From the introduction to "Paali Literature and
Language by Wilhelm Geiger":

"anujaanaami bhikkhave sakaaya niruttiyaa
buddhavacana.m pariyaapu.nitu.m. Rys Davids and
Oldenberg translate this passage by "I allow you, oh
brethren, to learn the words of the Buddhas each in
his own dialect." This interpretation however is not
in harmony with that of Buddhaghosa, according to whom
it has been translated by "I ordain the words of
Buddha to be learnt in his own language (i.e. in
Maagadhii, the language used by Buddha himself)."
After repeated examinations of this passage I have
come to the conclusion that we have to stick to the
explanation given by Buddhaghosa. Neither the two
monks nor Buddha himself could have thought of
preaching in different dialects in different cases.
Here the question is merely whether the words of
Buddha might be translated into Sanskrit or not. This
is however clearly forbidden by the Master, at first
negatively and then positively by the injunction
beginning with anujaanaami. The real meaning of this
injunction is, as is also best in consonance with
Indian spirit, that there can be no other form of the
words of Buddha than in which the Master himself had
preached. Thus even in the life-time of Buddha people
were concerned about the way in which his teaching
might be handed down as accurately as possible, both
in form and in content. How much more must have been
the anxiety of the disciples after his death! The
external form was however Maagadhii, though according
to tradition it is Paali."

I've not included the footnotes.
Paul O'Cuana
--- Kumaara Bhikkhu <venkumara@...> wrote:

> At 07:20 PM 17-10-02, Ong Teng Kee wrote:
> >you can read in Taiping buddhist society daily from
> 8.oo pm to 10.00
>
> Thank you for the information.
>
> >pm.sakayanirutiya is about which language should be
> used to teach buddha
> >teaching-your own language or sanskrit.I think you
> should know where it is.
>
> I see now. You must be referring to sakaaya
> niruttiyaa. If this could be found among the Chinese
> scriptures, then we can be sure that there are at
> least fragments of equivalence to the Maha- and
> Cuu.lavagga of the Pali Vinaya Pi.taka.
>
> Incidentally, this matter came up in our class
> earlier. Perhaps the story may interest the members
> here.
>
> Two bhikkhus of brahman birth approached the Buddha
> and said that all sorts of monks were ruining the
> Buddha's words "sakaaya niruttiyaa". They then
> offered to render the Buddha's words in metrical
> verse. The Buddha rebuked for them for saying that
> and rejected it. He further imposed a dukka.ta for
> whoever or renders it so, and gave formal allowance
> "to master" (pariyaapu.nitu.m) Buddha's words
> "sakaaya niruttiyaa".
>
> Now here's the controversy:
> As you can see I left "sakaaya niruttiyaa"
> untranslated. Literally, it means "with own
> language/dialect". Modern translators translates it
> as "with *one's* own language/dialect", rendering
> the passage to mean that the monks were ruining the
> Buddha's words with *one's* own language, and the
> Buddha allowed monks to master the Buddha's words
> with *one's* own language.
>
> However, my teacher, basing on the commentarial
> gloss, says that it means "with *their* own
> language/dialect", rendering the passage to mean
> that the monks were ruining the Buddha's words with
> *their* own language, and the Buddha allowed monks
> to master the Buddha's words with *their* own
> language, which the commentary gloss as Magadhi,
> which is believed to be what we now call Pali.
>
> Can anyone throw more light to this?
>
> peace
>
> Ven Kum�ra
>
>

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/