Dear Robert Eddison (and Tzungkuen)


You wrote:

"In traditional-style Pali education the student would memorize the
whole text(1203 verses) and then study a commentary to learn what the
words mean. I'm told they still do it this way in Burma and in some
of the more conservative Pali schools in Sri Lanka."

Yes, you are right. They still do. I have a Pali Nissaya copy of
Abhidhaanappadiipikaa. The Nissaya author, Sayadaw Ashin Kelaasa,
wrote in the introduction to his work that he, as a fifteen-years-old
saama.nera, studied Kaccaayana Saddaa in 3 months, and memorised 2
gaathaas of Abhidhaanappadiipikaa and recited them to his teacher
Sayadaw each day. Due to this rgular effort, when he sat for
examinations in later years, he no longer needed to learn
Abhidhaanappadiipikaa again because he had already mastered it.

In fact, when he said he studied Kaccaayana Saddaa, he must have
meant that he memorised it in portions first and learnt explanations
from his teacher Sayadaw each day for 3 months.

Sayadaw Ashin Kelaasa is also one of the Sayadaws who have undertaken
to write some parts of the multi-volumes Tipi.taka Pali - Myanmar
Dictionaries.

By the way, the term "Ashin" in his name, Ashin Kelaasa, means
Saami.

With kind regards,

Suan

http://www.bodhiology.org

--- In Pali@..., Robert Eddison <robedd@...> wrote:

Tzungkuen:

>I deeply appreciate your much helpful explanation.
>But what is Abhidhaanappadiipikaa? a grammar book ?

Dear Tzungkuen,

The Abhidhaanappadiipikaa is commonly referred to as the first Pali
dictionary, though it is really a thesaurus. It was composed by the
grammarian Moggallaana in 12th century Ceylon. It lists groups of
synonyms
in quatrains, with nouns grouped together according to their gender.
In
traditional-style Pali education the student would memorize the whole
text
(1203 verses) and then study a commentary to learn what the words
mean. I'm
told they still do it this way in Burma and in some of the more
conservative Pali schools in Sri Lanka.


>And can you give me the details of Childers' dictionary including its
publisher.

"A Dictionary of the Pali Language" by Robert Caesar Childers (London
1874).

My own copy was published by the Buddha Sasana Council Press, Kaba-
Aye,
Burma in 1974. I believe the most recent edition is from some
publishing
house in India. A search of http://www.bookfinder.com/ came up with
several
new and used copies, with a price range from $25 to $490 (if you want
a
first edition).

The search also came up with a Pali grammar by Childers, which I
hadn't
heard of before. Has anyone seen this?

In some ways I prefer Childers' dictionary to the PED, even though it
came
out in the very early days of western Pali scholarship. The numerous
sample
sentences he gives to illustrate the use of words are often
remarkably well
translated, putting later scholars like Woodward and Mrs. Rhys Davids
to
shame. In my estimation Childers was also a more careful
lexicographer than
T.W. Rhys Davids and Stede. The errors and omissions in his dictionary
largely arise from the very limited range of texts he had to work
with,
whereas those in the PED appear to be the result of slovenliness and
haste.
Another advantage is that Childers included all the words in the
Abhidhaanappadiipikaa, some of which are omitted in the PED. This
makes him
a useful source for reading post-canonical texts.

Finally, I should mention that his dictionary is in English
alphabetical
order. When it was published he came in for some criticism for this
from
the crustier sort of Sanskrit scholars, but it does mean a beginner
in Pali
can look up words more quickly than in the PED or Buddhadatta.

Best wishes,

Robert