Psalms of the Sisters · 2 of 20

Introduction: Endnotes

18 Zeitschrift der D. M. G., 37, 54 ſſ., especially pp. 77-82.

19 See verse 431 n.

20 One brief poem makes a bare allusion of this nature, verse 40 n.

21 The Kathā Vatthu, in the Abhidhamma-Pitaka, compiled by Moggaliputta Tissa in the reign of the Emperor Asoka.

22 Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 179.

23 Op. cit., Introduction.

24 We may ignore for present purposes the pious humility which ascribed several shorter gāthās to the Buddha himself.

25 'The bidding of the Buddha is done'; 'the Threefold Lore is won'; 'rebirth comes now no more.'

26 The Inner Shrine.

27 Ps. lxx., verse 349; cf. Ps, xi., xl.

28 Ps. xi., xxi.

29 Ps. xxiv.

30 Ps. xvi.

31 Ps. xviii.

32 Sāmī, sāmiko, pati mean equally owner, lord, husband.

33 Ps. lxiii. I.e., physically frail or lean.

34 Pronounoe c like ch in 'church.'

35 In Memoriam, vi.

36 Cf. Ps. xxxiii., Ubbirī.

37 The fact that bhavanga in this sense occurs frequently in the Commentaries, and, earlier still, in Milinda, and in Netti-Pakaraṇa (where a bodily and a mental continuum are distinguished, 91), but not in the Pitakas, is not wholly without chronological significance.

38 L. Eckenstein, Women under Monasticism, p. 486.

39 Ps. li., v. 138.

40 On the term Amata, Cf. Questions of Milinda (S.B.E.), Vol. i. 236. The word 'state' in connection with it does not occur in the Psalms.

41 Eckenstein, op. cit., pp. 253, 307 ſſ, 486.

42 'Tuvaŋ Buddho tuvaŋ Satthā, tuyhaŋ dhīt amhi brahmaṇa Orasā mukhato jātā. . . .' (Ps. lxix., verse 336).

43 Ps. xxxi.; Ps. lxxi., verse 384.

44 Anguttara Nikāya, i. 25.

45 'The loose woman and the nun . . . have this in common, that they are both the outcome of the refusal among womankind to accept married relations on the basis of the subjection imposed by the fatherage' (L. Eckenstein, op. cit., 5).

46 Ps. xlviii.-l., 1viii., xxx. xxxiv., xxxviii., lxx.

47 William Watson. As I have said elsewhere, Matthew Arnold's lines in Rugby Chapel might have been written of the Therī's:

'Ye like angels appear,

Radiant with ardour divine;

Beacons of hope ye appear;

Languor is not in your heart,

Weakness is not in your word,

Weariness not on your brow.'

48 V. Hugo, L'Âne.

49 Ps. lxxii.: '. . . tassa pi anto kato mayā!' Isidāsī.

'Even of that now have I made an end.'

50 W. Watson, Wordsworth's Grave. The English poet and the Buddhist spirit here embrace. Santi or Samatha (peace, calm) is closely allied by the latter with Vipassanā (clear sight, insight); and with all good thought is involved also Samādhi or Jhāna (contemplative rapture), and often Pīti (emotional rapture), the Indriya's (or Bala's, powers) and Adosa (or Mettā, love).

51 This word is in some respects a more adequate translation of Dhamma (Sanskrit, Dharma) than Law, Truth, or Gospel. 52 By Dhamma is meant one of the five cosmic orders or sequences of happenings in the universe. Beside the order of action (kamma), of the physical forces (utu), of biological forces (bīja, or germs), and of mind, there was, if one may so call it, the moral or regenerative cosmos–dhamma-niyama–by which the living universe evolved its Buddhas and toiled upward out of the eternal round of saŋsāra towards salvation and the ideal. These five are severally declared in the Canon, but were classified later. See Buddhaghosa's Commentary on Dīgha Nikāya, Sutta xiv.

52 Rhys Davids, American Lectures, 38.

53 Ps. lxv., li., xxxiv., xii.

54 Ps. xlvi., xlii.

55 This twofold classification must, of course, not be taken absolutely. It is merely a question of relative emphasis–e.g., B 1 (a) is equally a getting rid of the 'Darkness' of Ignorance.

56 Sumedhā was evidently a born preacher!

57 I refer readers to the deeply interesting opening chapter in Miss Eckenstein's book, Women under Monasticism.

58 Dr. Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to Greek Religion, pp. 239 ſſ.

59 Saccavādivacanaŋ anaññthā.

60 E.g., in Ps. lxiii. (see p. 110, n. 2); Ps. xxi.:

Sumuttike sumuttikā sādhu muttikāmhi musalassa;'

and the last poem, beginning:

'Mantāvatiyā nagare rañño Koñcassa aggamahesiyā.'

Cf. in verse 512 the curious rhythm:

˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ _ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ _ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ _ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘_ ˘ _ ˘_

'Idam ajaraŋ idam amaraŋ idam ajarāmarapadam asokaŋ.'

61 One instance of unnecessarily 'free,' not to say incorrect, rendering, discovered too late for revision, I have amended on p. 192, slightly revising the Pali text.

62 Sutta Nipāta, verse 336.

PSALMS OF THE SISTERS, WITH THE CHRONICLE FROM THE COMMENTARY BY DHAMMAPĀLA ENTITLED 'THE ELUCIDATION OF THE HIGHEST MEANING'