guṇá m. (√ grah, [Uṇ.]) a single thread or strand of a cord or twine (e.g. tri-g°, q.v.), string or thread, rope, [TS. vii]; [Mṛcch.]; [Kum.]; [Ragh.]
a garland, [W.]
a bow-string, [R. iii, 33, 16] (cāpa-), [Ragh. ix, 54]; [Ṛtus.]; [Hit.]
(in geom.) a sinew
the string of a musical instrument, chord, [Śiś. iv, 57] : ifc. (f(A). ) with numerals ‘fold, times’ (see cátur-, tri-, daśa-, dví-, pañca-; rarely the numeral stands by itself along with guṇá [e.g. viśiṣṭo daśabhir guṇaiḥ, ‘of ten times higher value’, [Mn. ii, 85]] [AV. x, 8, 43]; [MBh. iii, 15649]; [Hariv. 509]; [ = bhāga] [Pāṇ. v, 2, 47], [Kāś.])
a multiplier, co-efficient (in alg.)
subdivision, species, kind (e.g. gandhasya guṇāḥ, the different kinds of smell, [MBh. xii, 6847])
the 6 subdivisions of action for a king in foreign politics (viz. peace, war, march, halt, stratagem, and recourse to the protection of a mightier king), [Mn. vii, 160]; [Yājñ. i, 346]; [MBh. ii, 155]
= upāya (q.v., denoting the 4 ways of conquering an enemy), [R. v, 81, 41]
‘requisite’, see °ṇopeta
a secondary element, subordinate or unessential part of any action (e.g. sarva-guṇa mfn. ‘reaching to all subordinate parts’, hence ‘valid throughout’, [KātyŚr.]), [ŚāṅkhŚr.]; [ĀśvŚr.]; [KātyŚr.]; [R. v, 1, 71]
an auxiliary act, [ŚāṅkhBr. xxvi, 4]
a secondary dish (opposed to anna i.e. rice or the chief dish), side-dish, [Mn. iii, 224 ff.]
(= -karman, in Gr.) the secondary or less immediate object of an action, [Pāṇ. i, 4, 51], Sch.
a quality, peculiarity, attribute or property, [Lāṭy.]; [ŚāṅkhGṛ.]; [Mn. iii], [ix], &c.
an attribute of the 5 elements (each of which has its own peculiar quality or qualities as well as organ of sense; thus 1. ether has śabda, or sound for its Guṇa and the ear for its organ; 2. the air has tangibility and sound for its Guṇas and the skin for its organ; 3. fire or light has shape or colour, tangibility, and sound for its Guṇas, and the eye for its organs; 4. water has flavour, shape, tangibility, and sound for its Guṇas, and the tongue for its organ; 5. earth has the preceding Guṇas, with the addition of its own peculiar Guṇa of smell, and the nose for its organ), [Mn. i, 20] and [76]-[78]; [MBh. xii, 6846 ff.]; [Śak. i, 1]; [BhP. iii, 5, 35]
(in Sāṃkhya phil.) an ingredient or constituent of Prakṛti, chief quality of all existing beings (viz. sattva, rajas, and tamas i.e. goodness, passion, and darkness, or virtue, foulness, and ignorance; cf. [RTL. pp. 31]; [36]; [163]), [Mn. i]; [iii, 40]; [xii, 24 ff.]; [Sāṃkhyak.]; [Bhag. xiii f.]
(hence) the number ‘three’, [VarBṛS. iic, 1]
a property or characteristic of all created things (in Nyāya phil. twenty-four Guṇas are enumerated, viz. 1. rūpa, shape, colour; 2. rasa, savour; 3. gandha, odour; 4. sparśa, tangibility; 5. saṃkhyā, number; 6. parimāṇa, dimension; 7. pṛthaktva, severalty; 8. saṃyoga, conjunction; 9. vibhāga, disjunction; 10. paratva, remoteness; 11. aparatva, proximity; 12. gurutva, weight; 13. dravatva, fluidity; 14. sneha, viscidity; 15. śabda, sound; 16. buddhi or jñāna, understanding or knowledge; 17. sukha, pleasure; 18. duḥkha, pain; 19. icchā, desire; 20. dveṣa, aversion; 21. prayatna, effort; 22. dharma, merit or virtue; 23. adharma, demerit; 24. saṃskāra, the self-reproductive quality)
an epithet, [KātyŚr.]
good quality, virtue, merit, excellence, [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c.
also ‘power, might’; āt, ‘by virtue of’, ‘in consequence of’, ‘by means of’
the merit of composition (consistency, elegance of expression, &c.), [Kāvyād. i, 41 f.]; [Kpr. viii]; [Sāh. viii]
the peculiar properties of the letters (11 in number, viz. the 8 bāhya-prayatnās [q.v.] and the 3 accents), [Kāś.] on [Pāṇ. i, 1, 9] and [50] (cf. -mātra)
the first gradation of a vowel, the vowels a (with ar, al, [Pāṇ. i, 1, 51]), e, o, [Nir. x, 17]; [RPrāt. xi, 6]; [Pāṇ.]
an organ of sense, [L.]
a cook (cf. -kāra), [L.]
Bhīma-sena (cf. -kāra), [L.]