Gandhabba, Gandhabbā: 6 definitions
Introduction:
Gandhabba means something in Buddhism, Pali. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
A class of semi divine beings who inhabit the Catumma harajika realm and are the lowest among the devas (D.ii.212). They are generally classed together with the Asuras and the Nagas (E.g., A.iv.200, 204, 207). Beings are born among them as a result of having practised the lowest form of sila (D.ii.212, 271).
It is a disgrace for a monk to be born in the Gandhabba world (D.ii.221, 251, 273f). The Gandhabbas are regarded as the heavenly musicians, and Pancasikha, Suriyavaccasa and her father Timbaru are among their number (D.ii.264).
They wait on such devas as Sakka, and the males among them form the masculine counterpart of the acchara, the nymphs. Their king is Dhatarattha, ruler of the eastern quarter (D.ii.257). Other chieftains are also mentioned (D.ii.258): Panada, Opamanna, Sakkas charioteer Matali, Cittasena, Nala and Janesabha.
The Gandhabbas are sometimes described as vihangama (going through the air) (A.ii.39; AA.ii.506). In the Atanatiya Sutta (D.iii.203, 204) the Gandhabbas are mentioned among those likely to trouble monks and nuns in their meditations in solitude. The Buddha says that beings are born among the Gandhabakayika deva because they wish to be so; they are described as dwelling in the fragrance of root wood, of bark and sap, and in that of flowers and scents (S.iii.250f).
It is often stated that the Gandhabbas preside over conception; this is due to an erroneous translation of the word gandhabba in passages (E.g., M.i.157, 265f) dealing with the circumstances necessary for conception (matapitaro ca sannipatita honti, mata ca utuni hoti, gandhabbo ca paccupatthito hoti).
The Commentaries (E.g., MA.i.481f ) explain that here gandhabba means tatrupakasatta - tasmim okase nibbattanako satto - meaning a being fit and ready to be born to the parents concerned. The Tika says that the word stands for gantabba. See also Gandhabbaraja.
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An attendant of King Eleyya and a follower of Uddaka Ramaputta. A.ii.180.
Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
gandhabba : (m.) 1. a musician; a heavenly musician belonging to the demigods; 2. a being ready to take a new existence.
Gandhabbā, (f.) music, song J.II, 254; VvA.139; Miln.3; °ṃ karoti to make music J.II, 249; III, 188. (Page 244)
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Gandhabba, (Vedic gandharva) 1. a musician, a singer J.II, 249 sq.; III, 188; VvA.36, 137.—2. a Gandharva or heavenly musician, as a class (see °kāyika) belonging to the demigods who inhabit the Cātummahārājika realm D.II, 212; A.II, 39 (as birds); IV, 200 (with asurā & nāgā), 204, 207; cp. S.III, 250 sq.; also said to preside over child-conception: M.I, 265 sq.; Miln.123 sq.
gandhabba (ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[gamu+tabba．gandha+abba+a．gandha+ava+a]
[ဂမု+တဗ္ဗ။ ဂန္ဓ+အဗ္ဗ+အ။ ဂန္ဓ+အဝ+အ]
[Pali to Burmese]
gandhabba—
(Burmese text): (၁) ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗနတ်။ (၂) ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗမည်သောသူ။ (၃) သဘင်အနုပညာသည်။ (က) ကချေသည်။ (ခ) အဆိုတော်။ (ဂ) စောင်းသမား။ (၄) (က) သီးချင်းသံ။ (ခ) စောင်းသံ။ (၅) သီဆိုခြင်း။ (၆) အနုပညာကျမ်း။ (၇) မြင်း။ (၈) မျောက်။ (၉) (အမိဝမ်းသို့) ကပ်ရောက် လတ္တံ့သော သတ္တဝါ။ (တိ) (၁ဝ) ရောက်အပ်-ရောက်သင့်-ရောက်ထိုက်-သော။ ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗကာယိက-လည်းကြည့်။ ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗဟတ္ထ,ဂန္ဓဗ္ဗဟတ္ထက-ကြည့်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Ganda Bbanat. (2) One who is called Ganda Bban. (3) The art of Thabin. (a) Kachay. (b) Singer. (c) Sawmaker. (4) (a) Individual sound. (b) Sawm sound. (5) Singing. (6) Art manuscript. (7) Horse. (8) Monkey. (9) (To the womb) a creature that is attached. (10) Appropriate - suitable - fitting. Look at Ganda Bbanmaya. Look at Ganda Bbanhat.
Gandhabba (in Pali) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 乾闥婆 [gān tà pó]: “gandharva”.
2) 健達縛 [jiàn dá fù]: “gandharva”.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Starts with (+14): Gandhabbabhavana, Gandhabbadeva, Gandhabbadevacchara, Gandhabbadevaccharasanghasevita, Gandhabbadevagana, Gandhabbadevaghata, Gandhabbadevanikaya, Gandhabbadevaputta, Gandhabbadevaraja, Gandhabbadevasamuha, Gandhabbadevata, Gandhabbadhipa, Gandhabbadvara, Gandhabbagati, Gandhabbahattha, Gandhabbahatthaka, Gandhabbaka, Gandhabbakarana, Gandhabbakaya, Gandhabbakayika.
Full-text (+67): Gantabba, Gandhabbadevacchara, Gandhabbakayika, Gandhabbadevata, Gandhabbagati, Anugantabba, Gandhabbi, Gandhabbaraja, Agantabba, Adhigantabba, Uggamitabba, Avagantabba, Upagacchitabba, Abhigantabba, Gandhabbahatthaka, Gandhabbadevanikaya, Gandhabbadevaraja, Gandhabbadeva, Gandhabbasuraggapujita, Gandhabbadevaputta.
Relevant text
Search found 28 books and stories containing Gandhabba, Gandhabbā, Gandhabbas, Gamu-tabba; (plurals include: Gandhabbas, Gandhabbās, Gandhabbases, tabbas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Maha Buddhavamsa—The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
The Story of Deva Gopaka < [Chapter 39 - How the Āṭānāṭiya Paritta came to be Taught]
Part 1 - The Āṭānāṭiya Paritta < [Chapter 39 - How the Āṭānāṭiya Paritta came to be Taught]
Part 4 - The Delightful Satisfaction of Sakka < [Chapter 39 - How the Āṭānāṭiya Paritta came to be Taught]
Dhammapada (Illustrated) (by Ven. Weagoda Sarada Maha Thero)
Verse 104-105 - The Story of the Brāhmin Anatthapucchaka < [Chapter 8 - Sahassa Vagga (Thousands)]
Verse 419-420 - The Story of the Skull-Tapper < [Chapter 26 - Brāhmaṇa Vagga (The Brāhmaṇa)]
Verse 338-343 - The Young Sow < [Chapter 24 - Taṇhā Vagga (Craving)]
The Catu-Bhanavara-Pali (critical study) (by Moumita Dutta Banik)
(8) Atanatiya-sutta < [Chapter 4 - Subject Matter of the Third Bhanavara]
The fourth Bhanavara (Introduction) < [Chapter 5 - Subject Matter of the Fourth Bhanavara]
(2) Mahasamaya Sutta < [Chapter 4 - Subject Matter of the Third Bhanavara]
Strīkāmā vai gandharvāḥ. Spirit-possession, women, and initiation in Vedic India < [Volume 76 (2015)]
Lay-Life of India as reflected in Pali Jataka (by Rumki Mondal)
Part 3.10 - Occupations of ancient Indians according to the Jātakas < [Chapter 3 - Reflection of Indian Lay-life in the Jātakas]
Part 3.9 - Entertainment in ancient Indian according to the Jātakas < [Chapter 3 - Reflection of Indian Lay-life in the Jātakas]
Mahayana Dharani and Theravada Paritta (study) (by Biswajit Sankar Bhattacharyya)
Part 2.29 - The Āṭānāṭiya Sutta (introduction) < [Chapter 3 - A survey of the Paritta Literature in the Theravāda]