The context shows that the word is an epithet of an Arahant, and that non-Buddhists were supposed to know what it meant. The compilers of the Nikāyas must therefore have considered the expression as pre-Buddhistic; but it has not yet been found in any pre-Buddhistic work. Mrs. Rhys Davids (Dhs. tr. 1099, quoting Chalmers J.R.A.S. Jan., 1898 suggests “he who has won through to the truth.” Had the early Buddhists invented a word with this meaning it would probably have been tathaṃgata, but not necessarily, for we have upadhī-karoti as well as upadhiṃ karoti
■ DN.i.12, DN.i.27, DN.i.46, DN.i.63; DN.ii.68, DN.ii.103, DN.ii.108 DN.ii.115, DN.ii.140, DN.ii.142; DN.iii.14, DN.iii.24 sq., DN.iii.32 sq., DN.iii.115, DN.iii.217, DN.iii.264 sq. DN.iii.273 sq.; SN.i.110 sq.; SN.ii.222 sq.; SN.iii.215; SN.iv.127, SN.iv.380 sq. AN.i.286; AN.ii.17, AN.ii.25, AN.ii.120; AN.iii.35, etc.; Snp.236, Snp.347, Snp.467 Snp.557, Snp.1114; Iti.121 sq.; Kp-a.196; Pts.i.121 sq.; Dhs.1099, Dhs.1117, Dhs.1234; Vb.325 sq., Vb.340, etc., etc.

• -balāni (pl.) the supreme intellectual powers of a T. usually enumerated as a set of ten: in detail at AN.v.33 sq = Pts.ii.174; MN.i.69; SN.ii.27; Cnd.466. Other sets of five at AN.iii.9; of six AN.iii.417 sq. (see bala);
• -sāvaka a disciple of the T. DN.ii.142; AN.i.90; AN.ii.4; AN.iii.326 sq. Iti.88; Snp.p.15.

Derivation uncertain. Buddhaghosa (DN-a.i.59–DN-a.i.67) gives eight explanations showing that there was no fixed tradition on the point, and that he himself was in doubt.