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indriyesu

indriya

nt loc pl of indriya (noun); masc loc pl of indriya (adj); nt loc pl of indriya (adj)

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, the sky-god
  A proper name (Vedic king of gods) used as the stem. The image of divine kingship and sovereign power underlies the later meaning of 'faculty' as a governing force.
• -ya — ending · possessive suffix, belonging to
  Forms adjectives meaning 'belonging to' or 'of the nature of'; here it nominalized the proper name to mean 'the powers/faculties (as if) of Indra'.

Etymology. From Indra, the Vedic sky-god and king of the gods, with the possessive suffix -ya ('belonging to'). The concrete image is of powers or faculties as the prerogatives of a divine ruler; in Buddhist psychology, the five indriya (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) are the sense-doors, and the six higher ones (faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, vitality) are mental faculties that govern the path to liberation. The word carries no Indo-European cognates beyond the name Indra itself.

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

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