Re: update (Mmd)

Dear Lance,

Thank-you very much and welcome! I'll just add a few comments.

> My inclination was to take mukha in the sense of 'principal, best,
> foremost part of anything'. So I would understand it as 'explaining
> just the most important part'. More idiomatically, 'Explaining the
> main part'.

The Abhidhaanappadiipikaa (Abh) gives the following 4 senses of
'mukha': mukhyopaayesu vadane aadismi.m mukham iirita.m / --Abh 913
.tiikaa: mukhye padhaane. upaaye hetumhi. vadane lapane. aadismi.m
pa.thame. I'd take the sense that you took it above to be in the
category of 'mukhye' (padhaane).

> But looking at the texts on my hard disk, it seems usually to be
> taken in the sense of 'entrance' by the later subcommentaries.
>
> Kkh-.t: mukhamattanidassanan ti pavesopaayamattanidassana.m.

This would be 'mukha' in the sense of 'upaaya', a way or means (of
entry).

Thanks for all the quotes which I have left out here.

> and a number of others.
>
> The idea here seems to be that of setting out the main points of a
> topic in brief. Of course, that will necessarily function as an
> introduction. So the later explanation in terms of a gateway or
means
> of entry also makes sense. Since Mmd is presumably a later work, we
> should probably follow the interpretation of the later
> subcommentaries. Perhaps also we should bear in mind that the title
> of a work is a literary conceit and might have been intended to be
> interpreted in more than one way.

That all sounds reasonable to me. Another helpful explanation of
'mukhamattanidassan.a.m' can be found in the .tiikaa for
Subodhaala"nkaara, v. 253 which too explains 'mukha' in the sense of a
door or entrance (avasesahetuuna.m ogaaha.nadvaaramattassa
nidassana.m). '-matta' is interpreted in the sense of avadhaara.na (=
eva) or saama~n~na (?). The whole passage would take quite a bit of
studying for me to get a better grasp of it though.

The word 'mukhamatta.m' occurs in the second introductory verse of
Mmd:

kaccaayana~nca muniva.n.nitabuddhimassa,
kaccaayanassa mukhamattamaha.m karissa.m,

And (having bowed to) Kaccaayana, I shall compose the Mukhamatta to
Kaccaayana who possesses an understanding praised by the Sage, . . .

Here, it seems better to leave the word 'mukhamatta' untranslated if
it represents a shortened version of the title of the work. I notice
that the Mmd is quoted twice in the Saddaniiti (12th cent.), thus
making it earlier.

Jim