sa ññā nimittaṃ kattā parim āṇa ṃ payojanaṃ

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

Literally 
‘Name, occasion, author, extent, application – should be told at the outset for every Āgama by one desirous of stating.’
It seems to be a general statement on oral the recounting (composition?) of a scripture that was common. More details of the context are necessary for a definite idea.
Best 
DB
--- On Wed, 31/3/10, petra kieffer-Pülz <kiepue at T-ONLINE.DE> wrote:


From: petra kieffer-Pülz <kiepue at T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject: saññā nimittaṃ kattā parim āṇaṃ payojanaṃ
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Date: Wednesday, 31 March, 2010, 11:17 AM


Dear All,

first thanks to all who helped me with the upodghātaḥ verse.

I am now in search of a Sanskrit parallel for the verse  from the Vajirabuddhiṭīkā cited below, or for a list of the five terms saññā nimittaṃ kattā parimāṇaṃ payojanaṃ. The only source for these five terms up to now is Candrakīrti (see Steinkellner, "Remarks on Tantristic Hermeneutics", Csoma de Körös Memorial Symposium, 1978), where they come under the first of the seven alaṅkāras, i.e. upodghataḥ, which form a group of exegetical tools used in interpreting Tantras.

verse from Vjb 1,17-18

saññā nimittaṃ kattā ca parimāṇaṃ payojanaṃ
sabbāgamassa pubbeva vattabbaṃ vattuṃ icchatā ti

the meaning of the terms in Vjb is as follows:

saññā = name of the text
nimittaṃ = motive for writing the text
kattā = author
parimāṇaṃ = extent, length of the text
payojanaṃ =  purpose of the text


According to a v.l. in Vjb this verse is said for every Tantra (pavuttā sabbatantānaṃ)

Every hint is welcome,
Petra



**************
Dr. Petra Kieffer-Pülz
Wilhelm-Külz-Str. 2
99423 Weimar
Germany
Tel. 03643/770447
kiepue at t-online.de



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