[Buddha-l] The Fisherman's Son (buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17)

[L.S. Cousins]

Dan,

>  Perhaps Lance can
>mount a better defense for poor ole Gotama.

I certainly can. It is a perfectly ordinary way of naming to refer to 
someone as X -putto. Compare for example Cunda Kammaaraputta = Cunda 
the smith's son in the account of the Buddha's last meal. There are 
many other examples.

In this particular case, the name is used mainly in the frame and 
only twice by the Buddha himself. There is nothing pejorative about 
it at all. Indeed it is usually in the form Saati bhikkhu 
Keva.t.taputto etc. This makes it quite clear that nothing is being 
said by the Buddha (or anyone else) that is intended to refer  to 
Saati's social or ethnic origins.

Lance