Ven. @sujato 's translation:
Vessabhū’s father was King Suppatīta, his birth mother was Queen Vassavatī, and their capital
city was named Suppatīta.
Obviously the name of the city should be corrected to Anoma.
This is the name of the city given in Malalasekera’s Dict. of Pali Proper Names.
Therefore, I do not quite understand here why form Anomaṃ, masc. accusative, is used in the Pali text, since names of other cities in the same passage are all in Nominative.
E.g. Bārāṇasī (Nom.) / Bārāṇasiṃ (Acc.)
Anomaṃ is a neuter noun and so takes an -aṃ inflection in the nominative, just like Campakaṃ, Khemakaṃ, Mekhalaṃ, Vebhāraṃ and other adjectives that have been made into place names.
I came across another point in the Ven. @Sujato’s translation:
‘evaṃjaccā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipi, evaṃnāmā evaṃgottā evaṃsīlā evaṃdhammā evaṃpaññā evaṃvihārī evaṃvimuttā te bhagavanto ahesuṃ itipī’”ti.
“He knows the caste they were born in, and also their names, clans, conduct, qualities, wisdom, meditation, and freedom.”
I don’t understand why viharī is translated as meditation.
In M. Con’s dictionary: evaṁ-vihāri(n), mfn., having such an abode
It is interesting that M. Walshe simply skipped the word
“Being born thus, these Blessed Lords were such-and-such, such were their names, their clans, their discipline, their Dhamma, their wisdom, their liberation.”
from Ven. @Sujato’s translation:
“From when he was born, Prince Vipassī had the power of clairvoyance which manifested as a result of past deeds. He could see for a league all around both by day and by night.”
Usually dibbacakkhu relates to seeing things not accessible to a physical eye, like beings being reborn according to their kamma etc. Therefore, in this case I wonder if dibbacakkhu is not clairvoyance, but just a good eyesight, since baby Vipassī is able to see far away well by day and by night.
Although the word “Sangha” doesn’t appear explicitly in the Pali for this text segment, one does, per the Dhamma, indeed go for refuge in the Triple Gem, which includes the Sangha. I actually like Bhante’s translation here for the reinforcement it provides about this key point of the Dhamma. In this modern age we tend to hair-split a lot and focus on parts of the truth, so the explicit reiteration helps me step back to the bigger picture.
Evaṃvihārī can also refer to meditative abidings and indeed is understood in the commentaries to DN 14, MN 123 and SN 47:12 to refer to dwelling in the cessation of perception and feeling.
These are two translation of the parallel passage in MN 123:
“and that these Lords were of such an abiding”
(Horner)
“their abiding [in attainments] was thus,”
(Ñāṇamoli/Bodhi)
