Dear Brother Noah,
The verbal root of the word is pacala. The reading pacalāyana is derived
from the (quasi) denominative form of the verb. See Geiger´s Pali Grammar,
PTS edition § 186.5. The spelling cap- appears to be exclusively Thai. There
must be a paleographical explanation for the deviation.
Regards,
Ole Holten Pind
----- Original Message -----
From: "Noah Yuttadhammo" <yuttadhammo@...>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 9:54 AM
Subject: [palistudy] Pacala vs. Capala
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Sri Lanka. I'm slowly settling down here, maybe for the long
term. Just wanted some advice on a loose end I'm trying to tie.
On Access To Insight, there is a sutta here:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an07/an07.058.than.html
The title is given as "Capala Sutta", which means "the discourse on
trembling". The translation of the title on ATI however, is "Nodding",
which follows the VRI Pali title of the sutta, "Pacala Sutta", and the Sri
Lankan Pali title, "Pacalāyana Sutta". Contacting John Bullit, however,
garnered this response:
*I think Capala and Pacala are both correct. The Thai Tipitaka, on which
this particular translation is based, does in fact name it "Capala Sutta".
According to PTS Dic, capala = "moving to & fro, wavering, unsteady, fickle"
and pacala = "shaking, trembling, wavering". So the words are very close in
meaning. *
*
*
*Perhaps the compilers of the Thai Tipitaka were trying to be witty, by
shaking and wavering the spelling of the title. Or perhaps they were simply
nodding off. There's no way to know.*
The standard Thai tipitaka does not in fact have "Capala" as the title, the
Pali one doesn't have titles AFAICS, and the Thai translation has
"Moggalaana Sutta". I also pointed out that there is some easy way to know,
specifically that the sutta reads "pacala" throughout, not "capala". When I
told him this, he contacted the translator, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, and
responded:
*I just spoke with Ajaan Geoff about this. As we spoke, he looked up the
sutta in his 1978 edition of the Mahamakuta Thai Tipitaka. According to him,
the sutta reads "capala" -- not pacala -- throughout. Are you also looking
at the 1978 edition, or one that was printed in some other year?*
So, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on this... I am highly
skeptical in regards to the idea that capala might be correct, so I am
specifically wondering what the relative worth of the Mahamakut tipitaka is
relative to the standard Thai "Siam Ratth" tipitaka? And of course whether
anyone can verify whether the latter does indeed have "capala".
Thanks in advance,
Brother Noah
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