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Buddhist Chinese etymological notes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

John Brough
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Extract

The name of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī naturally appears frequently in early Buddhist texts, and in the Chinese translations a number of transcriptions and translated versions of the name are well known.1 The former need not detain us: with a few variations in the characters chosen, they represent clearly either Prakritic pajāpadī, pajāpadī, or Sanskrit prajāpatī. One Middle Indian version may be singled out as showing a different development:p***e-*** ***ayuâ-dei, i.e. piyāvadī.2 We shall come back to this later.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , October 1975 , pp. 581 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1975

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References

1 See Akanuma Chizen, Indo-bukkyō koyū-meishi jiten, s.v.; also Wogihara, U. (Ogihara Unrai continued by Tsuji NaoshirōKanyaku taishō Bonwa daijiten . Tokyo, 1940–1943 (reprinted and completed 1964–74). Although this work is also intended as a general Sanskrit lexicon for the use of Japanese students, the large number of words-not merely technical terms-which it cites from Chinese Buddhist translations make it a most useful work of reference for Western students of Chinese Buddhist texts.Google Scholar

2 In the ‘Mahāprajāpatī-parinirvāṇa-sūtra’, translated by Po fa tsu under the Western Chin, between A.D. 290 and 306: T, 11, 144, pp. 867–9.

3 Brough, J. (ed.), The Gāndhārī Dharmapada, London, 1962.Google Scholar

4 Wogihara and Tsuji, op. cit., s.v.

5 In the numerous other examples, paḍha’i: pradhavi (prthivī), paḍhama: pradhamu (prathama), and frequently paḍi; pradi (prati), the assimilated forms are almost certainly borrowed from the Middle Indian dialect from which the Gāndhārī text was transposed. Similarly in the Niya documents pa***ichida (with many forms from the same verb) is likely to be a loanword from another Prakrit, and in other words pr- normally survives.

6 Cinq cents contes et apologues, 1910–11, 1934, reprinted 1962.

7 T'oung Pao, xxx, 1933, 97.

8 Méthode pour déchiffrer el transcrire les noms sanscrits, Paris, 1861, 89.Google Scholar

9 The latter cited from the Lalita-vistara, where the text has bi-śap-b***u (T,111, 187, p. 539a). The older translation (186, p. 483c) has the form of the name quoted by Pelliot. Both forms suggest a Middle Indian assimilation, -īv- > -śś-.

10 It is curious, however, that here also the second character has an alternative reading: see E. G. Pulleyblank, ‘The consonantal system of Old Chinese’, AM, NS, ix, 1, 1962, 121, ‘ś***ep, nep’. (In the same series, ‘ ń***ep’ is a misprint for ṇep.) It should be added that the Middle Chinese fronting of the vowel shown in P. -***e-, K. -***ā- is later than the early Buddhist transcriptions, and is therefore in general not indicated by me.

11 I-ch'ieh-ching yin-i, chüan 25, 2 (also 7, 9; 15, 11), followed by Hui-lin in his work of the same name. The modern Chinese and Japanese dictionaries depend almost entirely on Hsüan-ying's account.

12 T, LIV, 2128, p. 470c.

13 For other examples and discussion, see H. W. Bailey, BSOAS, x, 4, 1942, 919; xi, 4, 1946, 777; Pulleyblank, art. cit., 68, 115–16.

14 Pulleyblank, art. cit., AM, NS, IX, 2, 1963, 228 ff.

15 Brough, in Boyce, M. and Gershevitch, I. (ed.), W. B. Henning memorial volume, London, 1970, 85.Google Scholar

16 T, iv, 203. p. 447.

17 Index to the Taisho Tripiṭaka, no. 2, honnen-bu, p. 103.

18 ‘La légende de Rāma dans un avadāna chinois’, Album-Kern, 1903, 279–81; reprinted in Mémorial Sylvain Lévi, 1937, 271–4.

19 Rāmāyaṇa in China, Nagpur, 1938, reprinted 1955.

20 T, 111, 152, pp. 26c–27b, also translated in Raghu Vira and Yamamoto's book.

21 Rāmāyaṇa, Baroda edition, 111, 11, 29 f.

22 -n for -r, see above, p. 584, n. 14.

23 Rāmāyaṇa, 11, 57, 8, and elsewhere; Pali saddavedhī, Mahāvaṃsa 23,86; see also Edgerton, BHSD, s.v. I am indebted to Professor Minoru Hara for these references.