‹ Back to the text

duggati

fem nom sg of duggati (noun); fem voc sg of duggati (noun)

1. state of misery; bad destination; hell; lit. going badly

Built from

• du(r)- — prefix · bad, hard
  Plain expression of wrongness or difficulty. Cognate with Greek dys- (dys-phoria, dys-function); the concrete image is of a path or movement that has gone crooked or wrong.
• gati — stem · going, destination
  Feminine noun from √gam 'to go'. In the Four Noble Truths, gati is the existential trajectory or destination one moves toward through one's actions (kamma). Here compounded with du(r)- to show motion toward suffering.

Analysis. Compound: dur- (bad, hard) + gati (going, destination). 'Going badly' → a condition of suffering, specifically rebirth in lower realms.

Etymology. dur- is the Pali form of Sanskrit dur-, a prefix meaning 'bad' or 'hard', cognate with Greek dys- (dysfunction, dystopia). The root gati derives from √gam 'to go'; the prefix du(r)- expresses that the motion or trajectory has gone wrong, is corrupted, or is difficult. In Buddhist doctrine, duggati denotes the 'four bad destinations' (caturo duggati): hell, animal realm, ghost realm, and asura realm — the rebirths consequent upon unskillful action (akusala-kamma).

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

Lite mode — plain HTML for e-readers and old browsers. Full version