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2. The term Sahampati

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

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Abstract

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Type
Correspondence
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1902

References

1 Cf. Karuṇā-puṇḍarīka (Calc. ed., fasc. i, p. 63), where we must read saha instead of sahā.

2 [This comes to much the same as Dr. Anesaki's explanation “ Lord of the Shaba world,” where shaba is an interesting cross between sarva and sabba. It seems more natural to connect Sahampati, as an epithet of Brahmā, with svayambhū, also used as such an epithet. So already in 1881, in our “Vinaya Texts,” 1. 86; and Professor Franke, in 1893, in the Vienna Journal, p. 359. The Chinese derivations are very forced. If one wanted to say “Lord of the world,” is it probable one would have said either “Lord of the patient ones” or “Lord of the with's,” even if either of these explanations were etymologically satisfactory? But they belong to the sphere of exegesis rather than to that of etymology—like the word-plays in the Old Testament or in the Aggañña Suttanta—and, as such, are very ingenious.—RH. D.]