➥ anamatagga:

• for anamatagga:
  • long-lasting beyond conception
  • endless beyond conception

Anamatagga: uncertain derivation

Anamatagga has long been a source of controversy. The difficulty of the word is acknowledged by PED when it says: ‘The meaning can best be seen, not from the derivation (which is uncertain), but from the examples quoted.’

Translators’ renderings

Translators render it in the following ways:

• ‘The journeying-on as being without beginning and end’

saṁsāraṁ anamataggato. (Norman, Thi 496)

• ‘This saṁsāra is without discoverable beginning’

anamataggoyaṁ bhikkhave saṁsāro. (Bodhi, SN v 441)

Thus anamatagga potentially means:

• 1) endless
• 2) beginningless
• 3) without discoverable beginning

We will now show the problem of these terms, and we will show why we follow PED’s ‘whose beginning and end are alike unthinkable,’ and the commentary’s (ad SN ii 178) aparicchinnapubbāparakoṭikoti attho (‘first and last point cannot be determined’).

Endlessness: the problem

• 1) The problem with calling the round of birth and death ‘endless’ is that arahants have ended it, and others will follow. The most one could say is ‘potentially endless’ or ‘perhaps endless for some.’
• 2) The second problem with calling the round of birth and death ‘endless’ is that the Buddha did not quite say that when he said:

• There comes a time when the great ocean dries up, evaporates, and exists no more, but not, I declare, an ending of suffering for beings roaming and wandering the round of birth and death, [obstructed by] uninsightfulness into reality, and [tethered to individual existence] by craving.

Hoti kho so bhikkhave samayo yaṁ mahāsamuddo ussussati visussati na bhavani na tvevāhaṁ bhikkhave avijjānīvaraṇānaṁ sattānaṁ taṇhāsaṁyojanānaṁ sandhāvataṁ saṁsarataṁ dukkhassa antakiriyaṁ vadāmi. (SN iii 149)

To say that beings will continue to suffer as long as they wander the round of birth and death, is not to say that the round of birth and death is endless.

Beginningless: the problem

The problem with calling the round of birth and death ‘beginningless’ is that the Buddha again did not quite say that when he said ‘a first point is not to be discerned’ (pubbā koṭi na paññāyati, SN ii 181).

Without discoverable beginning: the problem

The problem with saying anamataggoyaṁ means ‘saṁsāra is without discoverable beginning’ is that sometimes anamataggoyaṁ is used in reference to the future. For example, the Sattisata Sutta (SN v 441) says a man may be offered the opportunity to penetrate the four noble truths on the condition that he agrees to receive 300 spear wounds a day for a hundred years. Then the sutta says:

• It would be fitting for a noble young man intent on [the development of his own] spiritual well-being to accept the offer. For what reason? Because the round of birth and death is anamatagga. A first point is not to be discerned of [a receiving of] blows by knives, swords, arrows, and axes.

Atthavasikena bhikkhave kulaputtena alaṁ upagantuṁ. Taṁ kissa hetu? Anamataggoyaṁ bhikkhave saṁsāro pubbā koṭi na paññāyati sattippahārānaṁ asippahārānaṁ usuppahārānaṁ pharasuppahārānaṁ

The logic for accepting the offer would be that saṁsāra is ‘without discoverable end,’ not ‘without discoverable beginning.’

Anamatagga: etymology

Anamatagga is etymologically ana (= a neg.) + mata (fr. man) + aggā (pl.) (PED), which have the following meanings:

• mata is the past participle of maññati, meaning ‘thought, understood, considered.’ From this we call anamata ‘beyond conception.’
• Agga means ‘the very tip, the very end’ (DOP sv Agga1).
• PED takes agga as aggā (plural) and translates the term ‘whose beginning and end are alike unthinkable.’ DOP says ‘without beginning (or end).’
• That agga can mean ‘beginning’ is seen in the term aggena (‘in the beginning, beginning from, from,’ PED sv Agga1) and aggañña (‘recognized as primitive primeval’).
• That agga can mean ‘end’ is seen here:

‘While bhikkhus are investigating that legal matter endless brawls arise.

Tehi ce bhikkhave tasmiṁ adhikaraṇe vinicchiyamāne anaggāni ceva bhassāni jāyanti. (Vin.2.95)

If ana-aggā means ‘without beginning or end,’ it means ‘long-lasting.’ This is supported by quotes where the adjective is ‘long’: Dīgho vo saṁsāro (Thi 474).

Anamatagga: endless beyond conception

Where the object is not the round of birth and death, we say ‘endless beyond conception’:

For the fool, the round of birth and death is [truly] long-lasting, weeping again and again over the deaths of his fathers, the killings of his brothers, and the punishments of himself, which are endless beyond conception.

Dīgho bālānaṁ saṁsāro punappunañca rodataṁ
Anamatagge pitumaraṇe bhātuvadhe attano ca vadhe. (Thi 495)

Illustration: anamatagga, long-lasting beyond conception

So long is the period of a universal cycle, bhikkhu. And of universal cycles of such length, we have wandered the round of birth and death for the periods of so many universal cycles, so many hundreds of universal cycles, so many thousands of universal cycles, so many hundreds of thousands of universal cycles. For what reason?

Evaṁ dīgho kho bhikkhu kappo. Evaṁ dīghānaṁ kho bhikkhu kappānaṁ neko kappo saṁsito nekaṁ kappasataṁ saṁsitaṁ nekaṁ kappasahassaṁ saṁsitaṁ nekaṁ kappasatasahassaṁ saṁsitaṁ. Taṁ kissa hetu?

Because, bhikkhu, the round of birth and death is long-lasting beyond conception.

Anamataggoyaṁ bhikkhu saṁsāro

A first point is not to be discerned of beings [obstructed by] uninsightfulness into reality, and [tethered to individual existence] by craving, roaming and wandering the round of birth and death.

pubbā koṭi na paññāyati avijjānīvaraṇānaṁ sattānaṁ taṇhāsaṁyojanānaṁ sandhāvataṁ saṁsarataṁ. (SN ii 181-2)

Suppose a man cut up whatever grass, sticks, branches, and foliage there are in this great subcontinent and collected them into a single heap of sticks four fingerbreadths long, and placed them down one by one, saying:

Seyyathā pi bhikkhave puriso yaṁ imasmiṁ jambudīpe tīṇakaṭṭhasākhāpalāsaṁ taṁ chetvā ekajjhaṁ saṁhareyya ekajjhaṁ saṁharitvā caturaṅgulaṁ caturaṅgulaṁ ghaṭikaṁ karitvā nikkhipeyya

‘This is my mother, this my mother’s mother.’

ayaṁ me mātā tassā me mātu ayaṁ mātā ti

The sequence of that man’s mothers, and mothers of mothers, would not be exhausted, yet the grass, wood, branches, and foliage in this great subcontinent would be finished and exhausted. For what reason?

Apariyādinnāva bhikkhave tassa purisassa mātu mātaro assu. Atha imasmiṁ jambudīpe tiṇakaṭṭhasākhāpalāsaṁ parikkhayaṁ pariyādānaṁ gaccheyya. Taṁ kissa hetu?

Because the round of birth and death is long-lasting beyond conception. A first point is not to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering the round of birth and death, [obstructed by] uninsightfulness into reality, and [tethered to individual existence] by craving.

Anamataggoyaṁ bhikkhave saṁsāro pubbā koṭi na paññāyati avijjānīvaraṇānaṁ sattānaṁ taṇhāsaṁyojanānaṁ sandhāvataṁ saṁsarataṁ. (SN ii 178)

It would be fitting for a noble young man intent on [the development of his own] spiritual well-being to accept the offer. For what reason? Because the round of birth and death is long-lasting beyond conception. A first point is not to be discerned of [a receiving of] blows by knives, swords, arrows, and axes.

Atthavasikena bhikkhave kulaputtena alaṁ upagantuṁ. Taṁ kissa hetu? Anamataggoyaṁ bhikkhave saṁsāro pubbā koṭi na paññāyati sattippahārānaṁ asippahārānaṁ usuppahārānaṁ pharasuppahārānaṁ. (SN v 441)