[Buddha-l] mogha, moha, etc.

[Dan Lusthaus]

[continued from preceding message]

So we need to consider whether, like ben-adam, moghapurisa was an idiom of
the time that carried specific connotations that may have gone beyond a
simple literal meaning, or whether we are free to sanitize it as mohapurisa.

What the sutta itself makes clear is that upon being called a moghapurisa in
front of everyone, and then having Buddha get the whole assembly to
similarly declare Sati clueless, Sati felt shamed: "the bhikkhu Sati, son of
a fisherman, sat silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head down,
glum, and without response."

Mogha comes from the root muh (as does moha, mughda, and related terms).

Monier-Williams defines muh as "to become confused, fail, miscarry." The
first sense indicates a mental condition lacking clarity, vulnerable to
misfortunes. The second suggests an effort to accomplish something has been
unsuccessful, and the last is a more concrete example of failing to bring
something to full fruition.



Mogha is a vedic word. Here are the instances of its occurrence in the Rg
Veda, along with Griffith's translations [in utf-8 to preserve vedic
accents, sorry Lance]:


[7.104.14b] móghaṃ vā devā́m̆̇ apyūhé agne |

Or thought vain thoughts about the Gods, O Agni.



   [7.104.15d] yó mā móghaṃ yā́tudhānéty ā́ha ||

…who with false tongue hath called me Yātudhāna.



   [10.55.6c] yác cikéta satyám ít tán ná móghaṃ

That which he knows is truth and never idle:



   [10.117.6a] mógham ánnaṃ vindate ápracetāḥ

The foolish man wins food with fruitless labour



So, following Griffiths, mogha = 1. thinking vain thoughts, 2. calling with
false tongue [!], 3. idle, 4. foolish man.

We needn't accept Griffith's readings as definitive -- I can imagine several
other valid ways of rendering these passages, but let's leave that for now.

Monier-Williams gives the following for mogha:

[mogha] n. (root 1. [muh]) vain, fruitlets, useless, unsuccessful,
unprofitable (ibc. and [am] ind. in vain, uselessly, without cause) cf. RV.
&c. &c

---> left, abandoned cf. MBh

---> idle cf. ib

---> m. a fence, hedge cf. L

Some additional uses cited in MW (he has more, but these are sufficient
illustrations):

[mogha-karman] mfn. one whose actions are fruitless, observing useless
ceremonies



[mogha-j~naana] mfn. one whose knowledge is useless, cultivating any but
religious wisdom



[moghataa]  f. vainness, uselessness



[mogha-pu.spaa]  f. a barren woman



By these examples, mogha emphasizes the "failure" or "useless" aspect of
muh, not the mental aspect. In contemporary idiom we would call a
mogha-purisa a "loser."



Closer to the reading Buddhists would prefer is mughda. From MW:



[mugdha]  gone astray, lost

---> perplexed, bewildered

---> foolish, ignorant, silly.

---> inexperienced, simple, innocent, artless, attractive or charming (from
youthfulness), lovely, beautiful, tender, young



[mugdhakathaa] f. a tale about a fool



[mugdhadhaa] mfn. foolish, silly, a simpleton





On "fool" see my previous post. Here, while including the mental confusion
aspects, the stress is on being ignorant, foolish, silly, a simpleton. One
can, perhaps, imagine Buddha gently chiding Sati -- with a British accent -- 
"Oh, you silly boy!"





To go with the preferred Buddhist gloss, reading mogha as moha, MW on moha:



loss of consciousness, bewilderment, perplexity, distraction, infatuation,
delusion, error, folly ([moham-root brU], to say anything that leads to
error



This would be "misguided man," "confused person," etc., Richard's preferred
reading, and that endorsed by the other translators and commentators. But
the text doesn't say moha-purisa -- though moha is a well-established, even
fundamental Pali term; it retains the vedic mogha-purisa, suggesting this
was a contemporary idiom only partially cognate to moha by sharing the same
root, but stressing someone on an ultimately fruitless journey, someone
holding a useless (or pernicious) theory, a fool.



Dan Lusthaus