Tagged: Dhammapāla
Pages with this tag
Norman - Why Are the Four Noble Truths Called "Noble"? (2008)
1The common English translation "Four Noble Truths" represents only one of several possible interpretations of the Pāli compound *ariyasaccāni* and is likely the least significant one according to early Buddhist traditions. The 5th-century commentator Buddhaghosa, analyzing the term's grammar, offered multiple simultaneous meanings, including "the truths of the Noble One (the Buddha)," "the truths penetrated by noble ones," and "the truths which cause nobleness" or "the ennobling truths." Buddhaghosa and other commentators like Dhammapāla prioritized these interpretations over the simple descriptive meaning of "noble truths," which can be seen as a tautology. The original Pāli term was likely intended to encompass all these meanings at once, highlighting a fundamental difficulty in translation where a single, multifaceted concept in one language must be reduced to a more limited one in another.
Norman - Pāli Literature - A History Of Indian Literature (1983)
2K.R. Norman's *Pāli Literature* provides a comprehensive overview of the literary tradition of Theravāda Buddhism, also encompassing the canonical works of other Hīnayāna schools in Prakrit and Sanskrit. The literature is centered on the Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka, which is divided into the Vinaya-piṭaka (monastic rules), the Sutta-piṭaka (discourses of the Buddha, organized into five nikāyas), and the Abhidhamma-piṭaka (systematic philosophical analysis). The text details the history of the Pāli language as a standardized Middle Indo-Aryan dialect, its transmission through oral reciters (bhānakas) and councils, and its eventual commitment to writing in Ceylon in the first century B.C. Beyond the canon, a vast post-canonical literature developed, including foundational commentaries (aṭṭhakathās) by figures like Buddhaghosa, sub-commentaries (ṭīkās), historical chronicles (vaṃsas) like the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, hermeneutical guides, poetry (kāvya), and grammatical works, which flourished not only in India and Ceylon but also in Burma and Thailand.