The "word by word" commentary on the verses of Dhammapada has been
translated by Carter and Palihawadana in a work on that text published by
the Oxford University Press in 1987. It gives the reader an idea of the
technique employed by the commentaries in explaining a text.

The commentaries bear considerable similarity to the extremely numerous
vyaakhyaas in Sanskrit literature.Dhammapala the commetator who is next in
importance to Buddhaghosa, was an extremely erudite Sanskrit scholar.

BTW the a.t.thakathaas are not "word by word" commentariess.They comment
only on words and concepts that they think are difficult or that deserve
detailed explanation.

Some of the modern writers on the A.t.thkathaa texts are E.W. Adikaram,
Sodo Mori, Toshichi Endo and Friedgard Lottomoser.

Mahinda

On 3/17/08, Jim Anderson <jimanderson_on@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Jon,
>
> I'm probably not the right person to answer your questions but will
> try the best I can.
>
> > Jim or Mahinda,
> >
> > 1. Do most commentaries remain untranslated into English?
>
> Yes. I don't know of any complete English translation of the
> commentaries (a.t.thakathaa-s) for the Vinayapi.taka and the first
> four nikaayas of the Suttantapi.taka but portions have been
> translated. Most of the available translations are for works found in
> the Khuddakanikaaya and the Abhidhammapi.taka.
>
> > 2. Are there many commentaries (atha-katha) and sub-commentaries
> > (tika?) that use stories like the Dhammapada Commentary?
>
> I think you will probably find stories here and there throughout most
> of the commentaries. The English translation (by Burlingame) of the
> Dhammapada commentary leaves out the word-by-word commentary on the
> verses as is also the case with Cowell's Jaataka translation except
> for the occasional footnote. I'm not sure of the situation with the
> subcommentaries.
>
> > 3. Do you know a good description and explanation of Athakathas and
> > Tikas?
>
> No, not off-hand nor do I know of any work to point you to that can
> provide a good description and explanation in English. You might try
> the English introductions to the commentaries published by PTS like
> the one for the Diighanikaayat.t.hakathaa-pura.na.tiikaa for a
> general introduction to .tiikaa-s. The Visuddhimagga is a commentary
> and ~Naa.namoli's translation will give you some idea of what a
> commentary does.
>
> > They seem to maybe play a linguistic role too by clearing up any
> > ambiguity in the meaning of the text.
>
> Yes, I agree and they do play a very important linguistic role in
> explaining the meaning of words and phrases in the Tipi.taka. And
> the .tiikaa-s explain the a.t.thakathaa-s. Instead of two layers of
> commentaries, there can also be three layers as with the
> Abhidhammapi.taka: a.t.thakathaa, muula.tiikaa, and anu.tiikaa. The
> amount of material available in Pali is enormous but most of it
> remain untranslated into English.
>
> Best wishes,
> Jim
>
>
>


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