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42
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.
CH.
5. A second and a third time did the Blessed One [say the same thing, and a second and a third time was Ânanda's heart thus hardened].
6. Now the Blessed One addressed the venerable Ânanda, and said: 'You may leave me, Ânanda, awhile, and do whatever seemeth to thee fit.' 'So be it, Lord!' said the venerable Ânanda, in assent, to the Blessed, and rising from his seat he saluted the Blessed One, and passing him on the right, sat down at the foot of a certain tree not far off thence.
7. Now not long after the venerable Ânanda had been gone, Mâra, the Evil One, approached the Blessed One, and stood beside him. And so standing there, he addressed the Blessed One in these words:
'Pass away now, Lord, from existence; let the Blessed One now die. Now is the time for the Blessed One to pass away-even according to the
fact is that they or v in such cases is even less than euphonic; it is an assistance not to the speaker, but merely to the writer. Thus in the Sinhalese duwanawâ, 'to run,' the spoken word is duanawâ, and the w is written only to avoid the awkward use in the middle of a word of the initial sign for the sound a. That the speakers of Pâli found no difficulty in pronouncing two vowels together is abundantly proved by numerous instances. The writers of Pâli, in those cases in which the second vowel begins a word, use without hesitation the initial sign; but in the middle of the word this would be so ungainly that they naturally prefer to insert a consonantal sign to carry the vowel sign. The varying readings I have pointed out are a strong confirmation of the correctness of the pronunciation of modern native scholars; and we may the more readily adopt it as the question is not really one concerning the pronunciation of Pâli, but concerning the use which modern native copyists make of their own alphabet. I would pronounce therefore pari-utthita-kitto.
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