With Soṇadaṇḍa 1.27

Sonadanda Sutta (Dialogues of the Buddha) 1.27

Language: English

1.27.307

Then the Blessed One instructed and roused and incited and gladdened Soṇadaṇḍa the Brahman with religious discourse, and then rose from his seat and departed thence.
Here ends the Soṇadaṇḍa Sutta.
Notes
See the summary above, PP. 57––59, in the Introduction to the Sāmañña-phala.
The English equivalents do not exactly cover the corresponding Pāli terms, which are not, in the texts, used always with scrupulous distinctiveness.
Section 23 of the text, and of the translation below.
Vol. i, pp. 163-168.
See below in the Introduction to the next Sutta.
Campā, the capital of Angā, was on the East bank of the river of the same name (Jāt. IV, 454), which formed the Eastern boundary of Magadhā. It was close to the modern Bagulpur, about Lat. 24’ 10’ by Long. 87’. Like other names of famous places in India, it was used over again by colonists in the Far East, and there means what we now call Cochin China and Annam (I-Tsing, p. 58).
So called after Queen Gaggarā, who had had it excavated, says Buddhaghosa (Sum. I, 279). He adds that on its banks was a grove of champaka trees, so well-known for the fragrance of their beautiful white flowers. It was under those trees that the wandering mendicants put up.
Sattussada. The meaning is really quite settled, though Fausb"ll wrongly translates ussada ‘desire,’ and Oldenberg and myself ‘uneven,’ at S. N. 783 = Vin. I, 3. See No. 15 in the list of the thirty-two marks. Also Jāt. IV, i88 = Dhp. A. 339; Jāt. IV, 6o = Dhp. A. 95; Jāt. IV, 4; P. G. D. 22-44; Asl. 307.

1.27.55

In the Buddha’s time Angā was subject to Magadhā.
Perhaps in ‘companies and separately’; but I follow Buddhaghosa. Comp. M. I, 231; A. 11, 55.

1.27.112

Brahma-vaccasī. With a body like that of Mahā Brahmā,’ says Buddhaghosa (p. 282). The Burmese and Siamese MSS. read vacchasī
Akkhuddāvakāso, for which Buddhaghosa (pp. 282, 284) gives three contradictory explanations.
Aneḷagalāya. ‘Not slobbering,’ says Buddhaghosa.
‘Eighty thousand families on the mother’s, and eighty thousand on the father’s side,’ says Buddhaghosa—making a total for the Sākya clan of 800, 000, reckoning five to a family.
Kamma-vādī kiriya-vādī. Compare ‘Vinaya Texts,’ II, 109, 112.

1.27.25

Ādīna-khattiya-kulā. The reading is doubtful, and the Burmese MSS., after their constant habit, have replaced it by an easy reading, abhinna-khattiya-kulā, ‘unbroken Kshatriya family.’ But all the Sinhalese MSS. agree in reading either ādina or ādīna; and if the reading had once been abhinna, it is difficult to see how the alteration to the more difficult reading should have occurred. Buddhaghosa skips the clause, which (if it was in the text before him) is suggestive. He would scarcely have done so unless the matter were really very simple. ‘Autonomous’ would make a good sense in the context; but I have taken the word, in the sense of ‘primordial, aboriginal,’ as being a derivative from ādi, in the same way as adhīna is from adhi. This is simple enough; the only difficulty being, that the word occurs nowhere else.
Literally ‘anyhow’; ‘such as by wearing no clothes’ explains Buddhaghosa (p. 288).
Puṭaṃsenāpi. Compare A. II, 183, where a precisely similar phrase occurs.
Cittaṃ na ārādheyyaṃ, ‘win over his mind.’ Comp. M. I, 85, 34, 1; 11, 10; Mil. 25.

1.27.342

That is, ‘officiate at a sacrifice by pouring out of a spoon a libation of butter, or of spirituous Soma, to the fire god.’
Vaṇṇa, much the same as ‘caste,’ though that rendering is not strictly accurate. (See the Introduction to the Ambaṭṭha.)
The full text is repeated, both here and in the following sections.
This name looks suspiciously like a kind of personification of the five Aṅgas (the five characteristics) of the true Brahman as just above, 13, set out.
Oldenberg renders this (‘Buddha,’ P. 283) as follows: ‘The wisdom of the upright and the uprightness of the wise have, of all uprightness and wisdom in the world, the highest value.’ I cannot see how this can be grammatically justified; though the sentiment is admirable enough, and would have somewhat relieved the monotony of the paragraph. On paññāna as nominative, not genitive, see, for instance, S. I, 41, 42; Sum. 1, 171, 290; A. IV, 342.

1.27.292

The repetition here is nearly the same as that in the Ambaṭṭha Sutta, summarised above at the translation of p. 100 of the text. The only difference is that the paragraphs 64-74 of the Sāmañña-phala there included as coming under Caraṇa (Conduct) are here included under sīla (Uprightness). The jhānas, there put, not under vijjā, (Wisdom), but under Caraṇa, are here put, not under sīla, but under paññā (Intelligence). In other words paññā includes all that was there included under vijjā, and the four jhānas besides. But sīla includes all that is put in the Ambaṭṭha under sīla—all indeed of the eight divisions of sīla as summarised above, pp. 57-59. See Buddhaghosa’s notes at pp. 219, 268, 292.

1.27.p7

On the ground, says Buddhaghosa (p. 292), that he would be saluting a much younger man, one young enough to be his grandson. If this tradition be correct, it would follow that this Sutta must be describing events very early in the public ministry of the Buddha.
It will be seen from this section that Soṇadaṇḍa is represented as being a convert only to a limited extent. He still keeps on his school of Vedic studies, and is keenly anxious to retain the good opinion of his students, and of other Brahmans. And if that part of the Buddha’s doctrine put before him in this Sutta be examined, it will be found to be, with perhaps one or two exceptions, quite compatible with the best Brahman views. No doubt if every detail were carried to its strict logical conclusion there would be no further need for Vedic studies, except from the historical standpoint. But those details are, on the face of them ethical. They belong to a plane not touched on in the then Vedic studies. They could be accepted by an adherent of the soul theory of life. And the essential doctrines of Buddhism—the Path, the Truths, and Arahatship—are barely even referred to.

Linked texts (1)

Soṇadaṇḍasutta — Pāli