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indriyā

indriya

nt nom pl of indriya (noun); nt instr sg of indriya (noun); nt abl sg of indriya (noun); nt voc sg of indriya (noun); …

1. sense; mental faculty; power; lit. belonging to Inda
2. features; appearance; faculties
3. with senses; having mental faculties; lit. belonging to Inda
4. sense base; sense organ; lit. belonging to Inda

Built from

• Indra — root · Indra, sky-god
  The king of the Vedic gods, ruler of storms and senses. The form is a proper noun borrowed from Vedic Sanskrit.
• -ya — ending · possessive
  Adjective-forming suffix meaning 'belonging to' or 'of'; here nominalized to mean 'that which belongs to Indra', i.e., his domains (power, senses).

Etymology. From Indra (the Vedic sky-god, lord of the senses and powers) + -ya (possessive suffix): 'belonging to Indra'. The mythological sense was literalized in Buddhist psychology as the six sense-faculties (cakkhu, sota, ghāna, jivhā, kāya, mano) and five spiritual faculties (saddhā, viriya, sati, samādhi, paññā).

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

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