Sanskrit ā- prefix (आ)

[Palzang Jangchub]

When used before a noun, is ā- (आ) ever simply a dative marker similar to the case ending -ya? The context I'm looking at it in makes it pretty clear that it's not the negating particle a- (अ).

Then again, I'm working with Tibetanized Sanskrit, so I suppose anything is possible...

This is the version of Monier Williams that is available to me: http://www.sanskrita.org/wiki/index.php?title=A

[dzogchungpa]

I was under the impression that it often functioned as a kind of intensifier, as in ānanda.

[Palzang Jangchub]

Some commentaries (e.g. Comm. on cf. Ragh. iii, 8) occasionally give to ā in this application the meaning samantāt, 'all through, completely', as ā-nīla, 'blue all round.'

I would think the above would be the case with Ānanda, out of all the definitions in Monier Williams, but then I'm limited to that resource.

[dzogchungpa]

Some commentaries (e.g. Comm. on cf. Ragh. iii, 8) occasionally give to ā in this application the meaning samantāt, 'all through, completely', as ā-nīla, 'blue all round.'

I would think the above would be the case with Ānanda, out of all the definitions in Monier Williams, but then I'm limited to that resource.

Yes, it corresponds to the kun in kun dga'.

[Palzang Jangchub]

Thank you for pointing out the Tibetan equivalent. I hadn't really been considering that ā- could mean "completely, fully" until our back and forth here. Perhaps that could work just as much as the dative "to."

Would that make Kuntuzangpo an "all around excellent guy"?

[dzogchungpa]

Would that make Kuntuzangpo an "all around excellent guy"?

Absolutely.