Dear Jim, and all group member,
I have a Pali book (in Thai) written by Supapan Na Bangchang. In the
introduction, she mentioned briefly about the history and the controversy
between the 3 major school of Pali grammar; the kaccayana, the moggallana,
and the saddaniti. She gave a long list of references from English, Thai,
and Burmese literatures
For Kaccayana, she summarized 3 main ideas regarding its origin.
1) It was all written by Ven.Kaccayana during the Buddha time. The Buddha
gave a brief direction and katha, then Ven.Kaccayana wrote the book from the
guideline of the Buddha’s teaching. She refered to Suttanidesa and
Apadanaatthakatha, which mentioned about background of Ven.Kaccayana. In the
Ganthavongsa, written by Ven.Pannananda of Burma said that Ven.Kaccayana
wrote 6 books, kaccayanagantha, mahaniruttigantha, culaniruttigantha,
nettigantha, patakopadesagantha, and vannanitigantha.
2) Only some parts of the kaccayana grammar were written by Ven.Kaccayana.
The main points were written by Ven.Kaccayana but the commentary and example
were added in later. She gave reference from The Pali literature of Ceylon,
and Dict. of Pali Proper Name.
3) It was written later Ven.Kaccayana. She listed 3 reasons supporting this
idea. The main points are there are some completely opposite ideas between
the Kaccayana and Moggallana, and the Saddaniti. Another supporting evidence
is some examples in the text mentioned about some incidents much later then
the Buddha time.
With appreciation.
Have to run.
Num
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Anderson" <jimanderson_on@...>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 10:20 PM
Subject: [palistudy] kaccaayanappakara.na
> Dear Group,
>
> For the past few days I've been doing some background research on the
> traditional Pali grammars. I have been particularly interested in the
> problem of who was the Kaccayana that wrote the famous grammar. I
> think most, if not all, of the modern scholars trained in Western
> methodologies consider this grammar to have come into existence
> sometime after Buddhaghosa, perhaps around the 7th-8th cent. CE. If
> one accepts this, then one would have to rule out Mahaakaccaayana, the
> Buddha's great disciple, as its author -- leaving one to think that
> this must be the work of a later Kaccayana. However, I have done some
> investigation and found that, according to the Theravada tradition,
> the author of the grammar is indeed the great Kaccayana who lived at
> the time of the Buddha. According to Buddhaghosa's commentary on the
> Apadana, Mahaakaccaana (another spelling) expounded the
> Kaccaayanappakara.na, Mahaaniruttippakara.na, and the Nettippakara.na
> in the midst of the assembly and this led the Buddha to declare him
> foremost in analyzing in detail what is spoken in brief (see the quote
> below). In the Cullaganthava.msa (small book history), a late text
> written in Burma by Nandapa~n~na, six books are ascribed to
> Mahaakaccaayana which include the same above three plus the following
> three additional books: cullaniruttigantha, pe.takopadesagantha, and
> va.n.naniitigantha. According to this history, all the arahants who
> were at the rehearsals of the three famous councils are given the
> designation of poraa.nas as well as a.t.thakathaacariyas, except
> Mahaakaccaayana, who is unique in being designated a one of a kind
> tividhanaamakaacariya. The aacariyas (such as Buddhaghosa) who follow
> and wrote important works are designated ganthakaarakaacariyas. Their
> names (but many are anonymous) and their works are listed in this very
> interesting little history. I did a rough count and came up with 116
> authors. Also the Saddaniiti very frequently mentions and quotes from
> a work called the Niruttipi.taka (which may be the same as the
> Mahaanirutti) and ascribes the Mahaakaccaayana as its author.
>
> Here's the Apadaana commentary quote:
>
> Attano pubbapatthanaavasena kaccaayanappakara.na.m
> mahaaniruttippakara.na.m nettippakara.nanti pakara.nattaya.m
> sa"nghamajjhe byaakaasi. Atha santu.t.thena bhagavataa “etadagga.m,
> bhikkhave, mama saavakaana.m sa"nkhittena bhaasitassa vitthaarena
> attha.m vibhajantaana.m yadida.m mahaakaccaano”ti (a. ni. 1.188, 197)
> etadagga-.t.thaane .thapito aggaphalasukhena vihaasiiti. Ap-a 491
>
> In our study of grammatical suttas, I have chosen the first one from
> Kaccayana's grammar for which I will be providing further material
> later on. Here's the sutta:
>
> 1. attho akkharasa~n~naato. (ie. the meaning is correctly understood
> through the letters)
>
> Best wishes,
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>