Re: Question on mu.n.da

Dear Bryan,

mu.n.da seems to be a fairly flexible word... in the Sa.myutta
commentary there is a passage:

pātova muṇḍaghaṭaṃ gahetvā udakatitthaṃ gacchati

which I take to refer to a bare pot.

CPED has:

muṇḍa: shaven; void of vegetation; bare. (adj.)

which seems to expand the meaning.

As to the passage in question, my understanding is as follows - it is a
wheel with a thousand spokes (sahassaara.m), after (upari) every ten
spokes (dassana.m dassana.m) of which (yassa - I take this to refer to
the wheel, not the spokes), there is a single spoke that is
shaven/bare/etc. (mu.n.da), for the purpose of making sound
(saddakaraṇatthaṃ) when catching the wind (vātaṃ gahetvā). So, the
shaving seems to refer to a cut whistle hole of some sort... such that
the melody sounds like a well-played five-piece orchestra
(sukusalappatāḷitapañcaṅgikatūriyasaddo).

Best wishes,

Yuttadhammo

On 12/08/2011 05:45 PM, Bryan Levman wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> Does anyone have an idea of what the word mu.n.da means in the following passage from
>
> the commentary on the Ratanasutta of the SuttaNipaata (p.172):
>
> seyyathida.m ra~n~no cakkavattissacakkaratana.m uppajjatiindaniilama.nimayanaabhi
>
> sattaratanamayasahassaara.m pavaa.lamayanemi, rattasuva.n.namayasandhi, yassadasanna.m
>
> dasanna.m araana.m uparieka.m mu.n.daara.m hotivaata.m gahetvaa saddakara.nattha.m,
>
> yenakatosaddosukusalappataa.litapa~nca"ngikatuuriyasaddoviyahoti
>
> (The Tathaagata is being compared to a jewel of the highest value, which of course, he is superior to)
>
> I tentatively translate as:
>
> namely the jewel
> (treasure) of the wheel of a universal (wheel-turning) monarch arises, the
> navel of which is made of sapphires, a thousand spokes are made of the seven
> jewels, the rim of the wheel is made of coral, the link [axle?] is made of
> burnished gold, the appearance of the wheel above the spokes is one muṇḍa spoke (mu.n.da-ara.m),
> with (gahetvā) the wind producing a sound, like the sound made by the five kinds of
> musical instruments, well-played and highly skilled.
>
>
> Questions: why is dassanam repeated twice - meaning seeing over and over again?
> What does yassa refer to? the king or the wheel?
> What does the word mu.n.da mean? Typically it would mean "bare" (i. e. shaven or bald) but that doesn't seem to fit the context.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated,
>
> Metta,
>
> Bryan
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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