gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ

Dear Pali Friends,



This is going to be a long one. May I ask for help in interpreting a passage from the Pāli ṭīkās relating to the practice of sampajañña. The passage occurs with slight variants in several places. It is found in two ṭīkās to the Dīgha Nikāya, Sāmaññaphala Sutta: the purāṇaṭīkā, “old subcommentary,” of Dhammapāla and the abhinavaṭīkā, “new subcommentary,” of the 18th century Burmese sayadaw Ñāṇābhivaṃsa. Substantially the same passage occurs in the ṭīkā to the Majjhima Nikāya,  Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, and the ṭīkā to the Saṃyutta Nikāya Satipaṭṭhāna-saṃyutta. I have numbered the passages for easy reference.

1. DN Sīlakkhandhavagga-Aṭṭhakathā (VRI I 157). Tattha tatth’eva pabbaṃ pabbaṃ sandhi sandhi odhi odhi hutvā tattakapāle pakkhittatilāni viya paṭapaṭāyantā bhijjanti.

               2. DN Sīlakkhandhavagga-Ṭīkā (VRI I 219; Ee I 321). ‘‘Pabbaṃ pabban’’tiādi uddharaṇādikoṭṭhāse sandhāya sabhāgasantativasena vuttanti veditabbaṃ. Ati-ittaro hi rūpadhammānampi pavattikkhaṇo, gamanassādīnaṃ, devaputtānaṃ heṭṭhupariyena paṭimukhaṃ dhāvantānaṃ sirasi pāde ca bandhakhuradhārā samāgamatopi sīghataro.

3. DN Sīlakkhandhavagga- Abhinavaṭīkā (VRI II 79). Itaro eva hi rūpadhammānampi pavattikkhaṇo gamanayoga­gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ heṭṭhupariyena paṭimukhaṃ dhāvantānaṃ sirasi, pāde ca bandhakhuradhārā­samāgamatopi sīghataro.

4. MN Mūlapaṇṇāsa-Ṭīkā (VRI I 320). Ati-ittaro hi rūpadhammānampi pavattikkhaṇo gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ heṭṭhupariyena paṭimukhaṃ dhāvantānaṃ sirasi pāde ca baddhadhuradhārāsamāgamatopi sīghataro.

5. SN Mahāvagga-Ṭīkā (VRI II 167). Ati-ittaro hi rūpadhammānampi pavattikkhaṇo, gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ heṭṭhupariyāyena paṭimukhaṃ dhāvantānaṃ sirasi pāde ca baddhakhuradhārāsamāgamatopi sīghataro.



The ṭīkās are commenting on passage 1, which I cite from the Dīgha-aṭṭhakathā. This is not itself directly relevant to the discussion. The problems arise out of the variant readings in the ṭīkās, especially of a phrase that I have highlighted in the passages above. Note that while the difference in readings here is slight, they suggest two quite different meanings.

Passage 2 has gamanassādīnaṃ, devaputtānaṃ, with a comma between the two words (an editor’s decision). The suffix ādīnaṃ would mean “and so forth.” But passage 3 has gamanayoga­gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ, and passages 4 and 5 have gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ. In these versions, the last word in the compound is assādānaṃ, which would mean “enjoyment, gratification.” Its use here turns the compound into a bahubbīhi qualifying devaputtānaṃ, in passage 3 “young deities who enjoy engagement in traveling”; in passages 4 and 5 “young deities who enjoy traveling.”

Then, further along, passages 2 and 3 have a noun bandha, while passages 4 and 5 have the past participle baddha, which seems to work better. Passage 2 has a hiatus between bandhakhuradhārā and samāgamatopi, which seems wrong to me; for samāgamo should signify the meeting of two or more things represented by a genitive plural. Passages 3, 4, and 5 make better sense by closing up this gap, giving us a more complex compound.

Passages 2, 3, and 5 read the second term in this compound as khura, while 4 alone has dhura, which could be a typographical error or a careless editorial error. Passage 3 alone reads the first word as itaro, “other, another,” which again must be wrong. Surely either ittaro or ati-ittaro is required. Itaro is perhaps best regarded as another typographical or editorial error.



Now for the interpretation and translation of the passage (based on the best readings). Soma Thera translated the passage in The Way of Mindfulnesss as follows: “More fleet than the group of devas running before the Sun's chariot — the group of devas in the shape of horses with keen-edged razors attached to their heads and hoofs, engaged in and taken to going, plunging forwards, some above and some below, but never knocking against each other, though moving close together — is the moment of existence of material phenomena.”

To arrive at such an elaborate rendering Soma seems to see more expressions in this sentence than I can discern. I won’t take up all that seem excessive, but I don’t see any reference to “the Sun’s chariot” in the Pāli. Is it possible that Soma was  familiar with an Indian legend about these devas, not in the Pāli text, which he read into his translation to make its intent clear?

Nor do I see a reference to horses. The Dictionary of Pāli distinguishes two meanings of the word khura. Khura1 (= Skt kṣura) means “razor, a sharp blade.”  Khura2 (= Skt khura) means “hoof, a horse’s hoof.” Though on its own khura would be ambiguous, when conjoined with dhārā it certainly means “the blade of a razor.” The meaning of “hoof” must have led Soma to see assa, in the compound gamanassādīnaṃ or its variants, as meaning “horses.” In fact, it seems he has translated the compound on the basis of both the alternative variants, drawing upon gamanassādīnaṃ for assa as “horses,” yet using gamanassādānaṃ or perhaps gamanayoga­gamanassādānaṃ for his  “engaged in and taken to going.” Here I think he tries to capture the sense of assāda with “taken to.”

The meaning of this passage is far from transparent to me, but I will attempt a translation on the basis of passage 5, which seems to me to avoid the flaws in the others. I will show word for word how I am translating it:



For extremely brief (ati-ittaro hi) is the occurrence-moment (pavattikkhaṇo) even of material phenomena (rūpadhammānampi); it is more fleeting (sīghataro) even than the meeting of the razor blades bound (baddhakhuradhārāsamāgamatopi) on the head and feet (sirasi pāde ca) of the young gods who enjoy travel (gamanassādānaṃ devaputtānaṃ), as they are running in opposite directions (paṭimukhaṃ dhāvantānaṃ), upward and downward (heṭṭhupariyāyena).



This seems a reasonably accurate rendering of the Pāli, but I have no idea what the passage is actually referring to. Could it be some sort of astronomical phenomenon? Did Soma Thera have access to some legend in the Indian background that he used to interpret the passage in his rendering?



Thank you in advance.



Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
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