Re: The word parikkhāra

 

Dear Ven.

One other point: Childers defines ākappa as "decent or elegant attire; ornament, embellishment; disguise." For these definitions he references d'Alwis again, the Prātimokṣa Sutra x, xlviii, and the Abhidhānappadīpikā 282.The equation of ākalpa and kalpana comes from MW,

Best wishes

Bryan

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:50:09 AM, Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...> wrote:

 

Dear Ven Nayantusita,

The word ākappa ("deportment" in Pāli) comes from ākalpa which means "ornament, decoration" in Skt. and is equivalent to kalpana which means "forming, inventing (as in a poem), creating in the mind, feigning, assuming anything to be real," etc. (MW). It does occur as a grammatical term in Renou's Grammatical terminology, but I would have to look up all his references in order to understand what it means (see below) and I don't have time now.  Hope that helps,

Best wishes,

Bryan

Renou, page 126:
kalpana
position (d'un mot dans telle catégorie) »
M. ; kalpanâ « supposition, fait d'assumer (telle interprétation)
» K. IV 3 110 PI. 94 11, « de former (telle opération)
» 38 13 VP. III p. 355 ; klistakalpanâ « interprétation
forcée » 98 17, 99 1 ; ibid. 38 14 kalpya et kalpita.

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013 6:14:40 AM, Nyanatusita <nyanatusita@...> wrote:

 

Dear Brev,

Thanks for the interesting information about parikara. I myself was thinking along these lines too at first. Is there any support for a grammatical sense of ākappa-karaṇāni?

Best wishes,
                      Bh Nyanatusita

The word parikara (or pariṣkara which is derived from the same root, i. e. pari + kṛ, the latter with the -ṣ- added which sometimes occurs before kṛ roots, e.g. saṃskṛta) does in fact have a grammatical or at least rhetorical usage.

pariṣkara in Skt > parikkhara in P, and the -a- has been lengthened.

In MW it is defined as "a partic. figure in which many significant epithets or adjectives are employed one after the other to give force to a statement." it refers to two sections of the Sāhitya darpana and the Kāvyaprakāsa which are in Böthlingk and Roth and Apte:

Sāhitya darpana 704: uktirviśeṣaṇaiḥ sābhiprāyaiḥ parikaro mataḥ  "Speech with particularizing (attributive) meanings is regarded as parikara." 

Kāvyaprakāsa 10: viśeṣaṇairyat sākūtairuktiḥ parikarastu saḥ "Speech with meaning which is attributive/particularizing, that is parikara."

These are medieval works, but the use of the verb parikṛ to mean "surround" or "adorn" dates from the RV (9.64.23 where it means "adorn" and 9.14.2 in the sense of "surround").

In Pāli the word parikkhāra is derived from parikara in the sense of "doing round" (cf parikamma) and also (according to the PED) from parivāra (parivāreti) in the sense of covering oneself.

In the Dh-a, 352¹² parikara occurs (with var. parikkhāra) to refer to the cloaks or girdles of the Licchavi princes, who were shot through by Bandhula.

I also find the context of the occurrence of parikkhāra in the Dpvs puzzling, and the fact that it occurs three times (almost as a refrain), the first time (verse 78) after the reference to various texts being rejected; the second time (verse 84) after a reference to violating the meaning of the dhamma and throwing out some ganthas; and the third time (verse 89) similar to the last. The context suggests the author is talking about texts and therefore one can understand how Oldenberg and d'Alwis arrived at their translations.

I don't know which is correct but I wouldn't dismiss the rhetorical or grammatical (i.e. textual) usage of parikara/parikkhāra without looking at all the facts,

 

Best wishes,

 

Bryan