Re: Dhp 36

Hi Jim,

There is an interesting example of historical development in this verse. rakkhetha is I believe the usual middle form of the optative (corresponding to Skt. rak.seta, with k.s > kkh and -t- > aspiration -th-). In the Patna Dhp, this form is rakkheya, where the -y- is probably an intervocalic glide, representing a weakening of the original intervocalic -t-. So it is difficult to tell which is earlier, the Pali Dhp or the Patna. Both require two changes to reach their present form, k.s > kkh (Pali and Patna) and -ta- > th (Pali) or -ta- > -ya- (Patna).
In Gaa.ndhaarii this form would be rakkhe'a (where the apostrophe represents the aleph corresponding to the ya-"sruti intervocalic glide) (Brough, para 79). Brough says that the -eya- (or e'a) form replaced both the -eyya (active) and the -etha (middle) forms of the optative. In other languages de-aspiration  usually indicates earlier - it is a form of simplification - but there are lots of examples in Prakrit of stops becoming aspirated so this typology doesn't necessarily hold in Middle Indic.

Anways this suggest a "proto" oral form of the word as rakkheya, (with the y being a a very soft weakly articulated glide per Pischel 187) which the Pali translators changed into -etha- (in accordance with the rules of the western dialect they were using: -etha is characteristic only of the Girnar rock edict in the west) when they fixed the canon in writing, sometime in the (probably) second century B.C. It could have gone the other way (rak.seta > rakkhetha > rakkheta > rakkheya) but that requires one more step, so economy favours the former hypothesis (rak.seta > rakketa > rakkeya)

Best, Bryan






________________________________
From: Jim Anderson <jimanderson_on@...>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, November 16, 2009 10:28:48 AM
Subject: [palistudy] Dhp 36

  
Dhammapadaṃ, 3. Cittavaggo (Thought), Verse 36

sududdasaṃ sunipuṇaṃ | yatthakāmanipātinaṃ ||
cittaṃ rakkhetha medhāvī | cittaṃ guttaṃ sukhāvahaṃ || 36 ||

1)

36. Let the wise man guard his thoughts, for they are difficult to
perceive, very artful, and they rush wherever they list: thoughts well
guarded bring happiness.

-- Translation by F. Max Müller from The Dhammapada, p. 12,
Vol. X of The Sacred Books of the East, 1881

2)

36. A wise man should guard his thought, which is difficult to see,
extremely subtle, alighting where it will. Guarded thought is the
bringer of happiness.

-- Translation by K.R. Norman from The Word of the Doctrine, p. 6,
The Pali Text Society, 2000

-- posted on the day of the New Moon, Novermber 16, 2009


  


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