Dear AL and DC,

as Ardavarz pointed out in his post, ariyasaavaka is a compound, and decomposing a compound, most often than not, depends on its context. A question like this present some degree of ambiguity, it is important we know if the authors quoted are referring to the same text (Pali passage) and the same usage of the compound.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, D.C. Wijeratna wrote:

May be the real meaning of saavaka is not disciple.

> I have a quick question about the translation of "ariyasaavaka".
> Bhikkhu Bodhi and Nyanaponika Thero translate this as "noble
> disciple", while Thanissaro Bhikkhu and the PTS translate this as
> "disciple of the noble ones". I understand that these are
> not mutually exclusive translations, but one is certainly more
> specific than the other.