The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature c8.s2.7

c8.s2.7

It is clear that prahāṇa is a wrongly Sanskritized form. The usual Pāli word is padhāna (Dhamma-saṅgaṇi, 1366), and the correct Sanskrit rendering would be pradhāna, derived from the root dhā (and not from the root hā, jahāti, as in prahāṇa). In fact, we find the correct form in a few passages of Buddhist literature, e.g. samyak-pradhānā caturo me aṣvā (Mtu., iii, 120.14); samyak-pradhān-ottama-vāhanasthaḥ (Saund. Kā., xvii, 24). The derivative prahita also occurs in the Mtu. : prahit-ātmā vyapakṛṣṭo (Mtu., ii, 118.11, 120.3). In describing the four struggles, some writers have employed the correct verb, samyak pradadhāti (Pr. Pā. Çata., 1436; M. S. Al., 142.6). The Da. Bhū. has praṇidadhāti (38.26). But when the incorrect form prahāṇa was once accepted, the original meaning was forgotten. Thus the *Kar. Pu.* explains that the Equipment (*sambhāra*) of the *samyak-prahāṇas* consists in the abandonment of all evil conditions (104.23). The *M. Vy.* omits the word *samyak* and speaks only of *prahāṇāni*.