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gajaṅgalāyaṁ

gajaṅgalā

locative singular of gajaṅgalā (feminine noun); appears as gajaṅgalāyaṁ (locative with enclitic -aṁ emphatic particle)

1. elephant forest or grove
2. sanctuary for elephants

Built from

• gaja — root · elephant
  From Sanskrit gaja, of non-Indo-European origin (possibly Dravidian). Denotes the animal directly.
• aṅgalā — stem · forest, grove
  Related to aṅgula (finger, narrowness); semantically shifts to a bounded or specific tract of land.
• -e — ending · locative case marker (with -aṁ)
  The locative -e (here appearing as -ā + -yaṁ through sandhi) places the action in the elephant forest; -aṁ is an emphatic particle common in verse.

Analysis. gajaṅgalā is a compound: gaja (elephant) + aṅgalā (forest, grove, wilderness). The word denotes a designated forest where elephants roamed or were kept, a setting familiar in the Buddhist narratives.

Etymology. gaja derives from Sanskrit gaja (elephant), itself possibly from a Dravidian source; aṅgalā is related to Sanskrit aṅgula (finger, narrow space) and the sense of a confined or marked-out place. The compound has no direct European cognates.

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

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