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bahujanasukhāya

bahujanasukha

nt dat sg of bahujanasukha (noun)

1. bahujanasukha (nt): comfort of many people; ease of the masses
2. bahujanasukhāya (nt): for the comfort of many people; for the ease of the masses

Built from

• bahu — root · many, much
  Adjective expressing plurality. Related to Sanskrit bahu; the root *bhuh- may underlie notions of abundance and spreading.
• jana — root · people, folk
  Sanskrit jana; from Proto-Indo-European *gn̥-to- 'born, produced', cognate with English kin, Latin genus, Greek genos. Denotes persons born into a community.
• su — prefix · well, good, easy
  Productive prefix expressing the concrete sense of 'fitting, flowing easily'. Cognate with Greek eu- (eulogy); both from the same Indo-European root. Here it prefixes the notion of ease and comfort.
• kha — root · space, opening, hole
  Sanskrit kha 'ether, space, opening'. sukha originally meant 'fitting well through a space' (su + kha), later generalized to 'ease, comfort'. Contrasts with du-kha 'hard passage, suffering' (du + kha).
• a — ending · neuter nominative
  Neuter singular base form -a, retained in the compound stem.

Analysis. bahujana (nt: 'many people') + sukha (nt: 'comfort, ease'). A compound denoting the welfare or comfort belonging to or intended for the masses—a central ethical theme in Buddhist royal ideology and the bodhisattva path.

Etymology. bahu- is the adjective 'many' (Sanskrit bahu; cognate with Latin baculum through the sense of 'thickness' or multitude); jana is 'people' (Sanskrit jana, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gn̥-to- 'born, people', cognate with English kin, Latin genus). sukha is 'ease, pleasure, absence of pain' (Sanskrit sukha; the su- prefix 'well' + kha 'space, opening', originally 'fitting well through a space', as opposed to du-kha 'ill-fitting'). The compound expresses a cardinal doctrine: the ruler and practitioner oriented toward the well-being of all beings rather than private gain.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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