[Great Phenomenon--Proximity.]

[957-960] What is that form which is (i.) a great phenomenon and remote ? The fluid element.

(ii.) a great phenomenon and near? The sphere of the tangible.

(iii.) not a great phenomenon and remote?

Sex and vitality.

(iv.) not a great phenomenon and near?

The spheres of the five senses and of visible form, sound, odour and taste.

[Form as Seen, Heard, Imagined, Understood.]

[961] (i.) The sphere of visible form is Form Seen, (ii.) The sphere of sound is Form Heard,

(iii.) The sphere of odour, taste and the tangible is Form Imagined,1

1 Mutam.

I am under the impression that the first three members of this group are survivals of an older tradition, belonging to an age when the five senses had not been co-ordinated by psychological analysis comparable to that effected by the earlier Buddhist school, and when mano and its function, expressed here (in part) by this old past participle, were more vaguely conceived. In the Praçna Upanishad, e.g., which may or may not be older than the Abhidhamma, either the five senses are grouped as above under manas, eye and ear, or the last two are alone held worthy to rank with the divine elements of life. If it be contended that the former interpretation is not plausible, it should be remembered that, in the far older Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (i., 5, 3), it is said that by manas we know when we are touched from behind. It is as though the tradition were endeavouring to say, Smell, taste, touching, without the aid either of sight or of hearing, require a greater effort of inference, of mental construction, of imagination, to realize the external cause, or potential concrete mental percept, than either sight or hearing.

(iv.) All form is Form Cognized by the mind.1

Such are the Categories of Form under Fourfold Aspects. [End of] the Groups of Four.

Buddhaghosa, who here resumes his parable (Asl. 338), paraphrases mutam by munitvā jānitabbaṭṭhena, and by phusitva pi ñāņuppattikaranato.

1 Manasa viññātam, that is, manoviññāṇena jānitabbam.

Ibid.

[CHAPTER V.

The Category of Form under a Fivefold Aspect (pañcavidhena rupasangaho).]

[962-966] What is that form which is

(i.) earth-element (pathavi-dhātu) ?1

That which is hard, rough, hardness, rigidity, whether it be of the self, or external, or the issue of grasping,3 or not the issue of grasping.

1 The essential mark (lakkhanam) of the earth-element is given as 'hardness' (kakkhalattam, Asl., 332). This may very likely have conveyed to Buddhists what we understand by solid,' when the implication is density as opposed to what is liquid or gaseous, and it was tempting to use solidity in preference to hardness. But the former term is ambiguous, for it may mean the opposite of plane surface, and kakkhalattam cannot be strained to mean that. Again, the opposite of the latter term is neither liquid nor flat, but soft or pliant. Further, compare its use in describing gravel or stone-food in Mil. 67, where we should certainly use hard.' The other characteristics of pathavidhātu are said to be establishing a fulcrum or woû OT, patiṭṭhānam), and accepting (sampaṭicchanam), the import of the latter term not being very clear.

2 Ajjhattam. See § 673, note, and § 742, note. 3 In the Commentary, p. 338, where upadin nam is said to be na kammasamutthanam eva, the negative particle must have crept in by some error, that which is upādiņņam being essentially due to karma. See Dh. S., $$ 653, 654; Asl., pp. 46, 337 (§ 664), etc. Generally, says Buddhaghosa, the bony framework of the body (the most solid part of one's self, sariraṭṭhakam) is here

(ii.) fluid-element (à podhātu)?

That which is fluid, belonging to fluid, viscid, belonging to what is viscid, the cohesiveness of form, whether it be of the self, or external, or the issue of grasping or not the issue of grasping.1

(iii.) flame-element (tejodhātu) ?2

That which is flame, belonging to flame, heat, belonging to heat, hot, belonging to what is hot, whether it be of the self, or, etc. [continue as in preceding].

(iv) air-element (vayodhātu)?

That which is air, belongs to air [the fluctuation], the inflation,3 of form, whether it be of the self, or, etc.

referred to. For this, while it may, or may not be upădinnam, is said to be wholly the issue of grasping when signifying that which is taken, laid hold of, infected.

1 See $652, note. The essential characteristics of apodhātu are said to be flowing (paggharanam), expansion or spreading (brúhanam, cf. p. 12, note 3, Mil. 317) and congress (sangaho, Asl., ibid.). The last term may possibly be an attempt to express what we term, loosely enough, 'water always finding its own level.' The internal or personal apo is distributed as bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, serum, tears, and so on. M. i. 42.

2 Never a ggi or fire, in the Buddhist books. The essential characteristics are said to be (Asl., ibid.) heat, ripening, maturing (paripacanam) and softening. By the heat within food and drink are digested. M., loc. cit.

The text reads here both chambitattam and thambhitattam, fluctuation (quaking) and inflation. The former term, however, is not elsewhere in the Atthasalini applied to vayo; the latter, with the intensive vi-, is declared to be the characteristic mark of vayo, other features of the element being onward movement (samudiranam) and downward force (abhinīhāram―sic lege. Cf. D. i. 76; M. i. 119; Asl. 332). Now Buddhaghosa passes over chambhitattam in silence, but explains thambhitattam. Again, though this is, of course, not conclusive, only the single term thambhitattam rupassa seems to be called for by the parallel, bandhanattam rupassa (cohesiveness), in the description of fluidity. It is significant also that K. omits chambhitattam. On

Such is the Category of Form under a Fivefold Aspect. [End of] the Group of Five.

these grounds taken together, I should be inclined to doubt the original inclusion of the term. The instance chosen to illustrate the inflating function characteristic of vayo is that of the sheaths or stems of lotuses and reeds which are 'filled with air,' or wind (vatapuṇnāni).

Derived' (upada) is the opposite of (i.) to (iv.). See S$ 647, 648.