From: Nyanatusita
Message: 3756
Date: 2013-11-18
Dear Petra,
I am not suggesting that it (parikkhāra) has a grammatical meaning in its primary sense, for as you say it does not appear in Kaccāyana in a technical meaning; but it does have the meaning of "adornment" in both Pāli and BHS, and the word "accident" which d'Alwis uses (by which he means "inflection", i.e. accidence) is in some sense an adornment of the verb or nominal form. So it may be being used metaphorically in this verse - that is all I am suggesting. The word ākappa (Skt. ākalpa) also has this meaning of adornment or decoration and may have this meaning. Or perhaps the author was using paranomasia, meaning that the schism of the Mahāsaṃghika monks, as reflected in their different deportment and dress, was also mirrored in their change of the language?
Best wishes,
Bryan
On Sunday, November 17, 2013 12:18:07 PM, Petra Kieffer-Pülz <kiepue@...> wrote:
Dear Bryan,
The translation by Alwis you referred to (following Childers) is a translation of the respective verses from the Dīpavaṃsa. Alwis cites the verse quoted by Ven Nyanatusita in his Introduction (p. XXX), and again together with further verses of this passage in his appendix (p. 64, and 65). The translation on p. 67 is Alwis' translation of the Dīpavaṃsa verses. The only other passage where Alwis has parikkhāra (p. 15) he understands it as "theologically, the necessaties of life for an ascetic". Thus there is no reference within the Kaccāyana grammar, even not in Alwis' translation.
Furthermore, ākappa does not appear once in the whole Kaccāyana grammar, and parikkāra appears twice, once in the Kaccāyanavutti ad rule 596, and once ad 623. In both cases it is quoted from Vin I 50,37 and 14 according to Pind, and there it means "requisite".
Also if you search in the CSCD you will find none of the words in any of the grammars included on the CSCD.
Best wishes,Petra
PS Thanks for the copy of the Alwis translation.
Am 17.11.2013 um 16:42 schrieb Bryan Levman:
Dear Ven. Nyanatusita and Petra,
In Childers Dictionary of Pali, he quotes Alwis's translation (partial) of Kaccāyana's grammar:
nama-lingaparikkhāro = "the furniture of nouns and their genders, niceties of composition" (I. 64)
so this does tend to confirm your intuition that the term refers to inflections.
Alwis' translation of this passage is found on page 67 (Kachchayana's Grammar of the Pali Language):
"They, moreover, disregarded the nature of nouns, their gender, and (other) accidents [this is the word he uses to translate parikkhāra], as well as the (various) requirements of style, and corrupted the same by different forms."
In a footnote he translates ākappakarani, as "decorations, embellishments, niceties of style or composition, or figures of speech."
You may download a copy of the book which has this whole section (page 63-69) translated at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tcd642jmyl6rl2y/d%27Alwis%2C%20Kachch%C4%81yana%27s%20Grammar%20of%20the%20P%C4%81li%20Language.pdf
Mettā,
Bryan
On Sunday, November 17, 2013 5:21:09 AM, Petra Kieffer-Pülz <kiepue@...> wrote:
Dear Ven Nyanatusita,
looking through Deokar's book on Technical terms ... of Pali grammars, I could not find the terms parikkhāra, ākappakaraṇiya or ākappa searched by you. Also Cone does not list ākappa as a technical term of grammar. By the way the Dīpavaṃsa verses are also quoted in the Sp-ṭ I 116, and there you have the reading ākappakaraṇāni (in the Burmese edition).
I, therefore, see no chance whatsoever to link parikkhāra and ākappa-karaṇāni with grammar.
Given the context where many different things are listed changed by the Mahāsāṅghikas, couldn't it be that nāma and liṅga refer to their language, but parikkhāra (requisite) and ākappa (dress or comportment) to their outward appeareance? Karaṇa could form a third instance (forming a Dvandva with ākappa), and refer to the performance of their legal acts or form a Tatpurusa with ākappa ("the act of making dresses??).
pakatibhāva I would understand as the "common (i.e. original) state" which still is kept by the Theravādin, but changed by the Mahāsāṅghikas, thus I would come up with something like:
"Forsaking the common way regarding nouns, genders, requisites, dresses and performance [of their legal acts] (or: and the act of making [their] dresses??), they made it differently."
Best,Petra
Am 17.11.2013 um 06:41 schrieb Nyanatusita:
Dear All,
Perhaps someone can help with translating an obscure passage in the Dīpavaṃsa, which I need for an article I am working on.
Nāmaṃ liṅgaṃ parikkhāraṃ ākappakaraṇīyāni ca, / pakatibhāvaṃ jahitvā tañca aññaṃ akaṃsu te. = Geiger, 5.38, 44, 50; SL edition (on GRETIL) verse 77, 83, 89.
This was translated by Oldenberg in 1879 as:
“Forsaking the original rules regarding nouns, genders, compositions, and the embellishments of style, they changed all that.”
The context is a description of the changes that the Mahasamghikas and other schools made to their canons and texts.
I checked Pali and Sanskrit dictionaries but found nowhere an indication that parikkhāraṃ and ākappakaraṇīyāni can have the meaning of ““compositions, and the embellishments of style”. Both parikkhāra and ākalpa can mean 'decoration' but what does this mean in terms of grammar? The first two terms, nāmaṃ & liṅgaṃ would refer to noun and gender. Could the two terms parikkhāraṃ and ākappakaraṇīyāni perhaps refer to inflection or declension or the morphology of words, ,e.g. a locative plural in -ehi instead of -esu; or a nominative singular in -aḥ instead of -o or bhikṣu instead of bhikkhu or pācattika instead of pācittiya? The Mahasamghikas and other schools sanskritized their texts to varying degrees.
I am not sure too whether pakatibhāvaṃ means 'original rules', rather it would mean 'original state'.
Remarkably, there is no English translation of the Dipavamsa other than Oldenberg's 135 year old translation.
Best wishes,
Bh Nyanatusita