Ajahn Brahmali's Sk 30 Translation

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Dear Ajahn @Brahmali

During our Vinaya class today we went over Sk 30 and I think your translation is a bit confusing.

Samatittikaṁ straightforwardly means “even with the rim [of the bowl]” and thūpīkataṁ “overflowing” no? “An even level” and “heap” here makes it sound like a monk must constantly re-level the rice as it’s dumped into his bowl. Is this what you intended to mean?

Best,
KhBh

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Hi Venerable,

Thanks for the feedback!

Samatittika is a strange word. Sama, “even”, is clear enough, but tittika is not. I wonder if it might be a corruption of tiṭṭhika, “standing”, “remaining”. If so, it would mean something like “evenly standing” or simply “level”.

The commentary says:

Samatittikanti samapuṇṇaṃ samabharitaṃ.
Samatittikaṁ means evenly filled, evenly full.

There is nothing here to suggest full to “the rim”, which in any case would be rather strange. It would mean one has to fill the bowl to the rim, which can hardly be correct. Rather, I would suggest this means that, however full the bowl is, it is to be filled at an even level, not making a heap. This might mean that there is not supposed to be a heap inside the bowl, or that a heap is not to protrude from the bowl. The commentary suggests the latter is the correct interpretation:

Thūpīkataṃ piṇḍapātaṃ paṭiggaṇhāti, āpatti dukkaṭassāti ettha thūpīkato nāma pattassa antomukhavaṭṭilekhaṃ atikkamitvā kato.

Thūpīkataṃ piṇḍapātaṃ paṭiggaṇhāti, āpatti dukkaṭassa: here thūpīkata means having gone beyond the inner rim of the bowl.

The point here seems to be that food should not protrude from one’s bowl.

As for thūpīkata, is simply means “made into a heap”. This is just the Pali form of stupa + kata, “made”.

I suppose the most natural interpretation is to read this as “below the rim of the bowl.” But since this is based on the Commentarial interpretation, I might have to put it in a footnote.

What do you reckon?

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Yes, my understanding is according to the commentary, which is why I read “heap” here as “overflowing” (i.e. heaped up beyond the rim).

I do think it’s at least worth a footnote to give the commentary’s interpretation because the literal meaning of the English as you have it gives a rather different impression of the rule than how it’s typically interpreted / practiced.

Thanks for the kind reply, Bhante :folded_hands:

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I’m thinking that the intent of the rule might be to not be greedy, to be satisfied with a bowl’s worth of food. A bowl full of soup would be a little below the rim so as not to spill and couldn’t go over the rim without spilling needlessly. However, a bowl of solid food could be heaped far above the rim to give one a much larger portion, but that would be greedy.

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Footnote added! (Just adding a few words to reach the 20 character requirement.) :grinning_face:

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