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Van: abhidhammika <suanluzaw@...>
Datum: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 15:58:58 -0000
Aan: <dhammastudygroup@yahoogroups.com>
Onderwerp: [dsg] Re: The Verse On The Buddha's Last Lunch: Anaadara?
Nina wrote and asked:

"Taking again the sentence: bhutassa ca suukaramaddavena:
The -ena ending is instrumentalis, not ablative. As I read in Warder,
which does not give many details, ablative would rather give the
cause, the reason of something. But Instrumentalis is more general,
has more meanings, not so definite. What do you think? it can
influence our translation."

Suan: In the case of the verse on the Buddha's last lunch, we do not even
need to think much about it. All we needed to do was to read
carefully the Buddha's own request on his choice of lunch as
described in Section 189 in the Mahaaparinibbana Suttam of Mahaavaggo
in Diighanikaayo.

Here is the Buddha's choice.

"Evam, bhante"ti kho cundo kammaaraputto bhagavato pa.tissutvaa
yam ahosi suukaramaddavam pa.tiyattam, tena bhagavantam parivisi.

Section 190, Mahaaparinibbana Suttam, Mahaavaggo, Diighanikaayo

"Cundo, the son of goldsmith, agreeing indeed with the Mighty One by
replying "As you asked, Lord", fed the Mighty One with the tender
pork cuisine which was prepared and cooked."

Nina, please pay attention to the predicate "tena bhagavantam
parivisi". The pronoun in the instrumental case ( tena ) refers to
the terder pork cuisine (neuter noun in nominative case in the sense
of being with, i.e, the instrumental case).

We could break up the compound statement "yam --- ahosi --, tena ---
parivisi" as follows.

1. There was the tender pork cuisine already prepared and cooked.
2. Cunda fed the Buddha with that.

Therefore, the Buddha had eaten lunch WITH tender pork cuisine.

Nina, please also pay attention to the Buddha's description of the
event using the Anaadara (disrespect/ regardless of / despite / no
comcern) syntax as follows.

Atha kho bhagavato cundassa kammaaraputtassa bhattam bhuttaavissa
kharo aabaadho uppajji, ..

Section 190, Mahaaparinibbana Suttam, Mahaavaggo, Diighanikaayo

"At that time, while (although) the Mighty One had eaten the food of
Cunda, of the son of goldsmith, severe disorder did happen anyway, …"

As you can spot in the Pali, by looking at the verbal adjectival
predicate "bhuttaavissa", we can rewrite the term "bhagavato"
as "bhagavassa" and know that the "-to" suffix in "bhagavato"
indicates the noun in the genetive case.

Therefore, we now know that the line "Bhuttassa ca suukaramaddavena"
in the verse is merely a summary perfectly in line with the Buddha's
own verbal statements on the event of his last lunch.

By the above grammartical analyses of the Buddha's own statements in
Section 189 and Section 190 of the Mahaaparinibbana Suttam,
Mahaavaggo,in Diighanikaayo, we now know for sure that the tender
pork cuisine was not the cause of the Buddha's diarrhoeaic blood
loss. The Buddha had taken the tender pork cuisine for the sole
purpose of preserving his physical strength.

As I have been basing my reasoning and conclusions entirely on the
grammartical analyses of Suttam statements and evidences, there is no
longer any room left for some uninformed or careless readers to
accuse Aacariya Buddhaghosa of creative commenting or inventing
stories.

Please view the following alternative translations of the line:

"Bhuttassa ca suukaramaddavena"

"While having eaten lunch with the tender pork cuisine"

"Despite having eaten lunch with the tender pork cuisine"

"Although having eaten lunch with the tender pork cuisine"

The above translations are exact and literal by following the strict
grammartical rule for Anaadara syntax with genetive case.

Nina wrote:
Dear Suan,
Thank you very much for a very convincing, clear and interesting explanation
of the sutta with the help of the grammar. It is such a
help to go deeper into grammar, and also to realize the importance of
grammar.
The dedication and conscientiousness of the commentators and teachers of old
really is inspiring. It exhorts us to be very precise in the Pali language
and its grammar.
With great appreciation,
Nina.