Maudgalyāyana features prominently both as a filial son and as a devout monk in the Yulanpen Sūtra. This Sūtra bears the compound word yulanpen in its title. The headword pen is a common noun in Chinese, meaning ‘basin’, ‘vessel’ or ‘bowl’, whereas its disyllabic dependent or modifier yulan does not make any sense in and of itself except understood as a transliteration of an Indic word that relates to the offering ritual performed on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but it is not clear as to what is exactly meant by yulan in its Indic origin because of lack of the original text(s) of the Sūtra for reference.

Etymological Interpretations by Monk Scholars from Tang-Song China

Around the mid-seventh century, the Tang dynasty (618–907) monk scholar Xuanying (fl. 645) provided a detailed explanation of the word yulanpen in the Sounds and Meanings of All Scriptures in the Buddhist Canon (Yiqie jing yinyi, C056n1163_013):

Clearly, Monk Xuanying considers yulanpen or wulanpona not a native Chinese word but a transliteration of an Indic word or phrase, meaning ‘hanging upside down’.