Dear Pāli-kusalā,
As part of a study of the Khaggavisāṇa-sutta, I’ve been translating the section explaining the sutta from the Cūḷaniddesa. (I’ve found it much easier to use the Burmese ed. via the Digital Pali Reader than the PTS ed.). The explanation of v.41 of Kgv-s (v.127 of the Sutta-nipāta Uraga-vagga) has an explanation of khiḍḍā or ‘play’, also in Mahāniddesa.
khiḍḍāti dve khiḍḍā — kāyikā ca khiḍḍā vācasikā ca khiḍḍā. katamā kāyikā khiḍḍā?
There are two kinds of play, physical play and verbal play.
The Niddesa then gives a list of kinds of physical play, mostly drawing on the games not suitable for ascetics described in the majjhima-sīla of the gradual training in the early suttas of the Dīgha-nikāya. Then there is a shorter list of kinds of verbal play:
katamā vācasikā khiḍḍā? mukhabherikaṃ mukhālambaraṃ mukhaḍiṇḍimakaṃ [var: mukhadeṇḍimakaṃ, mukhadindimakaṃ] mukhacalimakaṃ mukhakerakaṃ [var: mukhabherukaṃ] mukhadaddarikaṃ nāṭakaṃ lāsaṃ gītaṃ davakammaṃ. ayaṃ vācasikā khiḍḍā.
While nāṭakaṃ lāsaṃ gītaṃ davakammaṃ can be understood to be kinds of verbal play connected with dancing or plays, with singing and ‘making jokes’, I am stuck with the first six kinds of verbal play. Bherika, ālambara, ḍiṇḍika and daddarika all seem to be kinds of drums. So are these all kinds of drumming with the mouth? And are calimaka and keraka also likely to be kinds of drumming? No help from Nidd-a, nor anywhere else that I can see, e.g. DOP, PED.
Of course, one could simply guess at the meaning of these words, looking at possible Sanskrit parallels, but that doesn’t seem right. Where to turn in such a case? Does one just give up?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Dhivan