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upādānakkhandhānaṁ

upādānakkhandha

genitive plural

1. clinging aggregates
2. the five aggregates subject to clinging

Built from

• upa — prefix · close, up to
  Proximity and grasping: 'up close to' the object, taking it in hand.
• ā — prefix · toward
  Reverses the direction of motion; combined with √dhā it frames the holding and seizing.
• dhā — root · place, put, hold
  Common root cognate with Latin facere (make, do) at deeper layers; here means to grasp and hold onto.
• na — ending · nominative formant
  Participial adjective: things that are grasped, clung-to.
• khandha — stem · aggregate, heap
  Five-fold division of conditioned existence; treated as nominal stem in compounds.
• ānaṁ — ending · genitive plural
  Marks the plural genitive form, indicating 'of the aggregates' in the accusative or dative context of philosophical discourse.

Analysis. upādāna (clinging, grasping) + khandha (aggregate); the five heaps of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness that constitute personhood and are subject to the defilements. In doctrinal usage, these are distinguished from the bare khandhas as the substrates of craving and attachment.

Etymology. upādāna from upa- (up close, grasping) + ā- (toward) + √dhā (place, hold): 'taking up close', the fuel seized by craving. khandha cognate with Sanskrit skandha, lit. 'shoulder, mass, heap'; used metaphorically for the bundles of phenomena that compose experience.

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

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