Re: Saddatthabhedacintaadiipanii, verse 1

Dear Jim,

> Thank-you for posting the opening verse along with your
> translation and its Pali commentary. I look forward to your
> translation of some introductory notes from Phra Maha
> Nimitr. Thanks also for the great description of the two
> books you are working with. I'm going to see if I can get a
> hard copy of the first book containing the two Pali texts.

Ong Teng has for some  time been trying to order books from
the Buddhaghosa College people, but without any success. It
seems the quality of their scholarship is not matched by the
efficiency of their distribution. Their publications are not
for sale anywhere in Bangkok, so one must either go to the
college in person or order by mail. The latter course,
however, is hampered by the fact that they tend not to
respond to queries sent to them.

I mentioned the problem to my upa.t.thaaka and he has said
he is willing to puchase and send the books to those
interested. So if anyone would like copies of one or both
books and cannot obtain them from the college, just e-mail
me and I will send you his bank account details when we have
estimated what the cost will be. I don't think the books
would come to more than ten pounds sterling, but the postage
might be a bit steep as they're both heavy hardbacks.

> From my initial impressions of Saddatthabhedacintaa, it
> strikes me as a work that is more suitable for the advanced
> student who is already well-acquainted with a traditional
> grammar and its linguistic concepts. It also seems to me
> more of a philosophical/theoretical work along the lines of
> Bhart.rhari's Vaakyapadiya. The great attention paid to
> sadda and attha and the relation between the two suggests a
> connection to the four profound pa.tisambhidas.

Yes, I think you're right on all counts. The intended reader
of the Saddattha and its commentaries is one aspiring to be
a pa.tisambhidaapatta arahant, and is assumed to have
completed Kaccaayana-101. The study of it is to promote the
conditions for the arising of the four pa.tisambhidaa. And
it does indeed address a similar range of issues to those of
Bhart.rhari, Ma.n.dana Mi`sra, Ko.n.da and the rest of them,
though of course its handling of them is based on Buddhist
(chiefly abhidhammic) presuppositions rather than brahminical
ones.

> Since you're posting the Pali commentarial text untranslated, I
> thought this could be an opportunity for any member to offer comments
> on or to have a go at translating parts of the text if desired.

Yes, do go ahead. For the next ten days I have to take the
Vinaya classes of a fellow monk who's in hospital, but after
that I'll be able to join in.

Today I am posting the diipanii's glosses on verses 2-10. I
notice that they are for the most part not terribly expansive,
perhaps on a par with the vutti in Kaccaayana.

Best wishes,

Dhammanando