Dear Lance,
Thank you for the clarification. This is exactly what I thought was probably
the correct interpretation out of the two I offered. And Bryan offered a
third possibility (loke as acc. pl).
Judging by Sadd 1132 (Budha avagamane. Avagamanaṃ jānanaṃ. . .), it seems
most likely that 'knowing' will be the only meaning I'll ever find in the
Pali texts for the root-meaning 'avagamane'.
I think there is a Buddhist version of the Indian idea of avatar: the
lineage of Buddhas as described in the Buddhavaṃsa with Gotama being the
25th and Metteyya (Maitreya) as the next and last one of this lucky aeon of
five Buddhas.
Best wishes,
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "'L.S. Cousins' selwyn@... [palistudy]"
<palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: December 5, 2014 2:18 AM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] avagamana
Jim,
The passage in Mmd-pṭ is following Pj I 15:
ettha ca yathā loke avagantā avagato ti vuccati, evaṃ *bujjhitā saccānī*
ti buddho. yathā paṇṇasosā vātā paṇṇasusā ti vuccanti, evaṃ *bodhetā
pajāyā* ti buddho.
Ñāṇamoli has a note: Pj I Trsl p.7 n.15.
I think the usage here is clear. Loke in passages like this is simply
referring to general usage in Sanskrit and Middle Indian. All that is
being said is that the relationship between the agent noun bujjhita(r)
and the past participle buddha is the same as the relationship between
the agent nouns and past participles in ancient Indic languages
generally, illustrated by the agent noun avaganta(r) and the past
participle avagata.
Lance Cousins