[Buddha-l] Cross vs. parallel cousins

jkirk jkirk at spro.net
Fri Aug 29 17:26:24 MDT 2008


So your question is about the phrase "chief consort"?  
Or questioning why S's mother was chief consort? 
I'm still confused as to what you are asking about. 

Remember, it's all foklore--you can't expect these tales to be
any more logical than other legends or folklore.

Some scholars refer to Shuddhodana as a King, others as a
Chief--on the basis that they consider his kingdom a small hill
tribe estate, not a "real kingdom"--often also referred to as a
republic.

But why are you concerned about these items?

Best, Joanna



-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Mitchell
Ginsberg
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 10:44 AM
To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Cross vs. parallel cousins


Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:34:07 -0600
hello Joanna,
Thank you for explaining the 'preferential' part of the term. I
understand and have seen that (as in some friends from Iran in
which the husband and the wife are parallel first cousins (whose
fathers are brothers) and for whom that seemed to be the obvious
choice from quite early in life .... 
I was using preferential in terms of Siddhattha and Nanda (whose
mothers were sisters and who had the same father), about S's
mother being the chief consort and N's mother taking that role
after S's death. (Following the description on Malalasekera's
large Dictionary of Pali Proper Names.) I am not sure what "chief
consort" meant in that society, and I wonder about the
description of the father as king, but that was my meaning toward
the end of my own post (where I wrote in part "I take it that
Siddhartha was born of the privileged mother/sister in this
story. Are there passages that explain that either in the
Tipitaka or Atthakatha or Tika (or elsewhere)?"

Thank you. 
Mitchell 


      
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