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rājagahe

rājagaha

nt acc pl of rājagaha (noun); nt loc sg of rājagaha (noun)

1. name of a city; capital of Magadha; modern day Rajgir; lit. king's house

Built from

• rāja — root · king
  From PIE *reg- 'to rule, straighten'. Cognate with Latin rex (king) and English reign. The sense develops from 'one who rules in a straight line' (order) to 'sovereign'.
• gaha — root · house, dwelling
  From Sanskrit gṛha-, related to the root √gṛh 'to seize, hold'. Cognate with Latin horreum 'storehouse' (from 'enclosed place'). The spatial sense of 'enclosed place for holding' remains concrete.

Analysis. rāja- (king) + -gaha (house, dwelling); a dvandva or tatpuruṣa compound. The city name is a transparent back-formation from the appellative sense 'king's house' or 'royal abode'.

Etymology. rāja from Sanskrit rājan-, Indo-European *reg- 'to rule' (Latin rex, English reign); gaha from Sanskrit gṛha- 'house', cognate with Latin horreum 'storehouse' and Greek χορός 'enclosure'. The compound exemplifies Pali's habit of naming significant places by their function or patron.

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

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