Yes, the Sudassanavinayavibhasa. Scholarly consensus says this is a translation of the Samantapasadika. However I think it was based on one of the old Sinhala commentaries. In many chapters there is nothing in common with the Samantapasadika, while other passages are nearly identical.
My Ph. D. thesis âQuoted Verse Passages in the Works of Buddhaghosa, Contributions Towards the Study of the Lost Siiha.la-A.t.thakathaa Literatureâ was written ages ago (Göttingen 1982), and is therefore hard to access nowadays. In it were examined all verse passages in the Visuddhimagga and in nine Pali commentaries at that time ascribed to the authorship of Buddhaghosa.
I also compared verse passages in Vimuttimagga and âthe Chinese Samantapasadikaâ [= Sp©], using the English translations.
The comparison between Sp and Sp© was fruitful in connection with two topics:
.1) The exegesis of the âiti-pi-soâ formula
(called by me the âCakkavala Setâ, as it formed part of the exegesis of the Buddha epithet âloka-viduuâ),
p. 146-65, especially p. 158, p. 163,
suggested sources p. 164:
The account was most probably found in several lost Sinhalese commentaries on the Four Major Nikayas, as well as in the old Sinhalese commentary on the Vinaya Pi.taka.
Buddhaghosa included this account in the Visuddhimagga (as it is already found in Vimuttimagga also). In the Sutta commentaries written by him, he retained only references to his piece in Vism.
Sp is an exception to that. [Sp is now no longer attributed to Buddhaghosa]. Sp© also contain this passage.
But there are definite differences between Sp and Sp©, specifically in the exegesis of âVesaaliâ and âMahaavanaâ.
For Mahaavana Sp© uses the (earlier) explanation used by the Diigha-bhaa.naka tradition, commenting on the long discourses.
While Sp uses the (later) explanation of the Majjhima-bhaa.naka tradition, commenting on the middle length discourses.
.2) The âAanaapaana Sati Setâ
(p. 166-197, especially p. 167, 182-194,
suggested sources p. 195-97:
Standard account on Aanaapaana Sati in the lost Siiha.la commentaries.
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Huh, interesting, thanks. Would you be interested to publish a digital copy of your Phd? We could PDF it and post it here. Just a thought!
You know itâs not actually called âSÄmantapasadikÄâ anywhere, but something that would translate as SudassanavinayavibhÄsÄ?
Interesting, thanks. In the passages I have compared, I also found that in closely parallel sections the Sudassanavinayavibhasa fairly consistently represents an earlier tradition. Of course in many other places they cannot be directly compared, as the text has nothing in common.
Interesting, do you have any more details on this?
Bhante @Sujata, excuse my late reply. I saw your response to my post of September 28th only today. When I wrote that post, I had the book in my hand. But I am now in California until the middl of December, and the book was left back in Germany, so I cannot give a detailed reply straight away.
But I developed a tentative suggestion of several stages in the âpossible developmentâ of the lost Sihala-a.t.thakathaa literature, before it remained in its final shape about the 2nd c. AD (?) That date is based on the earlier research done by Adikaram, who says that stories added in Sri Lanka go only up to that date.
This written material was kept at the Mahavihaara of Anuraadhapura, and used by Buddhaghosa when he wrote the Paali commentaries.
I do not know, whether the book merits re-printing in the internet. But I do have a single âspare copyâ left. I could send it to you, to have a look at the book yourself. Nowadays, in the digital age, research methods have changed so much, results may be acquired more easily.
The examination of verse passages alone is not sufficient.
Each commentary merits more detailed examination including all quotations (verse passages as well as prose passages). More solid results will be obtained in this way.
I also have unpublished material left from this research in the 1970s, which I was about to throw away, as I want to get more deeply into monastic life. There are lists of traced and untraced verse passages, for example.
If parallels to the so far untraced verse passages of the Pali commentaries are found in the Buddhist Sanskrit literature, or in the manuscripts now found in Afghanistan, we will receive more information on the interaction between the different Buddhist schools, after they had already closed their canonical collections. The Pali canon may have been closed somewhat earlier, than the canonical scriptures of other schools (?).
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Hi again,
No worries, I do this all the time!
Your research sounds interesting, but it would be best to not send me a book: I wil be moving on from here soon and I donât know what Iâll do with anything thatâs left here.
And dismissed all the easier. Itâs an incomparable boon for an isolated scholar like me, but the quality of research in the field has not improved.
I agree, this is likely to be the case on the whole, although it is probably too much of a generalization to be much use.
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