m. a kind of bard (who utters words of welcome or eulogy), [R.]
any lucky or auspicious object, (esp.) a kind of mystical cross or mark made on persons and things to denote good luck (it is shaped like a Greek cross with the extremities of the four arms bent round in the same direction; the majority of scholars regard it as a solar symbol; that is, as representing a curtailed form of the wheel of the Solar Viṣṇu, consisting of four spokes crossing each other at right angles with short fragments of the periphery of the circle at the end of each spoke turning round in one direction to denote the course of the Sun; accord. to the late Sir A. Cunningham it has no connexion with sun-worship, but its shape represents a monogram or interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su astí [svasti] in the Aśoka characters; amongst Jainas it is one of the 24 auspicious marks and is the emblem of the seventh Arhat of the present Avasarpiṇī), [Hariv.]; [Kāv.]; [Pur.]
the crossing of the arms or hands on the breast, [MBh.]; [Mālatīm.]; [Kathās.]
a bandage in the form of a cross, [Suśr.]
a dish of a partic. form, [MBh.]; [R.]; [Pañcar.]
a kind of cake, [ib.]
a triangular crest-jewel, [L.]
the meeting of four roads, [W.]
a partic. symbol made of ground rice and formed like a triangle (it is used in fumigating the image of Durgā, and is said to symbolize the Liṅga), [MW.]
a species of garlic, [L.]
a cock, [L.]
a libertine, [L.]
N. of a serpent-demon, [MBh.]
of one of Skanda's attendants, [ib.]
of a Dānava, [Hariv.]
of a poet, [Cat.]
of another man, [Buddh.]
m. n. a mansion or temple of a partic. form, [VarBṛS.]
Marsilea Quadrifolia, [L.]
a partic. mode of sitting practised by Yogins (in which the toes are placed in the inner hollow of the knees), [MārkP.]; [Pañcar.]