तमसा

Sanskrit

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *temH-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *témHos

Proto-Indo-Iranian *támHas

Sanskrit तमस् (tamas)

Sanskrit तमसा (tamasā)

Feminine of तमस (tamasa, “dark-coloured; darkness”), thematicised from तमस् (tamas, “darkness”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *témHos (“darkness”).

Cognate with many Indo-European river names, most notably English Thames; see there for more.

Compare the semantically similar Sanskrit असिक्नी (asiknī, “Chenab river; the night”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ɐ.mɐ.s̪ɑː/

Proper noun

तमसा • (tamasā) stem, f

1. Tamasa, Tamsa, Tons (a river and tributary of the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India)
   • c. 400 BCE, Mahābhārata 3.224.23:

     तमसा नर्मदा चैव नदी गोदावरी तथा ।
     वेण्णा प्रवेणी भीमा च मेद्रथा चैव भारत ॥

     tamasā narmadā caiva nadī godāvarī tathā.
     veṇṇā praveṇī bhīmā ca medrathā caiva bhārata.

     […] the Tamasa, the Narmada, the Godavari, the Vena, the Upavena, the Bhima, the Vadawa, the Bharati […]

   • c. 500 BCE – 100 BCE, Rāmāyaṇa 1.2.3:

     स मुहूर्तं गते तस्मिन्देवलोकं मुनिस्तदा ।
     जगाम तमसातीरं जाह्नव्यास्त्वविदूरतः ॥

     sa muhūrtaṃ gate tasmindevalokaṃ munistadā.
     jagāma tamasātīraṃ jāhnavyāstvavidūrataḥ.

     • 1998—2008 translation by Sri Desiraju Hanumanta Rao

       Then, on Narada's going to the world of gods in a trice, that sage Valmiki went to the banks of Tamasa river not far from Jahnavi river.

   • c. 300 CE, Harivaṃśa 12828
   • c. 400 CE, Kālidāsa, Raghuvaṃśa 9.16

Declension

Feminine ā-stem declension of तमसा (tamasā)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	तमसा tamasā	तमसे tamase	तमसाः tamasāḥ
Vocative	तमसे tamase	तमसे tamase	तमसाः tamasāḥ
Accusative	तमसाम् tamasām	तमसे tamase	तमसाः tamasāḥ
Instrumental	तमसया tamasayā	तमसाभ्याम् tamasābhyām	तमसाभिः tamasābhiḥ
Dative	तमसायै tamasāyai	तमसाभ्याम् tamasābhyām	तमसाभ्यः tamasābhyaḥ
Ablative	तमसायाः tamasāyāḥ	तमसाभ्याम् tamasābhyām	तमसाभ्यः tamasābhyaḥ
Genitive	तमसायाः tamasāyāḥ	तमसयोः tamasayoḥ	तमसानाम् tamasānām
Locative	तमसायाम् tamasāyām	तमसयोः tamasayoḥ	तमसासु tamasāsu

Descendants

• Bhojpuri: टौंस (ṭauns)
• Gujarati: તોન્સ (tons)
• Hindustani:

  Hindi: टौंस (ṭa͠us)

  Urdu: ٹَوںس (ṭa͠us)

Borrowings

• → Bhojpuri: तमसा (tamᵊsā) (learned)
• → Gujarati: તમસા (tamsā) (learned)
• → Hindi: तमसा (tamsā) (learned)
• → Malayalam: തമസാ (tamasā) (learned)
• → Tamil: தமசா (tamacā) (learned)

References

• Monier Williams (1899) “तमसा”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 438.