[Buddha-l] 9. Attadiipaa Sutta (Joy Vriens)

[L.S. Cousins]

Mitchell Ginsberg wrote:

> hello Joy and all,
> The Pali diipa can mean, as you point out, either island or lamp (source of light).
> The Sanskrit has two different words that would each/both correspond to diipa in Pali: dviipa and diipa.
> The first is said to derive from the root dviipa meaning two waters (dvi = 2 + ap/aapas), and hence island, while the second is associated with the root dii/diip (dviipyate), shine, hence, a lamp.
> Or so it is said by some.
> Now, how the phrase shows up in different Sanskrit texts is perhaps the next question.
That is indeed the next question. In the corresponding Sanskrit version 
of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra we have dvīpa which means 'island' or 
'continent' or 'doab'. (According to commentators, an area of ground 
which is not submerged by floodwaters coming from two sides.) Similarly 
when the phrase occurs in the Mahāvastu. So the Sanskrit translators of 
the earlier Middle Indian agree with the Pali commentators that the word 
used here had the meaning of Sanskrit dvīpa and not Sanskrit dīpa 
'lamp'. Indeed there is no evidence that anyone in India ever intrpreted 
dīpa in attadīpa as 'lamp' or 'light'. So the explanation in terms of 
'lamp' has been rejected for a long while now.

That said, the rendering from Middle Indian into Sanskrit may be no 
older than the Pali commentarial tradition. So we do need to look at the 
context as well.

Lance Cousins