Hindi

Noun

अवतार • ‎(avatār) m ‎(Urdu spelling اوتار)

1. descent
2. a respected person (flattery)
3. a wicked person (ironically)
4. translation
5. crossing
6. incarnation

Descendants

• →English: avatar
• →French: avatar

Marathi

Etymology

From Sanskrit अवतार ‎(ava-tāra).

Noun

अवतार • ‎(avatār) ?

1. avatar
2. descending, descent

Sanskrit

Etymology

अव- ‎(ava, “down”) +‎ तार ‎(tāra, “savior”), from Proto-Indo-European *aw- ‎(“off, away”) + *terh₂- ‎(“to cross over”)

Noun

अवतार • ‎(ava-tāra) m

1. avatar: descent (especially of a deity from heaven), appearance of any deity upon earth (but more particularly the incarnations of Vishnu in ten principal forms, namely the fish tortoise, boar, man lion, dwarf, the two Ramas, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki) (MBh. xii, 12941 seqq.)
   • 11th c., Kshemendra, The Grace of Guile, Chapter 10: Virtue, verse 10.21:

     Madanaś chala|caurāṇāṃ / strī|vacanaṃ jñāti|bhedānām

     krūraś caṇḍālānāṃ / †māyāvī kali|yug’|âvatārāṇām†;

     The God of love among sneaky thieves, / women’s words among dividers of kinsmen,

     a cruel one among chandálas, / a necromancer among those incarnated / in the age of darkness;

2. any new and unexpected appearance (Ragh. iii, 36 & v, 24, etc.)
3. any distinguished person in the language of respect is called an avatāra or incarnation of a deity
4. opportunity of catching any one (Buddh.)
5. a तीर्थ ‎(tīrtha) or sacred place (L.)
6. translation (L.)

Declension

Descendants

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 0099