त्र्यम्बक

From त्रि (tri, “three”) +‎ अम्बा (ambā, “mother”) +‎ क (ka); originally meaning "having three mothers". The name was later reinterpreted as "having three eyes".

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /tɾí.jɐm.bɐ.kɐ/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ɾjɐm.bɐ.kɐ/

त्र्यम्बक • (tryàmbaka) stem, m (metrical Vedic tríyambaka) (Vedic religion, Hinduism)

1. an epithet of Rudra or (later on) Shiva
   • c. 1700 BCE – 1200 BCE, Ṛgveda 7.59.12:

     त्र्य॑म्बकं यजामहे सु॒गन्धिं॑ पुष्टि॒वर्ध॑नम्।
     उ॒र्वा॒रु॒कमि॑व॒ बन्ध॑नान्मृ॒त्योर्मु॑क्षीय॒ मामृता॑त्॥

     tryàmbakaṃ yajāmahe sugándhiṃ puṣṭivárdhanam.
     urvārukámiva bándhanānmṛtyórmukṣīya mā́mṛ́tāt.

     Tryambaka we worship, sweet augmenter of prosperity.
     As from its stem the cucumber, so may I be released from death, not reft of immortality.

2. name of one of the 11 Rudras
   • c. 900 CE – 1300, Śiva Purāṇa

• Monier Williams (1899) “त्र्यम्बक”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 463.
• Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1893) “त्र्यम्बक”, in A practical Sanskrit dictionary with transliteration, accentuation, and etymological analysis throughout, London: Oxford University Press, page 114