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devānamindassa

devānaminda

masc dat sg of devānaminda (noun); masc gen sg of devānaminda (noun)

1. lord of the gods; epithet of Sakka

Built from

• devānaṁ — root · of the gods
  Genitive plural of deva (god). Deva from PIE *deywos, cognate with Latin deus, related to English divine.
• inda — root · lord, ruler
  Related to Sanskrit Indra. In Pali, used as an epithet of sovereignty and divine kingship, as in Sakka (Indra) the king of gods.

Analysis. devānaṁ (gen pl of deva, 'of the gods') + inda (lord, ruler); a possessive compound meaning 'lord of the gods', a traditional epithet for the king of gods in Vedic and Buddhist cosmology.

Etymology. Deva descends from PIE *deywos (bright sky-god), cognate with Latin deus, English divine. Inda is related to Sanskrit indra (ruler, king), itself of uncertain origin but associated with the Vedic sky-god Indra; in Pali Buddhist texts, Inda/Indra became a general epithet for sovereignty. The compound reflects the Sanskrit devendra.

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

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