LOGOI

The corpus record — Sanskrit

haṃsā

1. haṃsa m. ( ifc. f(ā). ; accord. to Uṇ. iii, 62 fr. √ 1. han, ‘to go?’) a goose, gander, swan, flamingo (or other aquatic bird, considered as a bird of passage; sometimes a mere poetical or mythical bird, said in RV. to be able to separate Soma from water, when these two fluids are mixed, and in l

Every figure on this page is a live query of the corpus record.

Where it lives

  • Svetasvatara Upanisad 3 · 17.46/10k
  • Katha Upanisad 1 · 4.64/10k
  • Chandogya Upanisad 8 · 1.71/10k

What it meant — Monier-Williams

1. haṃsa

1. haṃsa m. ( ifc. f(ā). ; accord. to Uṇ. iii, 62 fr. √ 1. han, ‘to go?’) a goose, gander, swan, flamingo (or other aquatic bird, considered as a bird of passage; sometimes a mere poetical or mythical bird, said in RV. to be able to separate Soma from water, when these two fluids are mixed, and in later literature, milk from water when these two are mixed; also forming in RV. the vehicle of the Aśvin s, and in later lit˚ that of Brahmā ; ifc. also = ‘best or chief among’), RV. &c. &c.

2. haṃsa

the soul or spirit (typified by the pure white colour of a goose or swan, and migratory like a goose; sometimes ‘the Universal Soul or Supreme Spirit’, identified with Virāj , Nārāyaṇa , Viṣṇu , Śiva , Kāma , and the Sun; du. ‘the universal and the individual Spirit’; accord. to Sāy. resolvable into ahaṃsa, ‘I am that’), Up. ; MBh. ; Hariv. &c.

3. haṃsa

2. haṃsa Nom. P. sati, to act or behave like a swan, Subh.

In the wild

6 of 12 attestations shown.

Sanskrit corpus record built from GRETIL sources (citations and statistics; GRETIL running text is not redistributable). Passage text, where shown, from the Digital Corpus of Sanskrit (CC BY 4.0). Dictionary senses from Monier-Williams (1899, public domain), via the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries.