‹ Back to the text

moggallāna

moggalla

masc gen pl of moggalla (noun); masc voc sg of moggallāna (noun); nt voc sg of moggallāna (noun)

1. moggalla (masc): name of a minister
2. moggallāna (masc): name of an arahant monk; chief disciple; great disciple of the Buddha; foremost monk in psychic power; lit. descendent of Muggala
3. moggallāna (masc): family name; lit. descendent of Muggala
4. moggallāna (nt): name of an eminent grammatical treatise

Built from

• moggal — root · Muggala (proper name)
  A pre-Aryan personal name, of unknown etymology. This is the stem used in oblique cases and before suffixes.
• āna — ending · descendant of, family of
  Suffix marking descent or family relation, cognate with Sanskrit -āna and Latin -ānus (Romanus). Here it creates a patronymic: 'of the Muggala family.'

Analysis. mo + ggala + āna; moggalla is the oblique stem of Sanskrit muggala, a name; the suffix -āna marks descent or relation (like Latin -ānus, Greek -ανος). Moggallāna thus means 'descendant of Muggala,' a family name adopted by the arahant monk Kolita in the Canon.

Etymology. The name Muggala (Sanskrit muggala) is of pre-Aryan origin, possibly from a Dravidian or local Indian root. The suffix -āna (Sanskrit -āna, -ānaka) is Indo-European, cognate with Latin -ānus (e.g. Romanus), forming patronymics and family names. The word entered Pali as a proper name via Sanskrit.

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

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