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upādānakkhandhesu
upādānakkhandha
masc loc pl of upādānakkhandha (noun)
- aggregates that are clung to; physical and mental conglomerations that are held onto as a self; lit. mass of taking near
Built from
- upa — prefix · near, alongside
Spatial imagery of approach and proximity; cognates: Greek hypo-, Latin sub-, English up. The prefix concretizes 'taking near' as grasping fuel toward oneself.
- ā — prefix · toward
Reverses and directs motion toward the speaker; cognates: Sanskrit ā. Works with upa to intensify the sense of drawing close and taking up.
- dhā — root · place, put, hold
Sanskrit and Pali √dhā, cognate with English do, Greek thē- (thesis). In upādāna, the root carries the sense of holding or gripping something as one's own.
- na — ending · agent noun
Masculine agent noun ending -na (and -ana variants), forming gerunds and action nouns; here marks upādāna as the action of taking-up and the clinging itself.
- khandha — root · aggregate, heap, mass
Sanskrit skandha; both from Indo-European √skend-/√skand- (scatter, heap up into a mass). The word denotes a collection or congeries of phenomena.
- e — ending · locative plural marker
Locative ending -e (plural) places the five aggregates spatially as the field or locus of clinging in the doctrine of dependent origination.
- su — ending · locative plural
Pali loc pl ending -su combines with -e to mark the plural dative/locative sense: 'in the aggregates, among the aggregates that are clung to'.
Analysis. upādāna (taking-up, clinging, as fuel to fire) + khandha (aggregate, mass, heap); the five khandhas (rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, viññāṇa) insofar as they are the objects of clinging and fuel for becoming (bhava).
Etymology. upādāna from upa- (near, alongside) + ā- (toward) + √dhā (place, put), lit. 'placing alongside oneself'; khandha cognate with Sanskrit skandha, both from √skand- (scatter, heap); the compound denotes the five aggregates as the vehicle of dukkha (suffering) because they are mistaken for a permanent self and clung to.