SV: a peculiar form

I assumed that the cluster /hr/ would be treated on the analogy of hrii >
hirii; cf. hiriiyati. In such a case metathesis of /jihiranti/ >
/jirihanti/, which somehow was corrupted to jiridanti. The commentators
suggestion that it means to come to en end seems to rely on the
interpretation of the form as derived from the root jri, which the
grammarians interpret as denoting the action of going, therefore the
suggestion, as I understand the commentator, that it means to come to and
end of slandering the Buddha, it is, they never stop slandering him. If we
interpret the passage in the light of the root jr/jur "to waste away, grow
old" we have to assume, I believe, that this verb in this particular passage
is used with connotations that are not recorded elsewhere in the canon.
This, of course, is possible.

I have found among my papers a note that Helmer Smith mentions the reading
jhiiranti in a letter to Dines Andersen dated 3-04-1932. As soon as I have
dug it out somewhere at the University of Copenhagen and read it, I shall
let you know what solution Helmer Smith came to, if any at all. That will be
interesting.

Best wishes,
Ole Pind

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: palistudy@yahoogroups.com [mailto:palistudy@yahoogroups.com] På vegne
af L.S. Cousins
Sendt: 25. marts 2006 00:32
Til: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Emne: Re: [palistudy] a peculiar form

This is interesting.

Sp has (VRI etext): jiridanti (sic) ti jiranti abbhaacikkhantaa na jiranti;
abbhakkhaanassa anta.m na gacchantiiti attho.
I take this as meaning:
'they will never get old while they slander the Buddha' i.e. there is no end
to doing that.
So I take the root to be j.r 'grow old' and the underlying form to be from
Skt jiiryati. I would therefore suppose that the Vinaya commentator had the
form jiriyanti or jiiriyanti and glossed that with jiiranti. In the one
case, the unusual form has dropped out and been replaced by its gloss. In
the other, the form jiridanti has replaced jiriyanti. This could either be a
graphic confusion at some point or perhaps a mistaken back-formation in some
branch of the Mss of the canonical text.

Buddhaghosa i.e. the author of Mp (followed by Sp-.t) finds this
unconvincing and offers his preferred alternative (atha vaa):
VRI: atha vaa lajjanatthe ida.m jiridantii ti pada.m da.t.thabba.m; na
lajjantii ti attho

I suppose this must be an interpretation in terms of some form of hrii. ?
BSkt intens. jehriiyate. I am not sure if we know what happens in Pali if
-hr- assimilates. perh. cp. rassa < hrasva.

Lance Cousins

>The story of the general Siiha A IV 179ff retold Vin I 233ff contains
>an odd verbal form jiiranti p. 188 and 237, respectively, according to
>the Sinhalese tradition. The Burmese reading, however, is jiridanti
>sic! The commentators give two mutually exclusive explanations of the
>term: the first is that the verb means "to be ashamed," the alternative
>is that it means "to come to and end", "to stop." The first explanation
>evidently derives the verb from the root hrii, cf. Sanskrit jihreti,
>jihriyat etc., the second one would seem to rely on the root jri "to
>go." The first one fits the context very well, but the readings cause
>difficulties. One would expect a form like jirihanti or possibly
>jihiranti, but not jiiranti (< jihiranti?) or jiridanti; the latter
>form is possibly a mistake for jirihanti as it is difficult to explan
>the presence of /d/ on phonological or etymological grounds (there is
>no matching root). I have never met with anything comparable in the
>Pali canon. My question is therefore: would it be possible to explain the
peculiar Burmese reading on paleographical grounds?
>
>Ole Pind





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