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lokāyatamahāpurisalakkhaṇesu

lokāyatamahāpurisalakkhaṇa

nt loc pl of lokāyatamahāpurisalakkhaṇa (noun)

1. materialistic philosophy and the auspicious marks of a great man

Built from

• lokāyata — stem · worldly doctrine
  From loka (world) + āyata (extended); the Cārvāka school teaching that only the visible, material world exists.
• mahā — prefix · great
  From Indo-European *meg- (great); intensifies the following noun.
• purisa — root · man, person
  From Indo-European *per- (to go forward, prosper); Latin prōs, prīmus.
• lakkhaṇa — stem · mark, sign
  From √lakṣ (to see, point out); cognate with Latin lacere (to shine) and English lank (slender, marked out).
• e — ending · nominative plural
  Neuter nominative/accusative plural ending in -e; agrees with the feminine locative plural inflection.
• su — ending · locative plural
  Locative plural ending -su marks the grammatical location or context in which these marks appear.

Analysis. A compound uniting two distinct doctrinal concepts: lokāyata (the materialist philosophy denying karma and rebirth) + mahāpurisa-lakkhaṇa (the thirty-two marks of a great man). The term appears in canonical discussions where the Buddha's physical marks are contrasted with materialist denial of their significance.

Etymology. lokāyata from loka (world) + āyata (extended, stretched out) — 'worldly doctrine'; mahāpurisa from mahā (great) + purisa (man), from Indo-European *per- (to go forward, prosper); lakkhaṇa (mark, sign) from √lakṣ (to see, point out), cognate with Latin lacere and English lank. The compound juxtaposes two opposed frameworks: the materialist's dismissal of transcendent meaning and the Buddha's embodiment of karmic perfection in his superhuman form.

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

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