[INDOLOGY] Fwd: Resumption of 'In an oil vat'.

[Artur Karp]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl>
Date: sob., 15 gru 2018 o 17:46
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Resumption of 'In an oil vat'.
To: alakendu das <mailmealakendudas at rediffmail.com>


Dear Alakendu (if I may address you so),

the ending -*putta* may in the Pali rather mean - figuratively - 'of a
group'. In this case *Cundo* *kammāraputto *would mean 'Cundo of the
smiths', 'Cunda the smith'. Like *buddhaputto* - which would mean - 'a
follower of the Buddha', 'a Buddhist'.

I'd be interested in the name, itself. Any etymology for 'Cunda'?.

Iron Age? According to many - rather 1200 -300 BC. High quality steel
already 300/200 BC.

Respects,

Artur Karp (ret.)
South Asian Studies Deptt.
University of Warsaw
Poland

sob., 15 gru 2018 o 17:01 alakendu das <mailmealakendudas at rediffmail.com>
napisał(a):

> Dr.Karp
> Probably,Cunda Kamarputta may be translated as,"Cunda,son of a Black smith.
>             It may also be  rightly inferred that Mpsutta deals with Iron
> and not steel.Chronologically, India witnessed Iron age between 6th
> cent.BC- 2nd cent BC.
>
>          Alakendu Das.
>
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
>
>
>
>
> From: Artur Karp via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
> Sent: Thu, 13 Dec 2018 02:33:19 GMT+0530
> To: indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] Resumption of 'In an oil vat'.
>
> Dear List Members,
>
>
> A short fragment of the MPSutta (84–85, 90), the one that describes the
> last meal of the Buddha and his fatal illness, mentions one person 23 times
> – by name and professional designation: *cundo kammāraputto*, Cunda, the
> blacksmith.
>
> Is the number of these references not significant? Some translators,
> perhaps not wanting to strain the readers’ patience, tend to reduce the
> phrase to the personal name only, as if the fact that the Buddha’s host was
> a *smith* was an unimportant detail. *Cunda the blacksmith* becomes
> *Cunda*.
>
> Oskar von Hinüber is more radical. In his widely read and already
> classical paper (*Cremated like a King: The Funeral of the Buddha within
> the Ancient Indian Cultural Context*, ICPBS 2009) he does not mention
> Cunda, not even once. He refers there to what he calls *‘a vessel made of
> iron and filled with sesame oil’;* a type of vat which, according to
> tradition, was used for cremating the bodies of anointed kings – and, later
> on, of the Buddha himself. However, he does not link the material from
> which such vessels were made with the person of a smith, of an iron–maker
> appearing so conspicuously in the text. The majority of the specialists
> (among them John Strong) write rather about *‘an iron oil vessel/tub/vat’*.
> But this is beyond the point. Von Hinüber’s attention is directed at *oil*,
> not at *iron*.
>
> Apart from iron, the text does not mention any other economically
> important metal - neither copper nor bronze.
>
> In this sense we may say that the MPSutta is dominated by iron – and
> steel.
>
> Could it be that the narrative relating the marvelous transformation of
> the Buddha’s human body into the everlasting relics was based on the
> procedures of iron smelting and hardening, the latter giving it, finally,
> the potential to create everlasting forms? Could the fact that the burning
> out of the Buddha’s body is stopped by cold water be devoid of any meaning?
>
> These are questions that – to my mind – demand answers. They may lead to
> an entirely new approach to research on the world of the MPSutta.
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info <http://listinfo.indology.info==> (where
> you can change your list options or unsubscribe)
>
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20181215/f8e12a58/attachment.htm>