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REVIEWS
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Max MUELLER, "Stop the stream valiantly, drive away the desires, O Brâhmana !"27 However, in this instance we have not to think of the stopping or cutting off of the stream but of its crossing. This is shown by the next verse (384) where the idea of 'going beyond', though in a different sense viz. 'to accomplish, to have perfection in, etc.', is similarly present.
yadā dvayasu dhammesu paragū hoti brähmaño/ Max MUELLER, "If Brâhmana has reached the other shore in both laws (in restraint and contemplation...."28 Moreover in the same varga of the Dhammapada occurs another verse (414) which leaves no doubt about the way in which chinda sotaṁ in verse 383 has to be interpreted. Verse 414 reads as
yo iman palipathan, duggan, sansáram, mohan accaga, tinno para gato, jhāyi, anejo akathankathi,
anupādāya nibbuto, tam ahan brūmi brahmanaṁ / Max MUELLER, "Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who has traversed this miry road, the impassable world and its vanity, who has gone through, and-reached the other shore, is thoughtful, guileless, free from doubts, free from attachment, and content".
In the end we may refer to Samyutta-Nikāya IV. 291 where chinnasota is used as an adjective of a chariot (ratha) and hence can only mean 'which has crossed the stream'. cf. anigham passa ayantan chinnasotam abandhanan. Here LUEDERS (p. 49) also follows the traditional translation of chinnasota when he renders the line as, 'Sieh den Unerschütterten kommen, der die Flut der begierden abgeschnitten hat, den Fessellosen."
Thus it will be clear that in those passages where sota and forms of Vchida are brought togeher the idea to be conveyed is of 'crossing the stream' and not of cutting it off or destroying it'.29 It may then be argu
29. The same line recurs in Samyutta-Nikāya 1.49 which Mrs. Rhys DAVIDS translates as, "Advance with valiant energy, recluse, cut off the stream, scatter desires of sense". (Kindred Sayings, 1.70).
28. It may be added that the idea of crossing the stream also continues in the following verse (385) which, however, is difficult to interprete. Read-yassa puram aparan vā, pārăpărar na vijjati...... tam ahar brūmi brahmanan.// Max MUELLER, "He for whom there is neither this nor that shore, nor both, him....I call a Brahmana."
29. Where the idea of drying up of waters is to be conveyed we meet with the use of khina and not chinna with sota. cf. macche va appodake khinasote (SuttaNipāta 777), FAUSBOELL, like a fish in a stream nearly dried up, with little water'. The use of ud chid in the sense of 'to break off, to stop, to want' is noted in PW where a passage cited from the Pañcatantra II.92 shows its use with kusarit. cf. arthena tu vihinasya purusasyälpamedhasah/ucchidyante kriyāḥ sarvā grisme kusarito yatha// But this use of ud chid does not disprove our argument.
Madhu Vidyā/596
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