loká m. (connected with roka; in the oldest texts is generally preceded by u, which accord. to the [Padap.] = the particle 3. u; but u may be a prefixed vowel and uloká, a collateral dialectic form of ; accord. to others u-loka is abridged from uru- or ava-loka), free or open space, room, place, scope, free motion, [RV.]; [AV.]; [Br.]; [ĀśvŚr.] (acc. with √ kṛ or √ dā or anu-√ nī, ‘to make room, grant freedom’; loke with gen. ‘instead of’)
intermediate space, [Kauś.]
a tract, region, district, country, province, [ŚBr.]
the wide space or world (either ‘the universe’ or ‘any division of it’, esp. ‘the sky or heaven’; 3 Lokas are commonly enumerated, viz. heaven, earth, and the atmosphere or lower regions; sometimes only the first two; but a fuller classification gives 7 worlds, viz. Bhūr-l°, the earth; Bhuvar-l°, the space between the earth and sun inhabited by Munis, Siddhas &c.; Svarloka, Indra's heaven above the sun or between it and the polar star; Maharloka, a region above the polar star and inhabited by Bhṛgu and other saints who survive the destruction of the 3 lower worlds; Janarloka, inhabited by Brahmā's son Sanat-kumāra &c.; Tapar-loka, inhabited by deified Vairāgins; Satya-loka or Brahma-l°, abode of Brahmā, translation to which exempts from rebirth ; elsewhere these 7 worlds are described as earth, sky, heaven, middle region, place of re-births, mansion of the blest, and abode of truth; sometimes 14 worlds are mentioned, viz. the 7 above, and 7 lower regions called in the order of their descent below the earth — A-tala, Vi-tala, Su-tala, Rasā-tala, Talā-tala, Mahā-tala, and Pātāla; cf. [RTL. 102 n. 1]; [IW. 420, 1]; [435, 1]), [AV.] &c. &c.
N. of the number ‘seven’ (cf. above), [VarBṛS.], Sch.
the earth or world of human beings &c., [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c. (ayáṃ lokáḥ, ‘this world’; asaú or páro lokáḥ, ‘that or the other world’; loke or iha loke, ‘here on earth’, opp. to para-tra, para-loke &c.; kṛtsne loke, ‘on the whole earth’)
(also pl.) the inhabitants of the world, mankind, folk, people (sometimes opp. to ‘king’), [Mn.]; [MBh.] &c.
(pl.) men (as opp. to ‘women’), [Vet.]; [Hit.]
a company, community (often ifc. to form collectives), [Kāv.]; [Vas.]; [Kathās.] &c.
ordinary life, worldly affairs, common practice or usage, [GṛS.]; [Nir.]; [Mn.] &c. (loke either ‘in ordinary life’, ‘in worldly matters’; or ‘in common language, in popular speech’, as opp. to vede, chandasi)
the faculty of seeing, sight (only in cákṣur-l°, q.v.)
lokānāṃ sāmanī du. and lokānāṃ vratāni pl. N. of Sāmans, [ĀrṣBr.]
[cf. Lat. lūcus, originally, ‘a clearing of a forest’; Lith. laúkas, a field.]