Re: Dhp. V. 143

From: Bryan Levman
Message: 4689
Date: 2016-08-30

Dear Ven. Yuttadhammo,

If it were "awakens out of sleep" then the form would be pabodhati, without the negatīng a-  ("... who does not give rise to blame, like a good horse does not give rise to the whip").

Norman takes it as appaṃ bodhati ("who thinks little of censure, as a well-bred horse thinks little of the whip") in his Word of the Doctrine, which he takes from Rau 1959.
The verse also occurs at SN 1, 7.The Burmese has apa and the PTS (Sinhalese) has appa. CPD has apa-bodhati in the meaning "ward off" which is quite different to a-pabodhati ("not wake up, not give rise"). Whereas the appa with two -pp- has yet another meaning.

If the original verb was pabodhati, then there should be two -pp- on negation, because of the original Skt. prabodhati (the second -p- representing the lost Skt. -r- in pra-). Then the form is the same as appa-bodhati, with appa meaning little. this can probably never be unravelled and points out problems in the transmission. Since originally it was transmitted orally the difference between apa-bodhati and appa-bodhati and apa-bodhati would be very hard to hear, without someone spelling it out and this confusion looks like a classic case of transmissional ambiguities. Keep in mind as well that in the first written documents geminates were not shown, so that again leaves it to the scribe's interpretation. Hope that helps,

Mettā,

Bryan


From: "Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu yuttadhammo@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2016 8:23 PM
Subject: [palistudy] Dhp. V. 143

 
Another question, about Dhp 143:

yo niddaṃ apabodheti, asso bhadro kasāmiva.

The word niddaṃ is alternatively nindaṃ, and apabodheti could be apabodhati.

The Buddharakkhita translation says "who avoids reproach, as a thoroughbred horse avoids the whip", which seems like an odd image, whereas something like "who awakens out of (apabodhati) sleep (nidda.m) as a thoroughbred horse [awakens due to] a whip" seems more reasonable. The commentary says:

yo niddanti appamatto samaṇadhammaṃ karonto attano uppannaṃ niddaṃ apaharanto bujjhatīti apabodheti.

which, again oddly to my mind, seems to be translated in the PED as "forstalleth blame", under the entry for pabodhati:

(=nindaŋ apaharanto bujjhati DhA iii.86; trsl. KS 13 "forestalleth blame")

Any thoughts on this? The origin story is about a monk who keeps thinking to go back to the lay life, and can be seen as either waking up repeatedly or avoiding blame repeatedly by contemplating his old set of clothes.


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