< Issue No. 7 (2011)Article
The muṇḍa/muṇḍaka crux: What does the word mean?
Levman, Bryan, University of Toronto
Abstract
This article examines previous scholarship on the genealogy of muṇḍa/muṇḍaka and concludes that it is of non Indo-Aryan origin. The primary meaning of the word is usually taken to mean “bald,” but it also has many additional connotations which do not appear to be connected with this primary meaning. It also occurs as a proper name, the name of an ethnic or tribal group, in place names and in a technical vocabulary associated with agriculture, architecture, chariot and wagon construction, torture, etc. The word mmuṇḍa is cognate with the Puṇḍra tribe of pre-Buddhist India, and possibly with the Mallas, the sub-Himalayan tribe who hosted the Buddha’s funeral. If one takes muṇḍa/muṇḍaka as an ethnic or tribal cognomen, many of the heretofore-unexplained meanings of the word are explainable, although the precise meaning still eludes us.