- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: “touch; sense; contact.”
Both Sparsh and Sparsha come from the Sanskrit root sparśa (स्पर्श), which literally means “touch, contact, sensation.”
Sparsh is widely used as a given-name in India and among the Indian diaspora, the name is unisex but more common for boys in North India and for girls in South India when spelled Sparsha.
In Hindu philosophy, sparśa refers not just to physical touch but to the faculty of sensory perception—one of the five tanmātras (subtle elements) that correspond to the senses.
Sparśa (Pāli: phassa) is also a key concept in Buddhist philosophy, not only in Hindu thought.
In the chain of dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāda), sparśa is the sixth link:
contact between sense organ, sense object, and consciousness gives rise to feeling (vedanā).
It refers to the meeting of the sense base (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind) with its object and the corresponding consciousness. Only when all three are present does “contact” occur, which then conditions sensation and craving.
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