Hari

For other uses, see Hari (disambiguation).

etymologized as derived from the verbal root h to

grab, seize, steal, in the context of Vaishnavism interpreted as to take away or remove evil or sin,[2]
and the name of Vishnu rendered as he who destroys samsara", which is the entanglement in the
cycle of birth and death, along with ignorance, its
cause;[3] compare hara as a name of Shiva, translated as seizer or destroyer.

Sanskrit Hari (Devanagari: ) is in origin a colour term

for yellowish hues, including yellow, golden, yellowishbrown or reddish brown, fallow or khaki, pale yellow,
greenish or green-yellow. It has important symbolism in
the Rigveda and hence in Hinduism; in Rigvedic symbolism, it unites the colours of Soma, the Sun, and bay horses
under a single term.[1]

In the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, Hari is a name

of both Krishna or Vishnu, invoked in the Hare Krishna mantra (Hare is a vocative form of Harih, used
in mahamantra).

The word Hari is widely used in later Sanskrit and Prakrit

literature, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religions. It
appears as 650th name of Vishnu in the Vishnu sahasranama of the Mahabharata and hence rose to special importance in Hindu Vaishnavism.

The element hari is found in a number of Hindu

given names, e.g.
Bhartrhari, Harendra (i.e.
hari-Indra), Harisha (i.e. hari-Isha), Hariprasad,
Harikesh (Harikesha, golden-haired, also a name
of Shiva and of Savitar), etc.

Etymology

In Sikhism, it is the holy symbol consisting of the

three Gurmukhi letters and is used as "" "".
The Guru Granth Sahib which Sikhs revere as their
11th guru contains this word more than 8500 times.

The Sanskrit word is cognate with Avestan zari, with the

same meaning (zari has (dubiously) been identied as
the rst part of the name of Zarathustra). The English
words gold and yellow (from Germanic gulan, gelwaz)
as well as Latin helvus light-yellow are from the same
Indo-European root, reconstructed as *elH-. In Greek
Hari means grace or kindness. Some words in nonIndo-European languages which fell under Hindu dominance during the medieval period also have loanwords
derived from the Sanskrit term, including the word for
day in Malay and Indonesian, and the word for king
in Tagalog.

3 See also
Color symbolism
Hari Nama Keerthanam
Hari Tuma Haro
Harikatha

Usage in Indian religion and

mythology

Harijan
Krishna

The Harivamsha (lineage of Hari) is a text in both

the Puranic and Itihasa traditions.

4 References

As the name of tawny-colored animals, hari may refer to lions (also a name of the zodiacal sign Leo),
bay horses, or monkeys. The feminine Har is the
name of the mythological mother of monkeys in
the Sanskrit epics.

[1] Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit Dictionary (1899): fawncoloured, reddish brown, brown, tawny, pale yellow, yellow, fallow, bay (esp. applied to horses), green, greenish
[2] Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit Dictionary (1899):

Hari is the name of a class of gods under the fourth

Manu (manu tmasa, Dark Manu) in the Puranas.

[3] Sri Vishnu Sahasranama, commentary by Sri

Sankaracharya, translated by Swami Tapasyananda
(Ramakrishna Math Publications, Chennai)

In Hinduism, beginning with Adi Sankara's commentary on the Vishnu sahasranama, hari became
1

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Hari Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hari?oldid=687252898 Contributors: Hari, Ahoerstemeier, Carlossuarez46, Academic Challenger, Andries, Vishvas vasuki, Wwoods, Venu62, Rich Farmbrough, Dbachmann, Raj2004, Bart133, Dangerous-Boy, Vary, Gurch, Sdr,
DaGizza, Deeptrivia, DanMS, NawlinWiki, Benne, T, SmackBot, Onebravemonkey, Commander Keane bot, Tv316, GourangaUK, Snowgrouse, Nharipra, Kseferovic, Hariharan2, Cydebot, Omicronpersei8, O Govinda, Mojo Hand, Smile a While, Vaibhaw, Universal Hero,
Djalo24, Barek, R'n'B, Nono64, Dadhikravas, Zerokitsune, MartinBotIII, Malik Shabazz, Cosmic Latte, Robert1947, Hari aks, Grtyred,
Denisarona, Sfan00 IMG, ClueBot, DragonBot, SoxBot, Editor2020, Wikidas, Cminard, Ism schism, Addbot, Machinesway, RajivLal,
AnomieBOT, Unara, Capricorn42, Hari747, Omnipaedista, Orso della campagna, In fact, Recognizance, Weetoddid, DrilBot, Orenburg1,
Hariharakrishnan, TheMesquito, Immunize, Jujhar.pannu, Rajavadman, ZroBot, Mardijker, Midas02, Superiorfaither, Shubhamhundet,
Qualities108, ClueBot NG, Widr, Hrihr, Theman244, JohnChrysostom, ChrisGualtieri, Bladesmulti, Harish.chinnatambi and Anonymous:
81

5.2

Images

File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0

Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

5.3

Content license

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