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

From: Dc Wijeratna
Message: 4060
Date: 2014-12-04


"Sutta < sūtra" Sutta. This could lead to one of the meanings. The Pali word may have other meanings.

 "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 meaning of Sutta to me is a formula or a rule or a law (Learnt at school, when I started learning algebra). It corresponds to Sanskrit sūtra. In the Suttas, the meaning is law (Dhamma of the Lord).

Treating Sutta as a Pali word suttanta is formed by suta + ta. It means the story woven round the dhamma, explaining the law.


D. C.




On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 5:27 PM, 'L.S. Cousins' selwyn@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
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


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Posted by: "L.S. Cousins" <selwyn@...>
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