rudraksha

From Sanskrit रुद्राक्ष (rudrākṣa, “Rudra's eyes”), from रुद्र (Rudra, “Rudra, a Rigvedic deity of wind and storm”), and अक्ष (ákṣa, “eye”), variant form of अक्षि (ákṣi).

rudraksha (plural rudrakshas)

1. The dried seed of a large evergreen broad-leaved tree, Elaeocarpus ganitrus, which is traditionally used as prayer beads in Hinduism.
   • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 9:

     But the room […]contained many tokens of her family and forebears—among them such relics as her dead father's wooden clogs, a necklace of rudraksha beads left to her by her mother, and faded imprints of her grandparents' feet, taken on their funeral pyres.

   • 2012, Shashi Tharoor, Connecting to the Future‎:

     One of my favorite photographs shows a Hindu sadhu right out of central casting – naked body, long matted hair and beard, ash-smeared forehead, rudraksha-mala around his neck, the works – chatting away on a mobile phone.

• Rudraksha on Wikipedia.Wikipedia