Re: What's does the "anta" in Suttanta mean?

 

Sutta < sūtra in the Vinaya context is a brahmanical term, literally
'thread' but designating a mnemonic aphorism — as in Suttavibhaṅga. So
in effect it refers to a rule of the Pātimokkha. In the context of the
Sutta-piṭaka it is more open to debate and may in fact be from sûkta
'well said' as in Puruṣasūkta. The problem is that early brahmanical
usage of sūtra consists of short sentences (in the plural sūtrāṇi) and
that is not what we find in the Sutta-piṭaka. So we may be dealing with
a homonym that has become confused.

I am not sure that anta at the end of a compound necessarily means
anything. At any rate one view is that it is pleonastic.

Lance Cousins

On 03/12/2014 10:45, Kumara Bhikkhu kumara.bhikkhu@... [palistudy]
wrote:
> The early meaning of "sutta" appears to be
> "thread" and "principle", although now it
> commonly means "discourse". "Suttanta" does seem
> to mean "discourse" though (such as in SN55.53).
> Any idea what the "anta" means? (A parallel: Vedanta)
>
> peace
>
> Kumâra Bhikkhu