[Buddha-l] Re: Men and women of good family

[Steven Rhodes]

Dear Dhammanando (or others):

Where does the "good" in this "translation" come from?  It see it 
neither in "kula-" (= "family") or "putra" (= "son").  "Good" doesn't 
come through in the Tibetan translation of this term either.

Best wishes,

Steven Rhodes


Dhammanando Bhikkhu wrote:

> Vicente Gonzalez:
>
>     What's the real meaning of "men or women of good family"?
>
>
> It translates the Pali kulaputta (Skt. kulaputra). The Pali 
> commentators (e.g. (MA. i. 111)) distinguish two kinds: one who is a 
> kulaputta on account of his birth or caste (jaatikulaputta), and the 
> other on account of good conduct (aacaarakulaputta).
>
> In the former type the term kula is glossed as either "high-class 
> family" (uccaakula, meaning a k.satriya or braahma.na family) or 
> "prominent family" (aggakula, meaning a family possessed of wealth or 
> power). The arahant Ra.t.thapaala is given as an example of a 
> jaatikulaputta. As for aacaarakulaputtas, these are men of any 
> background who go forth out of faith; the fact that one is going forth 
> out of faith (and not for some other reason) automatically makes one a 
> kulaputta. Most occurrences of kulaputta in the Suttas are glossed as 
> referring to aacaarakulaputtas.
>
>     I wonder how this use was able to travel among different countries
>     across times without special variations.
>
>     Why existed a general acceptance of this formula in all Asiatic
>     countries?.
>     It was understood as a kammic requisite for the way or it was only
>     a protocol use to talk about anyone engaged in the Buddha way?
>
>
> In Thailand the loanword 'kulabut' is most often used when referring 
> to a man who's preparing to become a monk; occasionally it's used in 
> the more old-fashioned style of sermon and seems to denote any devout 
> layman (with 'kulathida', from the Pali kuladhiitaa, denoting his 
> female counterpart). So I'd say that here at least it's just a protocol.
>
> Best wishes,
> Dhammanando
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>buddha-l mailing list
>buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
>http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l
>  
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20070220/15f19118/attachment.htm