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ABSOLUTIVE IN -ŪŅA(M)
269
its position as 43 would be the original one. In his reconstruction of the original text of 8-52, which had suffered several lengthy insertions of demonstrably laté material, ALSDORF placed 18 together with 17 between 42 and 44 (ALSDORF 1966: 200).
However, ALSDORF seems to have missed the point of the curious circumlocution for sleeping, niddamokkham, "release from duty for the sake of sleep”. This compound can only be explained as the outcome of the attempt to stay as close as possible to the text of verse 12/1007, with mokkha echoing bhikkhā in taiyãe bhikkhāyariyam. Verse 18 looks very much like a mere reworking of 12 created to complement 17 in the same way as 11/1006 was complemented by 12. Or, the sequence:
divasassa cauro bhāge kuijā bhikkhu viyakkhane tao uttaraguņe kujjā dinabhāgesu causu vi (11) padhamam porisi sajjhāyam bitiyam jhānam jhiyāyai taiyae bhikkhāyariyam puno cautthii sajjhāyam (12)
might have suggested to add to 17:
rattim pi cauro bhāge kuijā bhikkhū viyakkhano tao uttaragune kujjā rāibhāgesu causu
a verse somehow duplicating 12, that is
[ padhamam porisi sajjhāyam bitiyam jhāņam jhiyāyai taiyae niddamokkham tu cautthi bhujjo vi sajjhāyam]
If my interpretation of the origin of 18 is correct, it would follow that the original position of 18 was after 17, and not, as suggested by ALSDORF, after 42, where it is found without 17.
Furthermore, should the programme for the four porisis of the night given in 18 indeed be a later fabrication, one may also question the authenticity of passage 42-49, which fills in the schedule for the night. In this connection two points should be noted. In the first place, as a verse stating a "programme" for the night 43 is virtually ignored in the passage 44ff. Where 18/43 mentions study in the first porisi, meditation in the second, "release from duties for the sake of sleep” (niddamokkham) in the third, and, again, study in the fourth, the passage which follows skips the first, second and third porisis and proceeds immediately to the last and fourth porisi. The second point is that 43-49 has no original text. It has in its entirety been pieced together from verses found earlier: 43 = 18, 44a and c
