Dear Pāli friends,
In the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī
(volune 1, page 4, lines 6-12), Mahākassapa excludes certain people from the first council and
includes others. I am having some trouble in understanding how many groups the
Pāli refers to or whether the various phrases are appositive.
It reads as follows (PTS version):
thero
sakala-navaṅga-satthu-sāsana-pariyatti-dhare puthujjana-sotāpanna-sakadāgāmi-anāgāmi
–sakkha (Burmese:
sukkha)-vipassaka-khīṇāsava-bhikkhū anekasate, anekasahasse ca bajjayitvā tipiṭaka-sabbapariyatti-ppabheda-dhare
paṭisambhidā-ppatte mahānubhāve yebhuyyena bhagavato (Burmese; PTS Bhagavatā) etadaggaṃ āropite tevijjādi-bhede
khīṇāsava-bhikkhū yeva ekūnapañcasate pariggahesi.
of which a rough translation is
The Elder [Mahākassapa] excluded those many hundreds
and thousands who knew the whole nine limbs of the teacher’s teaching by heart,
the common people, the stream-enterers, the once-returners, the non-returners
and those monks whose outflows had been destroyed through dry-insight [those
who achieved insight without samādhi],
and he included just 499 monks whose outflows had been destroyed, of great majesty, who for the most part had effected that pinacle of the Blessed One
consisting in the three knowledges.
It looks like those excluded include three groups
1) those who knew the nine aṅgas
2) everyone who wasn’t an arhat (the common people
up to the non-returners)
3) monks whose outflows were destroyed through
dry-insight
But there are no “ca’s” in the text, leaving open
the possibility of an appositive structure.
For those 499 included, there are also no “ca’s” and
again the question is, is the commentator talking about one group of monks who
have destroyed the outflows, have great majesty, achieved the three knowledges?
or two or three different groups? It looks like an appositive structure with
everything modifying the khīṇāsava-bhikkhū.
That would suggest that the excluded groups should be similarly read,
except a putthujana, sotāpanna, etc.,
can not be read in apposition to khīṇāsava-bhikkū.
I would appreciate knowing how you interpret these
groups,
Best wishes,
Bryan