Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 634

140
MAHÂVAGGA.
VI, 37, 1.
37. 1. Now the Blessed One, when he had stayed at Kusinârâ as long as he thought fit, went on, on his pilgrimage to Âtumâ, with a great company of the Bhikkhus, with two hundred and fifty Bhikkhus. And at that time there was dwelling at Atumà a certain man, who had entered the Order in his old age, and who had previously been a barber? He had two sons, handsome, skilled in discourse 3, able, fully educated in all the arts which belonged to the barbers' craft handed down to them by their teachers
2. Now this dotard heard the news: The Blessed One, they say, is coming to Atumâ with
* This man is identified by the tradition with the Subhadda mentioned in the accounts of the Great Decease, and of the First Council. See Rh. D.'s note on Maha-parinibbâna Sutta VI, 40.
? Buddhaghosa understands this word, which he reads differently, as meaning 'sweet-voiced.' Mañkuka (sic) ti madhura-vakanâ. We follow the ordinary meaning of mangu.
• Here again Buddhaghosa gives a technical meaning to the word, unsupported by the derivation. He says, Patibhâneyyaka ti sake sippe palibhâna-sampanna. This agrees with Childers's rendering (sub voce) of Gâtaka I, 60; but compare Sigâlovâda Sutta, ed. Grimblot, p. 309.
• On the idiomatic phrase sakam akariyakam, compare Mahaparinibbana Sutta III, 7, 8 (text ed. Childers, pp. 24 and following).
* Literally, this man who had gone forth (from the household state into the homeless life of the Order) in his old age.' But it is impossible to repeat this long phrase throughout the narrative as is done in the Pali, where the meaning of the phrase is expressed by one compound. As the Pâli word vuddha-pabbagito connotes contempt, and even censure (men entering the Order in their old age being often represented as incapable of appreciating even the simplest principles of the doctrine and discipline'), the use of the word 'dotard' in our translation seems to retain the spirit of the Pâli epithet, while avoiding the inconvenient length of a literal version.
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