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yassindriyāni

indriya

nominative plural neuter, possessive compound in nominative plural; surface form yassindriyāni is genitive singular possessive → nominative plural of indriya ('whose faculties')

1. faculty, sense-power
2. controlling force
3. spiritual faculty

Built from

• yassa — prefix · whose, of which
  Genitive singular masculine/neuter of the relative pronoun yo. Marks possession or relation in compounds.
• indriya — root · faculty, power
  From Indra, the Vedic power-wielder; -ya forms a possessive adjective. In Buddhist texts, denotes the six controlling faculties of mind and sense.

Analysis. yassa (genitive singular of yo 'whose') + indriyāni (nominative plural neuter of indriya 'faculties'). The compound is fronted: 'whose faculties', used attributively or predicatively in contexts of mastery and restraint.

Etymology. indriya derives from Indra (the Vedic sky-god, wielder of power and the thunderbolt); the suffix -ya marks possession of the quality. The root sense is 'ruling power' or 'dominion'. Cognate with English indigo through Greek indikon, though the Pali word's etymology goes to Vedic Indra. In Buddhist psychology, indriya denotes the five or six controlling faculties (saddhā, viriya, sati, samādhi, paññā — faith, energy, mindfulness, collectedness, wisdom — or with śīla, virtue).

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

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