Daṇḍa (Staff)
Daṇḍa · daṇḍa, “the staff or rod”
Daṇḍa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Daṇḍa.
Grammar: masculine noun; the staff or rod. It is not the daṇḍa that measures time.
Meaning: a staff, a rod.
In the scriptures: In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa the daṇḍa is named in four places.
In divine hands. Durgā holds the triśūla, śakti, Śārṅga bow, khaḍga, arrows, śaṅkha, cakra, gadā, padma, sphaṭika-mālā, kamaṇḍalu, vajra, aṅkuśa, pāśa, bhuśuṇḍi, daṇḍa and tomara (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3).
The staff of the brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa boy came near the devas, most charming, holding a daṇḍa and a chatra, in white garments with a bright tilaka, calm and smiling (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 14). Durvāsa Maharshi, on his way from Vaikuṇṭha to Kailāsa, shone like the noonday sun of summer, with a mass of golden jaṭā, a white yajñopavīta and garment, a daṇḍa and kamaṇḍalu, and a tilaka as large as the disc of the moon (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 36). A brāhmaṇa boy, dark in colour, in red garments, with a fine tilaka and a daṇḍa and a chatra in his hands, blazed with brahma-tejas (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 24).
The sannyāsī. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Nanda the dharma of sannyāsīs: by merely taking up the daṇḍa a man becomes Nārāyaṇa (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 83).
Yama‘s rods. In Kumbhīpāka there is no light, and Yama’s bhaṭas punish the pāpīs with daṇḍas, rods, or with pestles (Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 33).
Related terms: Sannyāsī · Kamaṇḍalu · Yamadūta
Sources
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 3, 14; Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapters 33, 36; Śrī Kṛshṇa Janma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 24, 83