Re: the last part of Sd 880

>The references for the first quote are: Sv II 477; Mp III 239.
>However, in the PTS edns. the reading for
>"bhavaabhavaabhinibbattiya.m" is "bhagavaa bhavaabhinibbattiya.m".
>Smith has a footnote for this reading. Also, the Thai BBF edn. of the
>Suttamaalaa has "bhagavaa". On the face of it I can only read the
>'bhagavaa' as a vocative but there are two problems with this: 1) I
>doubt that such a vocative would stand at the beginning of a sentence
>containing 2 or more words. 2) it seems unusual to address the Buddha
>as 'bhagavaa'.

I agree. A reading of punabbhavaabhinibbattiya.m would be much more normal.


>The problem with 'bhavaabhava-' is that it separates
>into 'bhava-abhava-'. It would seem better if it were 'bhavabhava-' or
>'bhavaa bhava-' in the sense of 'from existence to existence' or in
>'whatever existence'. Interestingly, Mp has
>'nibbattanibbatta.t.thaane' instead of 'nibbatta.t.thaane' which could
>lend support to my suggestion of 'bhavabhava-' in the other compound.

Bhavaabhava occurs so often in verse for bhavabhava in the sense of
multiple existences that it probably has that sense here.
   (This is supposed to be rhythmical lengthening.)

Lance Cousins