Indian Society for Buddhist Studies

Author(s): Prachya Vidyapeeth
Publisher: Prachya Vidyapeeth

Page 57

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Nirākṛtih Vişnorekakartṛkatva Nirākaraṇam" from Tibetan in Sanskrit Language. It was published from Sarnath. So, I try to highlight this to and fro journey of these texts from Sanskrit to Tibetan and back to Sanskrit through retranslation.
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Human Beings like Clouds (Valāhakūpama Puggala): As Depicted in the Puggalapammatti
K. K. Pandey, Nalanda
The Puggalapaññatti is the fourth treatise of the Abhidhamma pitaka. It discusses the designation of individuals. The text is small in size and differs from the remaining texts of the Abhidhammapitaka, both in language and in style. It does not discuss the dhammas, but deals with different types of human being. Three hundred ninety types of individuals are classified in ten different chaptersin this scripture. It gives an exhaustive treatment of persons who are lustful, self-seeking and also there are persons doing something for others. It makes a mention of persons who are still evil-minded and having attachments. It is entirely devoted to give the description of the human types from several stand points and proceeds in the form of a question and answer, called Matika.
Puggalapaññatti also mentions four kinds of persons who are like clouds. There are four types of clouds, namely, that which thunders but does not rain; that which rains but does not thunder; that which thunders as well as rains and that which neither thunders nor rains. Similarly, there are persons who speak loudly but does not act accordingly; some persons act but do not speak; some others speak and act accordingly and there are persons who neither speak nor act accordingly.
Thus cloud is the appropriate simile of an individual or a person or a human being who is called Puggala in the Theravada Pali tradition.
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