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Here, monks, a monk might speak like this: ‘In a certain dwelling place lives a Community with elders and leaders, I have heard this directly from that Community, directly I learned it: “This is the Teaching, this is the Discipline, this is the Teacher’s Dispensation.
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Mātikādharā:
Mātikā: Matrix
Dharā : Resitate
Some friends said it’s refer to Abhidhamma. May Bhante explain to us…
In the translation, it’s not “teacher’s Dispensation” (which is satthusāsanā) but “Tabulation”.
The word dhāra means “memorizers”.
A mātikā is like a table of contents or summary. Various things might be referred to as a mātikā. For example, the list of rules for the Patimokkha, or a list of doctrinal teachings such as “Four noble truths, dependent origination …” and so on.
In the Abhidhamma period, the term mātikā became established as a term for the basic list of terms which is elaborated in the text. You can see a classic example here in the Pali:
And in my translation:
Since mātikā is not defined clearly in the Suttas themselves, it is not sure what exactly it means. Most likely it refers to early mnemonic lists of doctrines, which the monastics would learn, and which would evolve over time to become what we call Abhidhamma.
So it is not entirely incorrect to say that they are Abhidhamma, even though, of course, the Abhidhamma texts that we have today had not yet been composed. In fact, it is likely that the Abhidhamma emerged as an elaboration of the simple mātikā memorized in the early Sangha.
What the meaning of Mātikādharā in DN 16? In English it’s translated as Teacher’s dispensation is it right?
