Re: Interrogative pronoun at end of sentence

From: Nyanatusita
Message: 4200
Date: 2015-02-03

Dear Lance,

The Khuddakapatha is a short chanting book for young boy novice monks since it contains the ten precepts for novices, and the 32 parts of the body. As far as I know, it fell out of use long ago and has been superseded by the Catubhanavara chanting book. Chanting books are made out of materials taken from other sources. In the case of the Kumarapanha (and also the Nidhikanda Sutta) this other source is not known since the Kumarapanha as a whole is not found anywhere else in the Nikayas.
The Kumarapanha is a catechism for boy monks and perhaps was compiled by a teacher of novices, although in the commentaries it is said that the Buddha taught it to Sopaka. As it is given in the Khuddakapatha, it does not claim to be the word of the Buddha since it is not introduced by “evam me sutam”. Possibly it was put in its present form in Sri Lanka or South India in the early commentarial period when Sanskrit influence became greater. This could explain why kim is placed in this manner, similar to usages in Pali commentaries, and why it is said in the Khuddakapatha commentary that the Sinhalese use kiha instead of kim.

Kim is frequently put after quotations of words in the Moggallanavyakarana grammar, e.g. (leaving the CSCD punctuation as it is): Puttabhātaro, tatreti kiṃ? Pitupitāmahā, cattheti kiṃ? Mātubhātā, vijjāyonisambandhānanti kiṃ? Dātubhattāro.

Best wishes,
                   Bhikkhu Nyanatusita


I would understand this as a case of words being placed first in the
sentence for emphasis. This is a usage that Thai scholars have drawn
attention to and it seems quite appropriate here.

Petra's interesting examples are much later and surely belong to the
period of greater Sanskrit influence.

Lance Cousins

> I have a few questions with regards an unusual type of sentence
> construction in Pali.
>
> In Kumārapañhā section of the Khuddakapāṭhā the interrogative pronoun
> /kiṃ/ is placed at the end of a sentences in /Ekaṃ nāma kiṃ? Sabbe
> sattā āhāraṭṭhitikā. Dve nāma kiṃ? Nāmañca rūpañca. Tīṇi nāma kiṃ?
> Tisso vedanā./ etc. : “What is the one? All beings are sustained by
> nutriment. What are the two? Name and matter. …”.
>


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