‹ Back to the text
brāhmaṇehi
brāhmaṇa
masc instr pl of brāhmaṇa (noun); masc abl pl of brāhmaṇa (noun)
- Brahman; priest; man of the Brahman caste
- arahant; awakened being; saint; paragon
- monk; sage; holy man
- in reference to MN49 Brahmanimantanikasutta
Built from
- brāhmaṇ — root · sacred utterance, ultimate reality
From Sanskrit brahman, from bṛh- 'to expand, grow'; the concrete sense of cosmic expansion underlies the transcendent meaning. Cognate with English 'bright' (from PIE *bherǵh- 'to shine').
- a — ending · masculine nominative singular marker
In the instrumental plural -ehi form here, the root stem brāhmaṇ- carries the inflection; -a marks the unmarked masculine noun class.
- ehi — ending · instrumental/ablative plural marker
Pali instrumental/ablative plural ending for masculine consonant-stem nouns, indicating the agent or instrument (from which, by which) in plural number.
Etymology. Sanskrit brāhmaṇa, from brahman (the ultimate reality in Vedic philosophy) + -a (agent suffix). The root is bṛh- (to expand, grow), cognate with English 'bright' and Latin 'flagrāre' (to blaze). The word originally denoted one who knows or tends the sacred fire (brahman), later the priestly class, and in Buddhist usage, any person of spiritual attainment regardless of caste.