haṃsá m. (ifc. f(A). ; accord. to [Uṇ. iii, 62] fr. √ 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 Aśvins, and in later literature that of Brahmā; ifc. also = ‘best or chief among’), [RV.] &c. &c.
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 ahaṃ sa, ‘I am that’), [Up.]; [MBh.]; [Hariv.] &c.
one of the vital airs, [L.]
a kind of ascetic, [MBh.]; [Hariv.]; [BhP.]
a man of supernatural qualities born under a partic. constellation, [VarBṛS.]
an unambitious monarch, [L.]
a horse, [Naigh. i, 14]
an excellent draught-ox (accord. to some, ‘a buffalo’), [VarBṛS.]
a mountain, [L.]
a temple of a partic. form, [VarBṛS.]
a kind of Mantra or mystical text, [Cat.]
silver, [L.]
envy, malice, [L.]
N. of two metres, [Col.]
(in music) a kind of measure, [Saṃgīt.]
a mystical N. of the letter h, [Cat.]
a spiritual preceptor, [W.]
N. of a Deva-gandharva, [Hariv.]
of a Dānava, [ib.]
of a son of Brahmā, [BhP.]
of a son of Vasu-deva, [ib.]
of a son of A-riṣṭā, [MBh.]
of a son of Brahma-datta and general of Jarā-saṃdha, [ib.]
of various authors &c., [Cat.]
of one of the Moon's horses, [VP.]
of a mountain, [Pur.]
pl. N. of the Brāhmans in Plakṣa-dvīpa, [BhP.]
[cf. Gk. χήν; Lat. anser for hanser; Lit. żąsìs; Germ. Gans; Angl.Sax. gôs; Eng. goose.]
Nom. P. °sati, to act or behave like a swan, [Subh.]