Virtual Dhamma-Vinaya Vihara

Studies, projects & library - [Studium, Projekte & Bibliothek] (brahma & nimmanarati deva) => Our/Your Library - [Unsere/Ihre Bibliokthek] => Topic started by: Dhammañāṇa on September 09, 2019, 02:11:44 PM

Title: [En] Illustrated Glossary of Pāli Terms, by Bhante Vadaro [pdf/epub]
Post by: Dhammañāṇa on September 09, 2019, 02:11:44 PM
 *sgift*

Illustrated Glossary of Pāli Terms, edition 09-2019/2563
By Varado Bhikkhu Maha Thera


*Introduction

Glossary: methodology

This Glossary was originally conceived of as a way of supporting my own translations. Preparing it first of all involved gathering all instances of words in question together with their contexts. It would then usually become clear that words carried different meanings in different contexts. This was in accordance with the findings in Pāli dictionaries, which rarely consist of an explanation by a single word. The excerpts I found could then be divided into groups accordingly. Finding the correct English term for Pāli words when they are grouped on the same page turned out to be altogether easier than working with single passages or sentences and experimenting with terms in one’s head. By following this method, and sorting and resorting groups of quotes over days, months, or even years, continuously applying the find-and-replace tool, shifting backwards and forwards nearly two million words, it eventually confirmed or denied choices of my original renderings, and led to increasing confidence in my findings. Such a system of translation is only possible with computer leverage. With computers, Pāli studies have entered a new era.

Occam’s Razor

One of my guiding principles has been, having divided quotations into groups, to minimise the number of these groups and word renderings. This is in accordance with the ‘principle of parsimony’ (Occam's Razor), the principle that ‘entities should not be multiplied needlessly; the simplest of two competing theories is to be preferred’ (WordWeb). Targeting the problematic and curious One could follow this method to the end, researching each and every word in the scriptures, but my interest was primarily in the 300 words presented here, targeting the problems and curiosities of Buddhism. Some terms, like viññān a or sa khārā ṅ are genuinely important. Some are long-standing puzzles, like ādiccabandhu and an dabhūto and tathāgata―the ‘gnawn bones of exegisis,’ says Mrs. Rhys Davids. I was unwilling to test the limits of the reader’s patience, therefore over 100 words I researched, I have not presented. These other words are useful for hardcore translators, but of no substantial interest to anyone else.My research inevitably drew me into fields of controversy, for example in treating the word āsava as an uncountable noun, as indeed the suttas treat it. For example, the scriptures ask:

• And what is āsavo?
☸ katamo panāvuso āsavo

The answer is:
• There are these three āsavas:
☸ Tayo’me āvuso āsavā (M.1.55).

This automatically bars countable nouns like ‘canker’ or ‘taint.’ But ‘pollution,’ for example, is uncountable, and so is ‘perceptual obscuration,’ our preferred term, which we discuss sv Āsava.
....

Pāli database

The Pāli database for this Illustrated Glossary is the digital edition of the Sri Lanka Buddha Jayanti Tripitaka (http:// jbe.gold.ac.uk/palicanon.html). Because proofreading for this edition is incomplete I have also referred to the Vipassana Research Institute’s Chatt-ha Sa gāyana Tipi - ṅ taka 4.0, and to the -Pāli Text Society editions. Steep learning curveI have been unsparing in my review of the chosen words, the translations of many of which have stood unchallenged for over a century. For readers content with these venerable terms, my work cannot possibly be aimed to please them. The problem is not just in my reviewing occasional English terms for Pāli words, as all translators do, but in the relentless combination of such changes. This will be a challenge not only for the reader. The instinct to reject the unfamiliar stands against an easy acceptance of this Glossary and of my studies. Nonetheless, those who persist in studying the material here, will, I hope, find the treasures I have found myself.

Bhikkhu Varado
Sri Lanka, Vassa 2017


Download (pdf/epub): http://forum.sangham.net/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item741 (http://forum.sangham.net/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item741)