niyamaH 1 Restraining, checking. 2 Taming, subduing. 3 Confining, preventing. 4 A restraint, check; vAci niyamaH U. 2. 2 ; Ms. 8. 122. 5 Restriction, limitation. 6 A rule or precept, law (in general), usage; nAyamekAMtato niyamaH Ś. B. 7 Regularity; Ratn. 1. 20. 8 Certainty, ascertainment. 9 An agreement, promise, vow, engagement. 10 Necessity, obligation. 11 Any voluntary or self-imposed religious observance (dependent on external conditions); R. 1. 94 ; Ki. 5. 40 ; (see Malli. on Śi. 13. 23 ). 12 Any minor observance or lesser vow, a duty prescribed to be done, but which is not so obligatory as a yama q. v. ; SOcamijyA tapo dAnaM svADyAyopasTanigrahaH . vratamOnopavAsaM ca snAnaM ca niyamA daSa .. Atri. 13 Penance, devotion, religious austerities; niyamaviGnakAriRI Ś. 1 ; R. 15. 74. 14 (In Mīm. phil. ) A rule or precept which lays down or specifies some thing which, in the absence of that rule, would be optional ; viDiratyaMtamaprAptO niyamaH pAkzike sati . 15 (In Yoga phil. ) Restraint of the mind, the second of the 8 principal steps of meditation in yoga . 16 (In Rhet. ) A poetical common-place or convention, as the description of the cuckoo in spring, peacocks in the rains &c. 17 Defining, ( pb ) definition. 18 Keeping down, lowering (as the voice). ( niyamena as a rule, invariably). Comp. — nizWA rigid observance of prescribed rites. — patraM a written agreement. — viDiH a religious rite, daily ritual; Ku. 1. 60. — sTa a. observing penance; Ku. 5. 13. — sTitiH f. steady observance of religious obligations, asceticism.