[Buddha-l] Dharmapala

Dan Lusthaus vasubandhu at earthlink.net
Fri Jul 16 14:35:08 MDT 2010


Lance responded to my response:

>> Right or wrong, the MA redactors -- prone to hyperbole in this profile --
>> saw an opportunity to read -putta here as "son."
>
> They are writing at a different time and place and don't understand this
> usage.

And then:

>> Walshe -- rightly or wrongly -- takes Vajirapāṇī as the name of the
>> yakkha.
>
> He is following the commentary.

So Vajirapāṇī is or isn't a proper name of a yakkha depending on whether one 
is reading the comm. to the Digha passage or the Majjhima passage. Ok. 
Inconsistent, but ok.

>> The sutta from the Anguttara is another weird text. An unnamed monk
>> claims
>> he was offended (āsajja) by Sariputta (son of Sari, or a Sari clansman?)
>>
> It's a metronymic: son of the woman Sārī where Sārī could either be a
> personal name or a clan name. Such names are common in early inscriptions.

Thanks. I should probably have mentioned (and do so now not for your 
benefit, since I'm sure this is obvious to you) that the commentators to 
this passage offer as an explanation of the otherwise unspecified "offense" 
(āsajja) that it consisted of Sariputta's robe brushing against the offended 
monk not because they have the lost transcripts to the hearing, but as a pun 
on āsajja.

PTS Pali-Eng Dict, p. 114:

Āsajja

Āsajja (indecl.) [ger. of āsādeti, Caus. of āsīdati, ā + sad; Sk. āsādya] --  
1. sitting on, going to, approaching; allocated, belonging to; sometimes 
merely as prep. acc. "near"
[...] 2. put on to (lit. sitting or sticking on), hitting, striking S i.127 
(khaṇuŋ va urasā ā. nibbijjapetha Gotamā "ye've thrust as 't were your 
breast against a stake. Disgusted, come ye hence from Gotama"
[...]  3. knocking against or "giving one a setting -- to", insulting, 
offending, assailing D i.107
[...] 4. "sitting on", i. e. attending constantly to, persevering, 
energetically, with energy or emphasis, willingly, spontaneously [...] See 
[...] āsajjana.

Āsajjana

Āsajjana  "knocking against", setting on, insult, offence Vin ii.203 (˚ŋ 
Tathāgataŋ an insult to the T.; quoted as such at VvA 55, where two meanings 
of ā. are given, corresponding to āsajja 1 & 3, viz. samāgama & ghaṭṭana,...

Ah, the commentator's art!!

Dan 



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