Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.76

c8.76

† Even Mâyâ's sister, Mahâprajâpatî, does not escape the fate, that curious secrets have been supposed to be veiled in her significantly sounding name. (Senart, p. 339, note 1.) Senart translates Prajâpatî "creatrix," not without himself seeing that this is contrary to grammatical rule. Did the variante Prajâvatî (in the "Lal. Vist.") rightly noticed by him, not remind the distinguished Pâli scholar, that the word does not mean "creatrix" at all, but stands for Prajâvatî, "prolific in descendants?" In Pâli pajâpatî (=prajâvatî) is a very common appellation for "wife." See Childers, sub. verb. and "Mahâvagga," i, 14, 1, 2; x, 2, 3, 8. The meaning of the proper name is therefore quite of a harmless nature.