‹ Back to the text

saṅkhārāatītānāgatapaccuppannā

saṅkhāra

nominative plural feminine, appearing in a compound nominal phrase: saṅkhāra-atīta-anāgata-paccuppanna ("formations [of the] past, future, present"); the surface form shows elision of word boundaries in continuous recitation

1. mental formations, volitional constructions
2. conditioned things, conditioned phenomena
3. habitual patterns of intention

Built from

• saṁ — prefix · together, completely
  Brings components into a unified construction; here the 'm' assimilates to the following 'kh' (saṁ + khāra > saṅkhāra).
• khāra — stem · making, doing
  From √kr̥ (cognate with English craft, create); denotes the act of constructing or putting together.
• ā — ending · nominative plural feminine
  Marks the nominative plural of the feminine stem; in compound strings, individual word boundaries collapse in rapid recitation.

Analysis. saṅkhāra (formations) + atīta (past) + anāgata (future) + paccuppanna (present): a triadic formula enumerating mental formations across the three temporal modes. In the Abhidhamma, saṅkhāra denotes the second aggregate (cetasika, mental concomitants) and the second link of dependent origination, representing the volitional impulses (cetanā) that condition rebirth.

Etymology. saṅkhāra from saṁ- (together) + kāra (making, doing), from √kr̥ (make, do); cognate with Sanskrit kāra and the root seen in Pali karoti (does). The image is of things "made together" or "put together", hence constructed, conditioned phenomena—anything that is compounded by causes. In early Buddhist psychology, this includes both the subtle volitional intention at the moment of death (maraṇāsaṅkhāra) that seals rebirth and the gross bodily and verbal formations (kāya- and vāci-saṅkhāra) that arise in conscious activity.

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

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