Uttamanga, Uttama-anga, Uttamamga, Uttamaṅga: 22 definitions
Introduction:
Uttamanga means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Marathi, 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 Hinduism
Ayurveda (science of life)
Veterinary Medicine (The study and treatment of Animals)
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) refers to the “head (of an elephant)”, according to the 15th century Mātaṅgalīlā composed by Nīlakaṇṭha in 263 Sanskrit verses, dealing with elephantology in ancient India, focusing on the science of management and treatment of elephants.—[Cf. chapter 4, “on marks of longevity”]: “3. The foreparts, head (uttamāṅga), eyes, face, ears, neck, belly, tusks, trunk, character, color and the hind members, those are the twelve ‘departments’ of elephants, equal (in number) to their stages (decades) of life”.
Unclassified Ayurveda definitions
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—[uttamāṅgam] Head or head & neck
Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद, ayurveda) is a branch of Indian science dealing with medicine, herbalism, taxology, anatomy, surgery, alchemy and related topics. Traditional practice of Āyurveda in ancient India dates back to at least the first millenium BC. Literature is commonly written in Sanskrit using various poetic metres.
Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology)
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) refers to the “head”, according to the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (chapter 2), an encyclopedic Sanskrit work written by Varāhamihira mainly focusing on the science of ancient Indian astronomy astronomy (Jyotiṣa).—Accordingly, “We shall now proceed to give a brief description of (the qualifications of) a jyotiṣaka. He must be of noble birth and of agreeable appearance; meek, truthful and without jealousy; of proportional limbs; of joints well built and of good growth; have no physical defects; be of fine hands, feet, nails, eyes, chin, teeth, ears, forehead, eye-brows and head [i.e., uttamāṅga]; of fine physique and of high, sonorous voice”.
Jyotisha (ज्योतिष, jyotiṣa or jyotish) refers to ‘astronomy’ or “Vedic astrology” and represents the fifth of the six Vedangas (additional sciences to be studied along with the Vedas). Jyotisha concerns itself with the study and prediction of the movements of celestial bodies, in order to calculate the auspicious time for rituals and ceremonies.
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) refers to the “most excellent body”, according to the Kulakaulinīmata verse 20.505cd-508ab.—Accordingly, “Akula is said to be Kaula. It is Maheśvara, the womb in the womb of the most excellent body (uttamāṅga). O mistress of the gods, he is present everywhere. The abode of Kula is in Kaula, that is, in one's own divine Kula, one’s own nature and form devoid of the body. One should enter into the Self by the Self. The Great Goddess engaged in intercourse within the great Śiva is Pārvatī. By means of the bliss (of this union one) attains the supreme principle and by (that) principle, the supreme (state)”.
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)
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) refers to the “upper body” (i.e., the head, eyes, shoulders, throat, chest, etc.), according to the Haṭhapradīpikā 3.96-98.—Accordingly, “Having discarded the first flow of water because of its excessive heat and the last flow because it is worthless, [the Yogin] should use the middle flow [which is] cool. In the Khaṇḍakāpālika sect, this is [called] Amarolī. If he regularly drinks the [middle flow called] Amarī; snorts [it] everyday and correctly practices Vajrolī Mudrā [in order to draw it up his urethra], it is called Amarolī. He should mix the lunar fluid which is emitted because of [this] practice, with ashes and [then,] put it on the upper body (uttamāṅga) (i.e., the head, eyes, shoulders, throat, chest, arms and so on). [As a result], divine sight arises”.
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)
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) refers to the “best limb”, 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, “In the Mandala, an obscured Himalaya, abiding seated in lotus posture, the best limb of all possessed (ākrāntā-sarva-uttamāṅga), an equally elevated pair of white breasts, swinging garlands, having made the gods, Upendra, Sūrya, Candra, etc., [..] a helper for crossing over together, the dreadful wilderness of saṃsāra, routing Māra, Śrī Vajrasattva, homage”.
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.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
uttamaṅga : (nt.) the most important part, i.e. the head.
Uttamaṅga refers to: the best or most important limb or part of the body, viz. (a) the head Vin. II, 256 = M. I, 32 = A. IV, 278 (in phrase uttamaṅge sirasmiṃ); J. II, 163; also in cpd. °bhūta the hair of the head Th. 2, 253 (= kesa-kalāpa ThA. 209, 210) & °ruha id. J. I, 138 = VI, 96 (= kesā C.); (b) the eye J. IV, 403; (c) the penis J. V, 197.
Note: uttamaṅga is a Pali compound consisting of the words uttama and aṅga.
uttamaṅga (ဥတ္တမင်္ဂ) [(na) (န)]—
[uttama+aṅga．aṅgesu uttamaṅgattā uttamaṅga,uttamo ca taṃ aṅgañcāti uttamaṅgaṃ．ṭī．256]
[ဥတ္တမ+အင်္ဂ။ အင်္ဂေသု ဥတ္တမင်္ဂတ္တာ ဥတ္တမင်္ဂ၊ ဥတ္တမော စ တံ အင်္ဂဉ္စာတိ ဥတ္တမင်္ဂံ။ ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၂၅၆]
[Pali to Burmese]
uttamaṅga—
(Burmese text): (၁) မြတ်သောကိုယ်အင်္ဂါ၊ ဦးခေါင်း။ (၂) အင်္ဂါဇာတ်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Sacred body, head. (2) Body drama.
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
uttamāṅga (उत्तमांग).—n (S uttama & aṅga The chief member.) The head.
uttamāṅga (उत्तमांग).—n The head.
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
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग).—n.
(-ṅgaṃ) The head. E. uttama chief, and aṅga member.
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग).—n. the head, Man, 1, 93.
Uttamāṅga is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms uttama and aṅga (अङ्ग).
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग).—[neuter] the head (lit. highest member).
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—[from ut-tama] n. the highest or chief part of the body, the head, [Manu-smṛti; Mahābhārata; Bhagavad-gītā; Suśruta; Mṛcchakaṭikā etc.]
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—[uttamā+ṅga] (ṅgaṃ) 1. n. The head.
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—(u + aṅga) n. der höchste oder vorzüglichste Theil des Körpers, der Kopf [Amarakoṣa 2, 6, 2, 46.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 566.] [Manu’s Gesetzbuch 1, 93. 8, 300.] [Bhagavadgītā 11, 27.] [Mahābhārata 3, 2003. 14, 2500.] [Rāmāyaṇa 3, 58, 29. 6, 67, 25. 92, 41.] [Suśruta 1, 118, 5.] [Mṛcchakaṭikā 66, 10.] [Raghuvaṃśa 7, 48.] [Kumārasaṃbhava 7, 41.] — Vgl. adhamāṅga .
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—1. n. —
1) Kopf. —
2) = mukha Antlitz Sch. zu [Śāṅkhāyana’s Śrautasūtra (Weber) 7,15,2.]
--- OR ---
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग):—2. m. eine Art Papagei [Galano's Wörterbuch]
Uttamāṅga (उत्तमाङ्ग) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Uttamaṃga.
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.
Prakrit-English dictionary
Uttamaṃga (उत्तमंग) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Uttamāṅga.
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
Uttamāṃga (ಉತ್ತಮಾಂಗ):—[noun] the head, considered as the most important one among all the limbs.
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: Uttama, Anga, Anka.
Starts with: Uttamangadana, Uttamangaja, Uttamangaruha, Uttamangashiras, Uttamangattha, Uttamangatthaniya, Uttamangopasobhana, Uttamangopasobhanata.
Full-text: Mrigottamanga, Uttamangaruha, Uttamangadana, Uttamangatthaniya, Uttamangaja, Uttamangopasobhanata, Uttamangattha, Uttamangashiras, Adhamanga, Shubhottamanga, Chettavya, Upper body, Uttama, Kharpara, Uttima, Tou shou, Raktakrishna, Avalina, Shang shou.
Relevant text
Search found 21 books and stories containing Uttamanga, Uttama-anga, Uttama-aṅga, Uttamamga, Uttamaṃga, Uttamāṃga, Uttamaṅga, Uttamāṅga; (plurals include: Uttamangas, angas, aṅgas, Uttamamgas, Uttamaṃgas, Uttamāṃgas, Uttamaṅgas, Uttamāṅgas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
International Research Journal of Ayurveda and Yoga
Conceptual Study of Trimarma W. S. R. to Sirah Marma < [Vol. 6 No. 11: Nov (2023)]
Role of Nasya Karma in Vataj Pratishyaya- A Conceptual Study < [Vol. 6 No. 3: March (2023)]
Role Of Nasya In Ardita W.S.R To Facial Palsy: A Review < [Vol. 3 No. 10: Oct (2020)]
Journal of Ayurveda and Integrated Medical Sciences
Nasya Karmukta with special reference to pharmacodynamics of Nasya < [Vol. 8 No. 3 (2023)]
A critical review on the pharmacodynamics of Nasya Karma < [Vol. 5 No. 01 (2020)]
Ayurvedic management of Vataja Shira Shoola (tension headache) - A Case Study < [Vol. 6 No. 02 (2021)]
Taittiriya Upanishad Bhashya Vartika (by R. Balasubramanian)
Verse 2.309 < [Book 2 - Brahmavallī]
Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi (by Ganganatha Jha)
Verse 8.300 < [Section XLII - Assaults]
Amarakoshodghatana of Kshirasvamin (study) (by A. Yamuna Devi)
External Anatomy < [Chapter 3 - Social Aspects]