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Norman - Why Are the Four Noble Truths Called "Noble"? (2008)

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Why Are the Four Noble Truths Called “Noble”?

K.R. Norman

[Ânanda: Essays in Honour of Ananda W.P. Guruge] - K.R. Norman Collected Papers IV, pp. 171 - 174

(c) The Pali Text Society, Oxford 2008

ABBREVIATIONS

ABORIAnnals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Ai.Gr.J. Wackernagel, Altindische Grammatik
AJPAmerican Journal of Philosophy
AMgArdha-Māgadhī
AMg Dict.Ratnachandraji, An Illustrated AMg Dictionary
AOActa Orientalia
Apa.Apabhraṃśa
ARAbhidhāna-rājendra, Ratlam 1913-25
Aś.Aśokan
Āv.Āvassaya-sutta
Āyār.Āyāramga-sutta (ed. H. Jacobi)
BCDRIBulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute
BDBook of the Discipline
BeBurmese (Chaṭthasangāyana) edition
Bhav.Bhavisatta Kaha (ed. H. Jacobi, Munich 1918)
BHSBuddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
BHSDF. Edgerton, BHS Dictionary
BHSGF. Edgerton, BHS Grammar
BKSBṛhat-kalpa-sūtra (ed. W. Schubring, Leipzig 1905)
BlochJ. Bloch, Les inscriptions d’Asoka, Paris 1950
BSLBulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris
BSO(A)SBulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies
Burrow, Skt Lang.T. Burrow, Sanskrit Language, London 1955
Burrow, Khar. Lang.Burrow, Language of the Kharoṣthi Documents, Cambridge 1937
CDIALR.L. Turner, Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages
CeSinhalese edition
CIICorpus Inscriptionum Indicarum
CPDCritical Pāli Dictionary
cty/ctiescommentary/commentaries
cū.cūrṇi
DED(R)Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (revised edition)
DNMDeśīnāmamālā
DPPNDictionary of Pāli Proper Names
EeEuropean edition
Ep. Ind.Epigraphia Indica
Erz.H. Jacobi, Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Māhārāstrī, Leipzig 1886
EV I, IIK.R. Norman, Elders’ Verses I, II, London 1969, 1971
EWAM. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen,
GeigerW. Geiger, Pāli Literatur und Sprache, Strassburg 1916
Gk.Greek
GOSGaekwad’s Oriental Series
HultzschE. Hultzsch, Inscriptions of Asoka, Oxford 1925
IAIndo-Aryan
IEIndo-European
IHQIndian Historical Quarterly
IIIndo-Iranian
IIJIndo-Iranian Journal
ILIndian Linguistics
Ind. Ant.Indian Antiquary
Isibh.Isibhāsiāim (ed. W. Schubring)
ITIndologicia Taurinensia
JAJournal Asiatique
JAIHJournal of Ancient Indian History
JAOSJournal of the American Oriental Society
JASBJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
JAS BombayJournal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay
JIABSJournal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
JOI(B)Journal of the Oriental Institute (Baroda)
JPTSJournal of the Pali Text Society
JRASJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society
Kapp.The Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu (ed. H. Jacobi, Leipzig 1879)
Kapp. Sām.= part III of prec. (pp. 86-95)
Lüders, Beob.H. Lüders, Beobachtungen über die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons, Berlin 1954
Lüders, Phil. Ind.H. Lüders, Philologica Indica, Göttingen 1940
MIAMiddle Indo-Aryan
MREMinor Rock Edict
MSLMémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris
MS(S)Manuscript(s)
MWSir Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford 1899
NAWGNachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen
Nāyā.Nāyādhammakahāo
NIANew Indo-Aryan
Nirayāv.Nirayāvaliyāo
Nisīh.Nisīha-sutta
OIAOld Indo-Aryan
OLZOrientalistische Literaturzeitung
Ova.Ovavāiya-sutta (ed. E. Leumann, Leipzig 1883)
Pā.Pāli
Paṇh.Paṇhāvāgaraṇāim
Paum.Pauma-cariu
PEPillar Edict
PEDThe PTS’s Pali-English Dictionary
PischelR. Pischel, Grammatik der Präkrit-Sprachen, Strassburg 1900
PktPrakrit
PMWSF.B.J. Kuiper, Proto-Munda Words in Sanskrit, Amsterdam 1948
PSMH.D.T. Sheth, Pāiasaddamahannavo, Calcutta 1928
PTCPāli Tipitakaṃ Concordance
PTSPali Text Society
Ratnachandrajisee AMg Dict.
RERock Edict
R.VRgveda
SBBSacred Books of the Buddhists
SBESacred Books of the East
SepESeparate Edict
Shethsee PSM
Sinh.Sinhalese
SktSanskrit
StIIStudien zur Indologie und Iranistik
Sutt.Suttāgame
Sūyag.Sūyagadamga-sutta
Thāṇ.Thānamga-sutta
tī.tīkā
TPSTransactions of the Philological Society
Turner. CDIALR.L. Turner, Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages
Turner. Nep. Dict.R.L. Turner, Dictionary of the Nepali Language, London 1931
L’tt.Uttarajjhayaṇa-sutta (ed. J. Charpentier, Uppsala 1922)
L’vās.Uvāsaga-dasāo (ed. Hoernle)
Vivăg.Vivāga-sutta
Whitney. Gram.W.D. Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar, Cambridge (Mass.) 1889
Whitney. RootsW.D. Whitney, Roots and Verb-forms of the Sanskrit Language, Leipzig 1885
WZKS(O)Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- (und Ost-)asiens

90. Why are the Four Noble Truths Called “Noble”?1

<11> In an earlier study of the Four Noble Truths, 2 I attempted to explain the somewhat complicated syntax of the language in which the truths are formulated in Pāli. I did not address the wider question of the reason for the four truths being called “noble”. We are so accustomed to talk, in English, of the “four noble truths” that it comes perhaps as a shock to be asked “Why are they called noble?” I suppose that most people, faced with this question, would give an answer on the lines of “Because they are of a higher quality than any other truths”. As might be expected, Buddhaghosa, the great commentator of the fifth century A.D., gave consideration to the matter. To be quite accurate, Buddhaghosa did not ask “Why are the four noble truths called noble?” What he did was to give several reasons why the truths were called ariyasaccāni. This, as we shall see, is a very different matter. In this short paper, offered in honour of Dr. Ananda Guruge, I should like to consider the explanations which Buddhaghosa gave.

In his commentary on the Dīgha-nikāya, 3 Buddhaghosa gives only one explanation of the word ariyasaccāni: ariyabhāvakarānaṃ saccānaṃ 4 “the truths which cause nobleness”. This probably indicates that that was either the only explanation known to the tradition of the Dīgha-bhānakas which he was presumably following at the Mahāvihāra, or at least the explanation thought by that tradition to be the most important. In his commentary on the Añguttara-nikāya, Buddhaghosa gives two explanations: ariyabhāvakarāni ariyapaṭividdhāni vā saccāni 5 “the truths which cause nobleness or are penetrated by the noble one[s]”. Once again, this probably represents the views of the bhānakas, this time the Añguttara-bhānakas. In this passage, however, he refers readers to the fuller explanation given in the Visuddhimagga, where he deals with the ariyasaccāni nibbacanato “as to derivation”.

In his lengthy treatment of the subject in that text 6 he quotes canonical authority for his statements from the set of suttas about the ariyasaccāni which is found in the Saṃyutta-nikāya 7 :

(1) yasmā pan’ etāni Buddhādayo ariyā pațivijjhanti, tasmā ariyasaccānī ti vuccanti: “Because noble ones, the Buddhas, etc., penetrate them, therefore they are called ‘the noble ones’ truths’”.

(2) api ca ariyassa saccānī ti pi ariyasaccāni: “Moreover, they are the truths of the Noble One, ‘the Noble One’s (= the Buddha’s) truths’”.

(3) athavā etesam 8 abhisambuddhattā ariyabhāvasiddhito pi ariyasaccāni: “Because of the attainment of nobleness arising from their discovery”, “the ennobling truths”. <12>

(4) api ca kho pana ariyāni saccānī ti pi ariyasaccāni: “the noble truths”. They are also called ariyāni because they are tathāni avitathāni avisaṃvādakāni “true, not untrue, not uncertain”, although, since this explanation is that given elsewhere for sacca, this would seem rather to be the reason why they are called “truths”. The result, then, is a tautology “the true truths”.

Buddhaghosa is able to give these different interpretations because of the possibility of analysing the compound ariyasacca in various ways. In (I) and (2) it is analysed as a tatpurusa (dependent) compound, with the first element being taken as the equivalent of the genitive case, in either the plural or the singular. In (3) it is also being taken as a tatpurusa compound, but with the first element in the dative “truths for a noble one, for becoming a noble one”. In (4) it is a karmadhāraya (descriptive) compound. It is noteworthy that Buddhaghosa does not include (4) in either of the shorter explanations which he gives in the commentaries on the Dīgha-nikāya or the Añguttara-nikāya. From this we can deduce that the traditions which he was following when he composed those commentaries did not regard that explanation as being the most important of the possibilities.

The commentator Dhammapāla gives the same range of interpretations 9 : (1) ariyasaccānī ti araṇiyato ariyāni avitathabhāvena saccāni cā ti ariyasaccāni; (2) ariyabhāvakarāni vā saccāni ariyasaccāni; (3) ariyehi vā buddhādīhi paṭivijjhitabbāni sāccāni ariyasaccāni; (4) athavā ariyassa saccāni ariyasaccāni. sadevakena hi lokena saranan ti aranīyato ariyo Bhagavā, tena sayambhū-ñānena ditthattā tassa saccānī ti ariyasaccāni. Here it is to be noted that Dhammapāla gives the usual gloss for ariya (aranīyato ariyāni; “‘noble’ from ‘being approachable’”, a word play on the syllable ar-) for the karmadhāraya compound, which avoids Buddhaghosa’s tautology. If we accept that the four explanations, of which the last three are introduced by vā, represent a series of “or preferably” propositions, then the final one (“the Noble’s [= the Buddha’s] truths”) is Dhammapāla’s most preferred explanation, with the karmadhāraya compound as the first, and therefore the least likely, explanation.

All these facts are well known to anyone who has read the Visuddhimagga, or has looked at the commentaries of Buddhaghosa or Dhammapāla, and I am not saying anything new. My reason for raising this matter is because of its implications for the correct way of translating the Pāli into English. It will have become clear that the simple answer to the question “Why are the noble truths called noble?” is “Because we choose to translate the compound ariyasaccāni in that way”. This is done, e.g. by Nānamoli, even in the translation of the relevant portion of the Visuddhimagga: “The Noble Ones penetrate them, therefore they are called Noble Truths”, 10 when in that particular context we might well have thought that “Noble Ones’ Truths” would have been more appropriate.

It is impossible to be certain of the original meaning of the compound ariyasaccāni. Almost certainly, as is not uncommon in Indian languages, no one meaning was intended, and those who used the word were conscious of all the meanings simultaneously as they used it. In English it has become standard to use the translation “noble truth”. When we use this translation we are excluding the other explanations, and are in fact probably choosing the least important of the possible meanings.<13>

To conclude: those persons who first translated the compound ariyasaccāni into English could have translated “the noble’s truths”, or “the nobles’ truths”, or “the truths for nobles”, or “the nobilising truths”, or “the noble truths”, but they could have only one of them. The one they chose was perfectly correct, but it was only part of the translation. The word ariyasaccāni has all these various meanings simultaneously, and probably more besides. There is, in fact, at least one further possibility, where the first element is also taken in the genitive, but as a simple possessive - “the truths of, possessed by, the noble ones”. This could be a reference to the Buddhists as a whole, and these would then be the truths held by the Buddhists, as opposed to anything held by the Jains or the Brāhmanas. There is no way of telling which of these meanings the first user of the term ariyasaccāni intended, if he had only one meaning in mind. Similarly, if more than one meaning was intended, we cannot know how many - perhaps all of them. Buddhaghosa’s treatment of the subject in his commentaries on the Dīgha-nikāya and the Añguttara-nikāya makes one thing clear: in the view of some of the early Theravādin traditions which he was following, the explanation upon which the usually accepted English translation “the [four] noble truths” is based is one of the least important, and (we may say) one of the least likely.

This then is an excellent illustration of the difficulty of translating from one language to another.

Footnotes

  1. Y. Karunadasa (ed.) : Ānanda: Essays in Honour of Ananda W.P. Guruge (Colombo 1990), pp. 11-13. ↩

  2. See K.R. Norman, “The Four Noble Truths: a problem of Pāli syntax”, in Indological and Buddhist Studies (Volume in honour of Professor J.W. de Jong) (Canberra 1982), pp. 377-91. ↩

  3. The abbreviations of titles of Pāli texts are those adopted by the Critical Pāli Dictionary. ↩

  4. Sv 542,33. ↩

  5. Mp II 28I, I-2. ↩

  6. Vism 495,17 foll. A similar list of explanations is found in Vibh-a 84,23-85,4. ↩

  7. SV 43 I foll. ↩

  8. So read with the Harvard Oriental Series edition. The PTS edition reads ekesam. ↩

  9. It-a I 85.8 foll. ↩

  10. The Path of Purification, p. 564. ↩

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