son of Gaṅgā. After the birth of Bhīṣma Gaṅgā his mother went to heaven. After that Śantanu married Satyavatī, mother of Vyāsa. Satyavatī got two sons, Citrāṅgada and Vicitravīrya. Even while a bachelor, Citrāṅgada was killed by a Gandharva of the same name. So Vicitravīrya became King on Śantanu’s death. Bhīṣma forcibly brought the three daughters of the King of Kāśī named Ambā, Ambikā and Ambālikā for Vicitravīrya to marry. But knowing that Ambā was in love with the King of Sālva, Bhīṣma let her off on the way. Ambikā and Ambālikā became the wives of Vicitravīrya. But for a long time they had no sons. (See full article at Story of Pāṇḍavas from the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—(Pāṇḍus)—The five sons of Pāṇḍu (s.v.); rumour that they were burnt in the house of lac built by Duryodhana; their escape in the disguise of Brahmanas; met by Kṛṣṇa in a Potter's hall in Pāñcāla city;1 married Draupadi;2 Kṛṣṇa sent Akrūra to Hastināpura to find out their position; seen by Akrūra; Akrūra pleaded their cause with Dhṛtarāṣṭra and reported his designs to Kṛṣṇa and Rāma;3 praised the heroic exploits of Kṛṣṇa;4 Kṛṣṇa who heard them burnt down, performed obsequies to.5
- 1) Bhāgavata-purāṇa X. 57. 1, 10[2-4]; Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa III. 71. 65.
- 2) Vāyu-purāṇa 99. 240, 246.
- 3) Ib. X. 48. 32-25; 49. 2, 19 and 31.
- 4) Ib. IX. 24. 63; Vāyu-purāṇa 77. 48.
- 5) Ib. 96. 63.
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.
Vedanta (school of philosophy)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) or Pāṇḍavagītā refers to one of the sixty-four Gītās commonly referred to in Hindu scriptures.—Gītā is the name given to certain sacred writings in verse (often in the form of a dialogue) which are devoted to the exposition of particular religious and theosophical doctrines. Most of these Gītās [i.e., Pāṇḍava-gītā] originate from the Mahābhārata or the various Purāṇas.
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).
Ganitashastra (Mathematics and Algebra)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) represents the number 5 (five) in the “word-numeral system” (bhūtasaṃkhyā), which was used in Sanskrit texts dealing with astronomy, mathematics, metrics, as well as in the dates of inscriptions and manuscripts in ancient Indian literature.—A system of expressing numbers by means of words arranged as in the place-value notation was developed and perfected in India in the early centuries of the Christian era. In this system the numerals [e.g., 5—pāṇḍava] are expressed by names of things, beings or concepts, which, naturally or in accordance with the teaching of the Śāstras, connote numbers.
Ganita (गणित) or Ganitashastra refers to the ancient Indian science of mathematics, algebra, number theory, arithmetic, etc. Closely allied with astronomy, both were commonly taught and studied in universities, even since the 1st millennium BCE. Ganita-shastra also includes ritualistic math-books such as the Shulba-sutras.
General definition (in Hinduism)
In the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, the Pandava are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu, by his two wives Kunti and Madri. Their names are Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. All five brothers were married to the same woman, Draupadi. Together, the brothers fought and prevailed in a great war against their cousins the Kauravas, which came to be known as the Battle of Kurukshetra. Their alienated half-brother Karna fought against them and was eventually slain by Arjuna.
Pandava; Sanskrit: पाण्डव pāṇḍavaḥ; also, Pandawa.
Pandu; (Sanskrit: पांडु).
Pāṇḍavaḥ (पाण्डव): Pandavas in Sanskrit pāṇḍavaḥ are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu, by his two wives Kunti and Madri. They are Yudhishtira, Bhima, Arjuna and Nakula, Sahadeva
The Pandavas are the five sons of Pandu, a king of the Kuru dynasty. Yudhishtra, Bheema and Arjuna were born to Kunti, his first wife. The twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to his second wife Madri.
Each of the Pandavas has a divine father, as Pandu was incapable of fathering a child as a result of a curse. The father of Yudhishtra is Yama, the father of Bheema is Vayu, the father of Arjuna is Indra and the fathers of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva are the divine Ashwini twins.
The Pandavas were all married to the Panchala princess Draupadi. Arjuna and Bheema married other women also. Through Draupadi each Pandava fathered a son, and all of them were collectively known as the upa-Pandavas. All the upa-Pandavas were murdered by Ashwatthama at the end of the battle at Kurukshetra.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
1. Pandava
The horse of Sama, king of Benares; his trainer was Giridanta (J.ii.98). See Giridanta Jataka.
2. PandavaA hill near Rajagaha, tinder the shadow of which the Buddha ate his meal when he begged alms in Rajagaha, soon after leaving home. J.i.66; SN.vs.414; DhA.i.85; Thag.vs.41, 1167; Mtu.ii.198, etc.
It is said (SNA.ii.383f) that ascetics lived on its eastern slope. It seems formerly to have borne another name (M.iii.68). Pandava was one of the halting places of Sivali Thera when on his way to the Himalaya. AA.i.139.
3.PandavaAdjective from Pandu. E.g., Cv.lxxxvii.29.
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)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) participated in the war between Rāma and Rāvaṇa, on the side of the latter, as mentioned in Svayambhūdeva’s Paumacariu (Padmacarita, Paumacariya or Rāmāyaṇapurāṇa) chapter 57ff. Svayambhū or Svayambhūdeva (8th or 9th century) was a Jain householder who probably lived in Karnataka. His work recounts the popular Rāma story as known from the older work Rāmāyaṇa (written by Vālmīki). Various chapters [mentioning Pāṇḍava] are dedicated to the humongous battle whose armies (known as akṣauhiṇīs) consisted of millions of soldiers, horses and elephants, etc.
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
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) refers to the Panda-baha—one of the various Bāhās (i.e., a sacred courtyard in the Newari community where Buddhist priests reside) situated in Patan.—The valley of Kathmandu is known as “Nepal Mandala”, encircling the three cities of Kathmandu (northwest), Patan (Lalitpur) (south) and Bhaktapur (east). The Vihāras, Bāhās and Bahīs were, and still are, the centre for Buddhist activities and also dwelling place of the monks or monastics. For example, Panda-baha, which is known in Sanskrit as Pāṇḍava-vihāra. These monstaries, courtyards and other buildings possess a central place in Buddhism and were mostly situated within the vicinity of these three cities.
Pāṇḍava.—(IE 7-1-2), ‘five’. Note: pāṇḍava is defined in the “Indian epigraphical glossary” as it can be found on ancient inscriptions commonly written in Sanskrit, Prakrit or Dravidian languages.
Paṇḍava (पण्डव) refers to one of the five mountains encircling Girivraja or Giribbaja: an ancient capital of Magadha, one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas of the Majjhimadesa (Middle Country) of ancient India, as recorded in the Pāli Buddhist texts (detailing the geography of ancient India as it was known in to Early Buddhism).—Early Pāli literature abounds in information about the Magadha country, its people, and its ancient capital Giribbaja. Magadha roughly corresponds to the modern Patna and Gayā districts of Bihar. The Mahābhārata seems to record that Girivraja was also called Bārhadrathapura as well as Māgadhapura and that Māgadhapura was a well-fortified city being protected by five hills. Other names recorded in the Mahābhārata are Varāha, Vrishabha, Rishigiri, and Caityaka. The statement of the Mahābhārata that Girivraja was protected by five hills is strikingly confirmed by the Vimānavatthu Commentary in which we read that the city of Giribbaja was encircled by the mountains Isigili, Vepulla, Vebhara, Paṇḍava and Gijjhakūṭa.
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.
Biology (plants and animals)
Pandava in India is the name of a plant defined with Terminalia arjuna in various botanical sources. This page contains potential references in Ayurveda, modern medicine, and other folk traditions or local practices It has the synonym Terminalia glabra R.Br. ex Benth. (among others).
Example references for further research on medicinal uses or toxicity (see latin names for full list):
· Fl. Austral. (1864)
· Plant Systematics and Evolution (1996)
· Taxon (1981)
· Taxon (1979)
· Flora Sylvatica (1869)
· Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis (1828)
If you are looking for specific details regarding Pandava, for example chemical composition, pregnancy safety, diet and recipes, health benefits, extract dosage, side effects, have a look at these references.
This sections includes definitions from the five kingdoms of living things: Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protists and Monera. It will include both the official binomial nomenclature (scientific names usually in Latin) as well as regional spellings and variants.
Languages of India and abroad
Marathi-English dictionary
pāṇḍava (पांडव).—m (S) A descendant of paṇḍu. Applied esp. to yudhiṣṭhira and his four brothers. Hence 2 An aggregate of five (rupees &c.) 3 A kind of water-fowl.
pāṇḍava (पांडव).—m A descendant of paṇḍḍa. Applied esp. to yudhiṣṭhira and his four brothers.
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
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—[pāṇḍorapatyaṃ pumān orañ] 'A son or descendant of Pāṇḍu', Name of any one of the five sons of Pāṇḍu; i. e. युधिष्ठिर, भीम, अर्जुन, नकुल (yudhiṣṭhira, bhīma, arjuna, nakula) and सहदेव (sahadeva); मामकाः पाण्डवाश्चैव किमकुर्वत सञ्जय (māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāścaiva kimakurvata sañjaya) Bhagavadgītā (Bombay) 1.1; हंसाः संप्रति पाण्डवा इव वनादज्ञातचर्यां गताः (haṃsāḥ saṃprati pāṇḍavā iva vanādajñātacaryāṃ gatāḥ) Mṛcchakaṭika 5.6.
Derivable forms: pāṇḍavaḥ (पाण्डवः).
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—m. (= Pali Paṇḍava), name of a mountain near Rājagṛha: Lalitavistara 239.19; 240.10; 241.4, 10; Mahāvastu ii.198.14, 17; 199.5 (but here mss. pāṇḍaro or °ulo); in iii.438.12 text with mss. Pāṇḍaro, but Senart cites the passage without comment s.v. Pāṇḍava; it certainly refers to the same mountain. (For °vāḥ, m. pl., Mūla-Sarvāstivāda-Vinaya ii.31.17, see s.v. Khaṣa.)
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—m.
(-vaḥ) A Pandava or descendant of Pandu; especially applied to Yudhist'Hira and his four brothers. E. pāṇḍu a proper name, and patronymic aff. orañ .
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—i. e. pāṇḍu + a, I. patronym. A descendant of Pāṇḍu, viz. Yudhiṣṭhira and his four brothers. Ii. m. A partisan of the five Pāṇḍavas. Iii. adj., f. vī, Belonging to, connected with, the five Pāṇḍavas, Mahābhārata 6, 3303.
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव).—[masculine] a son or descendant of Pāṇḍu; [adjective], [feminine] ī belonging to the Pāṇḍavas.
1) Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—[from pāṇḍu] m. a son or descendant of Pāṇḍu or a partisan of the Pāṇḍavas
2) [v.s. ...] ([plural]) the 5 reputed sons of Pāṇḍu (Yudhi-ṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Saha-deva; cf. Kuntī and Mādrī) or their adherents, [Mahābhārata; Kāvya literature] etc.
3) [v.s. ...] Name of a mountain, [Lalita-vistara]
4) [v.s. ...] of a country, [Catalogue(s)]
5) [v.s. ...] mf(ī)n. belonging to or connected with the Pāṇḍavas, [Mahābhārata]
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—(vaḥ) 1. m. A descendant of Pāndu, as Yudhisthira, &c.
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—
1) m. patron. von pāṇḍu [Bhagavadgītā 1, 14. 20. 4, 35.] [Nalopākhyāna 5, 25.] pl. die fünf Kinder des Pāṇḍu (und auch ihre Partei) [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 139.] [Mahābhārata 5, 3303.] [Hiḍimbavadha 1, 1.] [Bhagavadgītā 1, 1. 10, 37.] [Harivaṃśa 8019. 8053. 9797.] kurupāṇḍavāḥ [Rājataraṅgiṇī 1, 51.] bhedaḥ kurupāṇḍavayoḥ (im Sinne des pl.) [Mahābhārata 1, 2234.] pāṇḍavaśreṣṭha von Yudhiṣṭhira [Hiḍimbavadha 1, 48.] pāṇḍavānīka [Bhagavadgītā 1, 2.] kulaprasūta [Rgva tch’er rol pa ed. Calc. 24, 4.] gītā [Weber’s Verzeichniss No. 1318. fg.] —
2) adj. (vom vorherg.) f. ī den Kindern des Pāṇḍu gehörig: senā [Mahābhārata 6, 3303. 7, 4999.] śrī [14, 2006.] —
3) m. Nomen proprium eines Berges [Rgva tch’er rol pa ed. Calc. 297, 2.] [?17; vgl.] pāṇḍara . — Vgl. niṣpāṇḍava .
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Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—
4) uttaraḥ (uttarāḥ?) pāṇḍavo (pl. von pāṇḍu?) nāma sphīto janapado mahān [Oxforder Handschriften 354,b,2. 3.]
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—1. m. —
1) Patron. von pāṇḍu Pl. die Kinder Pāṇḍu’s und auch ihre Partei. —
2) pr. — a) eines Landes. — b) eines Berges.
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Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव):—2. Adj. (f. ī) den Kindern des Pāṇḍu gehörig.
Pāṇḍava (पाण्डव) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Paṃḍava.
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
Pāṃḍava (पांडव) [Also spelled pandav]:—(nm) the five valiant sons of King Pandu, and the heroes of the Mahabharat ([yudhiṣṭhira, bhīma, arjuna, nakula, sahadeva]).
...
Prakrit-English dictionary
Paṃḍava (पंडव) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Pāṇḍava.
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
Pāṃḍava (ಪಾಂಡವ):—
1) [noun] any of the five sons of Pāṇḍu, in Mahābhārata, the great Indian epic.
2) [noun] the egret Bubulcus ibis of Ciconliformes of Ardeidae family, with long, white plumes, long, black or dark brown legs.
3) [noun] (math.) a sign for the number five.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Pali-English dictionary
paṇḍava (ပဏ္ဍဝ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[paṇḍu+(ṇa) ṇava．paṇḍa+ava．viñjho paṇḍavavaṅkādī,pubbaselo tucodayo．．606．paṇḍuvaṇṇatāyapaṇḍavo,paṇḍa gatiyaṃ vā,avo．,ṭī．606．pāṇḍava (pu) pāṇḍorapa,,thoma．(paṃḍava-prā)]
[ပဏ္ဍု+(ဏ) ဏဝ။ ပဏ္ဍ+အဝ။ ဝိဉ္ဈော ပဏ္ဍဝဝင်္ကာဒီ၊ ပုဗ္ဗသေလော တုစောဒယော။ ဓာန်။ ၆၀၆။ ပဏ္ဍုဝဏ္ဏတာယပဏ္ဍဝေါ၊ ပဏ္ဍ ဂတိယံ ဝါ၊ အဝေါ။ ဓာန်၊ ဋီ။ ၆၀၆။ ပါဏ္ဍဝ (ပု) ပါဏ္ဍောရပတျမ်၊ အဏ်၊ ထောမ။ (ပံဍဝ-ပြာ)]
[Pali to Burmese]
paṇḍava—
(Burmese text): (၁) ပဏ္ဍဝတောင်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Pone Daw Mountain.
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.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches (+0): The, The, Pandava, Te.
Starts with (+8): Pamdavarajanna, Pandavabhila, Pandavabhyudaya, Pandavacarita, Pandavadhartarashtrasambhava, Pandavadhartarashtrasambhava, Pandavagiranusara, Pandavagiripabbhara, Pandavagita, Pandavakritya, Pandavakulaprasuta, Pandavanakula, Pandavananda, Pandavanika, Pandavapabbata, Pandavapabbatabhimukha, Pandavapratapa, Pandavapurana, Pandavasena, Pandavashreshtha.
Full-text (+728): Pandavabhila, Bhima, Pracandapandava, Madhyamapandava, Pandavayana, Pandavanakula, Duryodhana, Nitpandava, Nakula, Pandu, Sahadeva, Draupadi, Kurupandava, Pandavashreshtha, Pandavagita, Satyaki, Kurukshetra, Yudhishthira, Shakuni, Pandaveya.
Relevant text
Search found 223 books and stories containing Pandava, Pamdava, Paṃḍava, Pāṃḍava, Pāṇḍava, Paṇḍava, The pandavas; (plurals include: Pandavas, Pamdavas, Paṃḍavas, Pāṃḍavas, Pāṇḍavas, Paṇḍavas, The pandavases). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Location of the Naimisa Forest < [Purana, Volume 10, Part 1 (1968)]
Ancient History of the City of the Delhi in the Epics and the Puranas < [Purana, Volume 6, Part 1 (1964)]
Megasthenes and Indian Chronology (Part 4) < [Purana, Volume 10, Part 1 (1968)]
Chapter 1 - Ashvatthama Destroys the Pandava Army < [Sauptika Parva]
Chapter 10 - The Tenth Day of Hostilities; The Fall of the Grandsire Bhishma < [Bhisma Parva]
Chapter 1 - The Death of Salya < [Salya Parva]
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 712 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 3]
Page 297 < [Tamil-Hindi-English, Volume 1]
Page 337 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 3]
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