Re: what does sutta denote?

Dear Ole, (also Lance, and Bh.. Nyanatusita)

> The occurrences of suttanta in the texts of the Pali canon are limited,
> which would indicate that this usage was not particularly well established
> The few examples I have been able to trace occur in S and A, which is
> interesting in itself. However, suttanta appears frequently throughout the
> Kathaavatthu. There are more than 200 examples accompanied by canonical
> quotations. There are no examples in Kv where sutta is used to denote the
> canonical texts. In fact, it does not occur at all in Kv. At some point
> the distiction between sutta and suttanta may no longer have been of any
> concern as appears from Pe.t and Nett as well as the commentaries. The
> semantics of anta is not clear. Cf. ,for instance, the use of kamma and
> kammanta.

On 'anta', there is the following passage from Ledi Sayadaw's
Niruttidiipanii, pp. 44-5:

"mahaavuttinaa padaana.m ante gata, jaata, anta saddaa aagamaa honti.
ruupagata.m {ma0 ni0 2.133} vedanaagata.m {ma0 ni0 2.133}, sa~n~naagata.m
{ma0 ni0 2.133}, guuthagata.m {ma0 ni0 2.119}, muttagata.m {ma0 ni0
2.119},di.t.thigata.m {mahaava0 66}, atthaaata.m {paaraa0 a.t.tha0
1.pa.thamamahaasa"ngiitikathaa}, dhammajaata.m, suttanto {kathaa0 226},
vananto, sammaakammanto, micchaakammanto iccaadi."

It is found in the AAgamasandhiraasi section of the Sandhika.n.da. Here, the
'anta' part of 'suttanta' is taken as an augment or insertion (aagama) added
to 'sutta' and so seem not to have any semantic value or meaning. So far,
this is the only explanation of the 'anta' part that I've been able to find.
In the case of Sanskrit, I tried looking in the Kaa"sikaav.rtti for
"vedaanta", for example, and find nothing. Another possibility I thought of
for the 'anta' part in 'Suttantapi.taka' is that it is the familiar word
'anta' (end) and Suttantapi.taka is an appendix added to the Vinayapi.taka
(cf. the definition of sutta"nga in the nidaanas to Sp and Sv).

I have been following the discussion with much interest but have not
contributed much as I find the usages of sutta and suttanta in the texts all
quite bewildering.

Best wishes,
Jim