rudraksha

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English

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Etymology

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From Sanskrit रुद्राक्ष (rudrākṣa, Rudra's eyes), from रुद्र (Rudra, Rudra, a Rigvedic deity of wind and storm), and अक्ष (ákṣa, eye), variant form of अक्षि (ákṣi).

Noun

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rudraksha (plural rudrakshas)

  1. The dried seed of a large evergreen broad-leaved tree, Elaeocarpus ganitrus, which is traditionally used as prayer beads in Hinduism.
    • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 9:
      But the room […]contained many tokens of her family and forebears—among them such relics as her dead father's wooden clogs, a necklace of rudraksha beads left to her by her mother, and faded imprints of her grandparents' feet, taken on their funeral pyres.
    • 2012, Shashi Tharoor, Connecting to the Future[1]:
      One of my favorite photographs shows a Hindu sadhu right out of central casting – naked body, long matted hair and beard, ash-smeared forehead, rudraksha-mala around his neck, the works – chatting away on a mobile phone.

Further reading

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