Re: a peculiar form

Following your reference to HS I looked in the index to Saddaniiti
(Vol. V p. 1402) and found:

jhiirati [jhiiryati, K.siir p. 123,24; cf. AMg jhijjai (= k.siiyate, Pischel
§326] Vin I 237,34 (Sp [1098,1-2] Ce).

The equals sign should have a slash i.e. 'equals approximately'.

This is not quite clear to me, as I don't have K.siiratara'nginii.
But it looks as if HS found the reading jhiiranti in a Sinhalese
edition of Sp. If he took this as meaning 'perish, come to an end',
then it doesn't work well with the infinitive in the A version. Also,
the variant does not seem well attested in the light of the
additional passages we have.

I didn't intend to argue that the explanation in terms of a root
meaning 'to grow old' is correct for the canonical texts; only that
this is what is meant in the commentaries. In fact, I agree with
Buddhaghosa and you that a derivation from hrii is better.

The reason I am unconvinced about the root meaning 'go' is the
negation in abbhaacikkhantaa na jiranti. If that is equivalent to:
abbhaacikkhantaa na gacchanti, I do not see how it could be
explained: abbhakkhaanassa anta.m na gacchantii ti attho. But this
may depend on what exactly is the meaning of 'jiranti'.

>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


--
Best Wishes,

Lance

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