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vaggānamuddānaṁ

vaggānamuddhana

genitive plural of vaggānamuddhana (a compound noun), possibly resolved from sandhi contraction in the text; or alternately a scribal variant or misconstrual.

  1. group/verse-sealed (name of a textual division)
  2. collection marked by groups

Analysis. vaggāna-muddhana: vaggāna is the genitive plural of vagga 'group, section, verse-collection' (from √vaj 'divide'); muddhana appears to be a reduced or sandhi form related to muddha or muddhana 'sealed, marked, characterized'. The compound denotes collections organized by groupings, as in the verse-divisions of canonical texts.

Etymology. vagga (from √vaj 'divide', cognate with Latin vagus and Greek rhegnumi through the sense of separation) + muddhana (possibly related to muddhā 'sealed', from a root meaning 'to mark' or 'to head'). The term reflects the Pali textual tradition's method of organizing suttas into thematic groups.

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

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