Uma
UMA is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings.
Uma according to Hindu Mythology is the daughter of Himalaya and Menoka. Sati's father Daksha arranged a Yajna at the behest of Bramha and Vishnu. He intentionally forgot to invite Shiva who was also Sati's consort. Sati was very aggrieved.
An angry Shiva arrived at the Yajna and seeing this Sati jumped into the Agni Kunda (sacrificial fire) in Daksha's Yajna and gave up her life. Shiva lifted Sati on his shoulder and went on a Rampage or Tandava. This sequence is also depicted as Nataraj. The Gods realised that this will culminate in a total destruction of the World/Prithvi. They requested Vishnu to intervene and save the situation. Vishnu with his Sudarshan Chakra sliced Sati's body to pieces. The places where these body parts fell became the 52 Pithas.
Sati prayed to the Gods for a rebirth so that she could reunite with Shiva. It was granted and she took birth in Menoka's lap. This girl grew to become an epitome of beauty. However, Shiva eluded her. To fulfill her desire, she performed a Tapasya. She was so engrossed in the Tapasyathat she never took anything by mouth, so the name Aparna. The Gods tried to dissuade her. But she continued. Satisfied with her Tapasya, Shiva arrived and said Uma rise and unite with me.
In Sanskrit language U or UHH signifies Inexhaustible|Unending and MA means No|Stop. Or in short, stop this Tapasya.
Abbreviations
- Arab Maghreb Union, known more commonly by its french acronym UMA
- Ukrainian Museum-Archives (Cleveland), a museum in Cleveland, Ohio dedicated to Ukrainian culture
- Unidentified Mysterious Animal, an alternative name for a cryptid in cryptozoology
- Shared Memory Architecture, a computer memory architecture that allows the graphics processing unit to share system memory
- Unified Method Architecture, a meta-model what has been developed as a unification of different method and process engineering languages
- Uniform Memory Access, a computer memory architecture used in parallel computers
- United Motorcoach Association, a professional association of bus and motorcoach companies
- Universal Multimedia Adaptation, a technology for Next-Generation Networks
- University of Madeira, a Portuguese public university in Funchal, Madeira
- University of Maine at Augusta, a campus of the University of Maine
- Unlicensed Mobile Access, a technology that provides roaming between GSM and 802.11, based on the 3GPP or Generic Access Network (GAN) standard
- Upper Memory Area, a part of Extended Memory Specification in DOS
- Ursa Major (UMa), a constellation
- In medicine, UMA is sometimes used as an abbreviation for a diagnostic test procedure called urinary vanillylmandelic acid
People
- Uma Thurman, an American actress
- Uma Bharati, an Indian politician and sannyasin
- Uma Khouny, an Israeli-Filipino contestant in Pinoy Big Brother
- Uma Pemmaraju, a news anchor for Fox News Channel
Places
- Uma District, Ehime, a district in Ehime prefecture, Japan
- Universidad de Málaga, a university in Spain
Other
- Uma (language), a language spoken in Sulawesi
- Uma, the traditional communal house of the Mentawai people
- Uma, the genus of North American fringe-toed lizards
- Cyclone Uma, a tropical cyclone which caused considerable damage to Port Vila, Vanuatu in 1987
- Uma, one of the main characters of Oobi
- UMA Engineering Ltd., an engineering firm with offices in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan
- Uma (film) (English title: Horse), a 1941 Japanese film by Kajiro Yamamoto
- Uma (musician), a singer, guitarist, and member of the Oobi Band
- UMA, a common project of two Estonian musicians, Aleksei Saks and Robert Jürjendal
- Ms. Uma, a character from Crayon Shin-chan