tardy response to two questions

[mccomas]

Dear Friends

If I remember correctly one of the early Chinese visitors to India (Hsuan
Tsang?) had heard of AzvaghoSa and translated his name as ma-ming =
`horse-voice'. This suggests that in the seventh century or so, the Indians
understood his name to name just that.

McComas

At 05:56  25/11/02 -0800, you wrote:
> > But in fact it also has the sense 'ear', as is
> > shown by Avestan gaoSa, as well as Skt. compounds like azvaghoSa.
>
>Is it not preferable to interpret the name AzvaghoSa as "horse-voiced"
>instead of "horse-eared," just as Buddhaghosa would seem to mean
>"having the voice," not "ears," "of the Buddha"?  Having the voice of
>a horse (strong, clear) is certainly desirable in a general way, but
>maybe there is some more particularly Buddhist idea behind this
>animal-voice imagery, cf. the oft-invoked siMhanAda.
>
>Stefan Baums
>
>--
>Stefan Baums
>Asian Languages and Literature
>University of Washington