Re: what does sutta denote?

Ole and Bhikkhu Nyanatusita:

1. On occurrences of Suttanta & Suttantika, we need to note that they
are both found in the Vinaya:

Vin III 159 & II 75f.:
ye te bhikkhū suttantikā tesaṃ ekajjhaṃ senāsanaṃ paññapeti — “te
aññamaññaṃ suttantaṃ saṅgāyissantī” ti. ye te bhikkhū vinayadharā tesaṃ
ekajjhaṃ senāsanaṃ paññapeti — “te aññamaññaṃ vinayaṃ vinicchinissantī”
ti. ye te bhikkhū dhammakathikā tesaṃ ekajjhaṃ senāsanaṃ paññapeti — “te
aññamaññaṃ dhammaṃ sākacchissantī” ti. ye te bhikkhū jhāyino tesaṃ
ekajjhaṃ senāsanaṃ paññapeti — “te aññamaññaṃ na byābādhissantī” ti.
Vin IV 67:
ayyo bhāṇako, ayyo bahussuto, ayyo suttantiko, ayyo vinayadharo, ayyo
dhammakathiko, detha ayyassa, karotha ayyassā”
Vin IV 144:
iṅgha tvaṃ suttante vā gāthāyo vā abhidhammaṃ vā pariyāpuṇassu, pacchā
vinayaṃ pariyāpuṇissasī ti
Vin IV 344:
pañhaṃ puccheyyā_ ti suttante okāsaṃ kārāpetvā vinayaṃ vā abhidhammaṃ vā
pucchati, āpatti pācittiyassa. vinaye okāsaṃ kārāpetvā suttantaṃ vā
abhidhammaṃ vā pucchati, āpatti pācittiyassa. abhidhamme okāsaṃ
kārāpetvā suttantaṃ vā vinayaṃ vā pucchati, āpatti pācittiyassa.

Vin I 140ff.:
abhiññātaṃ vā suttantaṃ bhaṇati. so ce bhikkhūnaṃ santike dūtaṃ
pahiṇeyya — āgacchantu bhadantā, imaṃ suttantaṃ pariyāpuṇissanti,
purāyaṃ suttanto na palujjatī ti. (twice)
Vin I 169:
idha pana, bhikkhave, aññatarasmiṃ āvāse tadahu pavāraṇāya bhikkhūhi
dhammaṃ bhaṇantehi … pe … suttantikehi suttantaṃ saṅgāyantehi …
vinayadharehi vinayaṃ vinicchinantehi … dhammakathikehi dhammaṃ
sākacchantehi …
Vin II 161:
ekacce bhikkhū evam āhaṃsu — “yo, bhagavā, suttantiko so arahati
aggāsanaṃ aggodakaṃ aggapiṇḍan” ti. ekacce bhikkhū evam āhaṃsu — “yo,
bhagavā, vinayadharo so arahati aggāsanaṃ aggodakaṃ aggapiṇḍan” ti.
ekacce bhikkhū evam āhaṃsu — “yo, bhagavā, dhammakathiko so arahati
aggāsanaṃ aggodakaṃ aggapiṇḍan” ti.

2. On the four mahāpadesa, this is effectively a commentary on ayaṃ
dhammo ayaṃ vinayo idaṃ satthusāsanaṃ. But that is a Vinaya expression.
See Vin II 73 etc. So we should expect that sutte and vinaye correspond
to dhammo and vinayo. [And dhammatāyaṃ to satthusāsanaṃ if that is
read.] One could suppose that the Vinaya uses the pair dhamma & vinaya
here precisely to avoid the ambiguity of sutta.

Lance
> Lance and Bhikkhu Nyanatusita,
>
> A few notes on sutta and suttanta:
>
> 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.
>
> The term sutta is recorded in the cpd. suttaagata in Paac. 73, Vin IV 144
> and is interpreted as sutte = Paatimokkhe aagata in Ka.nkhaavititara.nii.
>
> I assume that the reason why sutta is mentioned first in the old list of
> canonical lit. (in M III 104 it stops after veyyakara.na)is that it differed
> from the other texts because it was important for ritual purposes and
> because it was a real suutra of the kind we find in Sanskrit literature. The
> few short suttas included in Paatimokkha are probably reflexes of this
> particular style like, for instance, the use of the locative to denote the
> nimitta of an action. The general form is "for x (loc.) y" (also found in
> Sanskrit suutras). However, the suttas were evidently re-written as appears
> from the fact that some of them contain not fully integrated traces of the
> old formulation.
>
> Ole
>