Regarding Sakkāya = 有身, it has the meaning of “the personality” (See pp. 39-40, 43 in Choong MK’s The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism)
I found an instance of ‘sakkāya’ in an early Prakrit Jain text (the Isibhasiyaim), which says specifically ‘telokka-sakkayaṃ.’ The Pāli commentaries gloss ‘sakkāya’ as ‘tebhūmakavaṭṭaṁ,’ which is a similarity there.
I think Bhante Sujato’s essay here gives sufficient reason to connect the term to non-Vedic religious traditions, both because of the word ‘kāya’ being used in DN 2 for some of their doctrines, as well as Jain ‘astikāya’ which is etymologically near identical.
But it would be good to consider some of these cases.
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Is there any sense of the dating of the text? Of course, there are no absolutes in ancient texts, sa- occurs here in there in early Chinese translations too. It’s the overall pattern that I’m referring to.
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Wow, I actually just came across the term tebhūmakavaṭṭaṁ in the commentary to SN 1.23, the Jaṭā Sutta, researching this really complex connection I’m proposing with nāmarūpa, viññāṇa, and uparujjhati and tracing it all back to pre-/non-Buddhist literature. (It’d take an entirely new thread to explain it.)
It was in the context of “the tangle” (jaṭā) which binds one to the round, so this connection to sakkāya is interesting. Can I ask you, Bhante @Vaddha, where you found these Pāli commentarial references? And, also, for a little more clarity on the Jain text? (Sorry, I know you named it, but I know nothing about Jain texts; that reference wouldn’t be enough to go on for me to go on.)
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Well I hope you share your research one day 
You’ve invested lots of time into this topic it seems.
I think uparujjhati is a metrical equivalent to nirujjhati. Same root, different prefix. One has an extra syllable to fit siloka meter in some lines. But that’s just my intuition from reading and reciting Pāli poetry.
Digital Pāli Reader, if you don’t use it, has the Tipitaka and atthakathās available Internet search should bring it up. If you find a sutta with ‘sakkāya’ in it, just open the commentary to the sutta and I believe it is glossed consistently there.
It is one of the earlier Jain texts which contains an anthology of teachings and poems from many different sages or spiritual teachers (45 total), many of them non-Jain. It has sections on both Vedic and Sramana teachers. It’s a demonstration of the ancient Jains’ open-mindedness to other spiritual traditions, present today with their anekāntavāda. One of the sages there is a certain Rāmaputra (Uddaka?). It also has a Sāriputra-Buddha chapter, Sañjaya, etc.
There is a work by Mahopadhyay Vinaysagar in Hindi which has a section summarizing the various chapters and discusses some of their connections to other traditions (Upanisads, Buddhist, etc.). It was translated into English by Kalanath Shastri / Dinesh Chandra Sharma. The Prakrit can be found on GRETIL.
There are some parallels and connections to verses in the Buddhist SN and Sutta Nipata there.
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This is a very interesting topic and I’m super impressed by and grateful for everyone’s efforts here.
with metta
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