upavartana (3777)

upavartana
Entry 3777, Page 140, Col. 2

(upavartana, upavartana)
upavartana¦ (nt.; Pali Upavattana, see below; Skt. upavartana, nt., country, Lex., and once Śukasaptati text. orn. p. 340 (24), line 32, virāṭopavartane), land, country (? in Pali, at least later, n. of a locality in the Malla country or of the śāl-grove there where Buddha entered nirvāṇa): Divy 208.25, 209.3 (tathāgato…pari)nirvāṇāya gamiṣyati Mallānām upavartanaṃ Yamakaśālavanaṃ; Av i.227.6 (viharati sma Mallānām) upavartane (ms. °tate) Yamakaśālavane; virtually the same Av ii.197.5; Mmk 580.9(--10) (vss) Mallānām upavartane (text °te), Yamaka- śālakavane madhye nirvāṇaṃ me bhaviṣyati; 580.17 (vs) Yamakaśālakavane tatra Mallānām upavartane (so read for text upadartate!); 598.22--24 (vss) Yamakaśālavane vane caitye makuṭabandhe tu (cf. 580.11 caitye makuṭa- vardhane) Mallānām upavartane, parinirvṛte (? read °to or °taś) ca tatrāhaṃ…Occurs in Pali and BHS only in reference to the place of the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. In the canonical Pali texts, e.g. DN ii.137.3 (cf. comm. ii.572--573) yena Kusinārā upavattanaṃ Mallānaṃ sāla- vanaṃ ten(a)…, and cf. esp. Dpv. 15.70 Kusinārāyaṃ bhagavā Mallānaṃ upavattane, it could be understood [Page141-a+ 71] as the country (of the Mallas); but the comms. seem to have taken it as a place-name, specifically the name of the śāl-grove where the Buddha died. And this is perhaps confirmed by one passage, Dpv. 6.19 yadā ca parinibbāyi saṃbuddho Upavattane, where the gen. Mallānaṃ is not found, and Upa° most naturally would be a n. of a place (but see below). In Akanuma's Dictionary of the Proper Names of Indian Buddhism the word is misquoted as Upavattava = Skt. °vartava (but the Chinese transcrip- tions quoted end consistently in -tan, supporting °vartana); the Chin. translations seem regularly to interpret it as a common noun, uncultivated land (the word for land usually rendering bhūmi, land country). This may be interpreted as support for use as a common noun, as it is used (rarely) in Skt. Note that in BHS the name of the grove is clearly Yamakaśāla(ka)vana, q.v.; not so in Pali.Modern editors and interpreters seem unanimously to take Pali Upavattana as n. of the grove (see DPPN s.v. for some other references; but the important Dpv. 6.19 is not cited there). On the other hand, Divy ed. prints upavartanaṃ with a small initial letter; it fails to record the word in Index or Notes. I am inclined, with some dubiety, to understand the BHS word as a common noun, country. Even the Pali word may have had that meaning originally, and in the canonical passages still. Later, the Pali comms. seem clearly to have understood it as the n. of the śāl-grove; and in Dpv. 6.19 it looks like a place name. Yet, if the Chin. translation uncultivated (waste, barren) land be accepted, perhaps upavattane might be understood in this sense in that passage.

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