Amrita
nectar referred to in ancient Indian texts
Amrita or Amruta (Sanskrit: अमृत, IAST: amṛta), Amrit or Amata in Pali, (also called Sudha, Amiy, Ami) is a Sanskrit word that means "immortality". It is a central concept within Indian religions and is often referred to in ancient Indian texts as an elixir. Its first occurrence is in the Rigveda, where it is considered one of several synonyms for soma, the drink of the devas. Amrita plays a significant role in the Samudra Manthana, and is the cause of the conflict between devas and asuras competing for amrita to obtain immortality.
Amrita has varying significance in different Indian religions. The word Amrit is also a common first name for Sikhs and Hindus, while its feminine form is Amritā. Amrita is cognate to and shares many similarities with ambrosia; both originated from a common Proto-Indo-European source.
Etymology
Amrita is composed of the negative prefix, अ a from Sanskrit meaning 'not', and mṛtyu meaning 'death' in Sanskrit, thus meaning 'not death' or 'immortal/deathless'.
The concept of an immortality drink is attested in at least two ancient Indo-European languages: Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. The Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosia, from ἀ- “not” + βροτός “mortal”) is semantically linked to the Sanskrit अमृत (amṛta) as both words denote a drink or food that gods use to achieve immortality.
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This entry incorporates text from “Amrita” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.