Dear Diego

a similar description in the Vasudevahiṇḍi (Vh) is probably helpful?

See Vh p. 144 lines 24-26

Heiner

    Dear list members,

    Is anyone familiar with the term pavitthara in Ardhamāgadhī or with its presumed Sanskrit etymon pravistara in the sense of 'property'? I am interested in understanding a recurring description of wealth in the Uvāsagadasāo that one encounters for the first time in 1.4 (1.17, etc.) in connection to one wealthy Āṇanda. The passage goes as follows in Hoernle's 1890 edition (p.3, lines 4-7):

tassa ṇaṃ āṇandassa gāhāvaïssa cattāri hiraṇakoḍio nihāṇapaüttāo, cattāri hiraṇakoḍio vaḍḍhipaüttāo, cattāri hiraṇakoḍio pavittharapaüttāo [...] hotthā

[roughly: atha tasya ānandasya gṛhapateś catasro hiraṇyakoṭyo nidhānaprayuktāś catasro hiraṇyakoṭyo vṛddhiprayuktāś catasro hiraṇyakoṭyaḥ pravistaraprayuktāḥ [...] abhavan]

"The householder (banker/capitalist/businessman) Ānanda had four crores of gold put in deposit, four crores of gold put on interest, and four crores of gold put into pavittha" 

     In his translation, Hoernle renders pavittha as 'well-stocked estate' and invokes the following gloss from the Sanskrit commentary:  'property consisting of treasure, grain, two-footed animals (incl. servants), four-footed animals, etc' (p.8, n.12). Ratnacandra Muni's "Illustrated Ardhamāgadhī Dictionary" gives 'property,' but none of the occurrences that he mentions clarifies much its meaning as far as I have been able to tell.
    The triad might well read as "cash+debts+property,"  but I would like to know how likely is 'property' as a meaning for this word instead of the well attested 'extent, circumference.' I wonder if the lexeme vi-√stṛ might have some technical meaning that eludes me and if pavitthara is soemwhat related to the compound vistīrṇaviśālaparigraha 'with extended and wide property' that occurs in similarly stereotyped descriptions of wealth in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya and derived narrative collections, and that might refer to land. Land (khetta), however, is separately treated in the list of Āṇanda's assets in a later passage (1.19). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    namaskaromi,

    Diego
 

 

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)

-- 
www.rolfheinrichkoch.wordpress.com