From: Bryan Levman
Message: 5053
Date: 2018-05-16
Note also, Edgerton has pūrve as an adverb meaning "of old, in former time; first, beforehand" and in one of his examples it takes the abl.
Dear Ven.,
The Sanskrit parallel has
Pūrvaṃ me bhikṣavo ‘nuttarāṃ samyaksaṃbodhim anabhisaṃbuddhasyaikākino rahasigatasyaivaṃ cetasi cetaḥparivitarka udapādi (Tripāṭhī, p. 89-90).
“Formerly when I was alone and had not achieved unsurpassed perfect enlgithenment, when I had gone to a deserted place, a thought arose in my mind..”
pūrvaṃ here is just an adverb and clearly means “formerly” or “before”. But it does ordinarily take the ablative per MW (former, prior, preceding, previous to, earlier than, abl.), so I think that’s what we’re seeing here with pubbe … sambodhā, meaning “prior to (from) my enlightenment.” Pubbe = Skt. pūrvaṃ. I’m not sure why it’s in the locative, perhaps to indicate “In the past, previous to my enlightenment…” MW gives three forms of the adverb, pūrvaṃ, pūrvena, and this looks like a third pūrve
Mettā, Bryan
Pubbeva me, bhikkhave, sambodhā anabhisambuddhassa bodhisattass’eva sato etadahosi…
The above line occurs several places in the Nikāyas (e.g. at SN II 10, SN III 27), but strangely, the commentaries do not explain the line grammatically. The Aṅguttara subcommentary, Mp-ṭ II 183 (VRI), resolves pubbeva thus: pubbeyeva, that is, “in the past” (with emphatic eva) rather than “before.” In such a case, how does the ablative sambodhā fit into this sentence?
For convenience, I would
render the line “Before the enlightenment, monks,
while I was just a bodhisatta, not fully enlightened, it
occurred to me …” But
if Mp-ṭ II 183 is correct, pubbeva is
not related grammatically to sambodhā,
and in that case, how does sambodhā
function here? Is there any case where pubbe
occurs with an ablative X, yielding the sense “before X”?
Thank you in advance.
With metta,
-- Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi Chuang Yen Monastery 2020 Route 301 Carmel NY 10512 U.S.A. Sabbe sattā averā hontu, abyāpajjā hontu, anighā hontu, sukhī hontu! 願眾生無怨，願眾生無害，願眾生無惱，願眾生快樂！ May all beings be free from enmity, free from affliction, free from distress. May they be happy!