‹ Back to the text

sugatiṁ

sugati

accusative singular feminine noun

1. good destination
2. happy rebirth
3. favorable state

Built from

• su — prefix · well, good
  Same Indo-European root as Greek eu-. Here expressing what is easy and auspicious.
• gat — root · go, destination
  √gam; originally spatial motion, metaphorically extended to a state or condition one 'arrives at' through karma.
• i — stem · feminine abstract
  Nominalizing suffix that creates abstract nouns, particularly feminine forms denoting conditions or states.
• ṁ — ending · accusative singular
  Marks the direct object or goal; here the happy rebirth or state the actor is moving toward.

Analysis. su- (well, good) + gati (going, destination, state of rebirth). In Buddhist doctrine, one of the five or six destinies (gati) to which beings are reborn; contrasted with dugati (bad destination). Rebirth in the human realm or heavenly realms is considered sugati.

Etymology. su- is the Indo-European root found in Greek eu- (eulogy, genuine). Gati derives from √gam (to go). The compound emphasizes the spatial imagery of a path forward into a desirable future state.

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

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