Re: Interrogative pronoun at end of sentence

Dear Ven. Nyanatusita,

1. I don't think we need to introduce dhamma at all. It is abbreviating
the sequence pañho uddeso veyyākaraṇa — question, brief reply, detailed
reply. This is much more typical of later sutta material. I agree that
the form of ekam nāma kim is precisely nicer and more emphatic for
recitation. Use as a catechism for novices (girls too ?) seems plausible.

2. When I refer to the commentarial period, I mean works of the School
of Buddhaghosa and subsequent works in the same or similar style.
Earlier works must have existed but do not survive; so we do not know
for certain what they were like. We do know what the paracanonical works
— Mil, Peṭ and Nett are like.

Lance
> On 2/4/2015 12:22 AM, 'L.S. Cousins' selwyn@... [palistudy]
> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Ven. Nyanatusita,
>>
>> Two things to note about the Kumārapañha and Khuddakapāṭha:
>>
>> 1. The Kumārapañha is a short summary of AN V 50ff. There we have: eko
>> pañho eko uddeso ekaṃ veyyākaraṇaṃ etc. So ekaṃ nāma kim is referring to
>> that.
>>
> Yes, the Khp commentary also refers to it (/ekaṃ nāma ki//nti bhagavā
> yasmiṃ ekadhammasmiṃ bhikkhu sammā nibbindamāno anupubbena
> dukkhassantakaro hoti, yasmiṃ cāyamāyasmā nibbindamāno anupubbena
> dukkhassantamakāsi, taṃ dhammaṃ sandhāya pañhaṃ pucchati/.)
> However, some of the items in AN are different:  Instead of the seven
> bojjhangas of Khp, AN has the seven bases of consciousness; instead of
> the 8-fold path AN has the 8 worldly dhammas; and instead of the
> arahant endowed with 10 path factors, AN has the ten paths of
> unwholesome action. So it is an adapted summary.
> If I would make this catechism for boy novices, then I would take the
> 10 akusalakammapatha since these would be of more relevance to boys
> than the 10 path factors of the arahant, which has already been mostly
> covered by the 8-fold path. Or I would take the 8 lokadhamma instead
> of 8 fold path and then leave the 10 fold path.
>
> /Nāma /here functions as a quotation marker: “What is 'One'?” and
> ”one” is an abridgement of ”one dhamma”, ekadhammaṃ. According to von
> Hinuber (Handbook of Pali Literature § 249), quotations from the old
> commentaries in the Visuddhimagga show that /nāma /was used in these
> works to quote key words instead of /ti/. This is occasionally also
> found in the Suttavibhanga,
>
> Perhaps the reason why /dhamma /was left out is because when the
> catechism was recited in a monastic class room, it would sound nicer
> and more emphatic when the teacher would briefly chant 'Ekam kim',
> etc., (rather than /Katamam ekadhammam/?) and then the boy monks would
> recite the answer.
>
>
>> 2. The Khuddakapāṭha is listed as part of the contents of the
>> Khuddakanikāya in various commentaries of the School of Buddhaghosa. So
>> it predates the fourth/fifth century. Moreover, the very fact that it
>> was commented on by Buddhaghosa or, more probably, by someone close to
>> him in time shows that it was already authoritative and a recognised
>> part of the Canon. Most probably the source for this was the earlier
>> Sinhaḷa aṭṭhakathā. I would have thought it must precede the third
>> century as a compilation. If so, it would belong to the period of the
>> paracanonical texts, not to the commentarial period.
>>
>
> Weren't there different commentarial periods in Sri Lanka? The early
> period is the period of the Sihalala Atthakatha, then there is the
> Buddhaghosa & Dhammapala I Atthakatha period, followed by the early
> Tika period, and the late Tika / Polonnaruwa period. This rough
> division only applies to the Mahavihara, since the Andhaka
> commentaries and commentaries of the Abhayagiri and Jetavana quoted in
> and referred to in Buddhaghosa's works indicate that other schools
> also had commentaries.
> Isn't there an overlap of the early commentarial period with the
> period of the paracanonical texts? The Parivara is said to be a work
> composed in Sri Lanka, at least in part. And the old Sinhalese
> commentaries were based on earlier Indian commentaries.
>
> Best wishes,
>                           Bh Nyanatusita