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Definition 2024


सीता

सीता

Hindi

Proper noun

सीता (sītā) f

  1. (Hinduism) Sita (an avatar of Lakshmi)
  2. A female given name, equivalent to English Sita
  3. Seetha River (a river in India)

Sanskrit

Noun

सीता (sītā) f

  1. (less correctly written शीता; compare सीमन्, सीर) a furrow, the track or line of a ploughshare (also personified, and apparently once worshipped as a kind of goddess resembling Pomona; in RV. iv, 57, 6, सिता is invoked as presiding over agriculture or the fruits of the earth; in VS. xii, 69-72, सिता ‘the Furrow’ is again personified and addressed, four furrows being required to be drawn at the ceremony when the above stanzas are recited; in TBr. she is called सावित्री, and in PārGṛ. इन्द्र-पत्नी, ‘the wife of इन्द्र’; in epic poetry सिता is the wife of रामचन्द्र and daughter of जनक, king of मिथिला, capital of विदेह, who was otherwise called सीरध्वज; she was named सिता because fabled to have sprung from a furrow made by जनक while ploughing the ground to prepare it for a sacrifice instituted by him to obtain progeny, whence her epithet अयोनि-जा, ‘not womb-born’; her other common names, मैथिली and वैदेही, are from the place of her birth; according to one legend she was वेदवती, q.v., in the कृत age; according to others, she was an incarnation of लक्ष्मि and of उमा; the story of राम's bending the bow, which was to be the condition of the gift of सिता, is told in R. i, 67; सीता's younger sister उर्मिला was at the same time given to लक्ष्मण, and two nieces of जनक, daughters of his brother king कुश-ध्वज, to भरत and शत्रुघ्न) RV. etc. IW. 335 n. 1; 337 etc.
  2. name of a form of दाक्षायणी.
  3. name of a poetess.
  4. name of a river.
  5. name of the eastern branch of the four mythical branches of the heavenly Ganges (into which it is supposed to divide after falling on mount मेरु; this branch is fabled to flow into the वर्ष or द्वीप, called भद्राश्व) L.
  6. name of an उपनिषद्.
  7. spirituous liquor.

References

  • Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1899.