➥ eko care khaggavisāṇakappo:

Renderings: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo

• for eko care khaggavisāṇakappo:
  • live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn

Renderings: carati

• for carati:
  • to go
  • to travel
  • to walk
  • to fare
  • to wander
  • to walk on almsround
  • to undertake
  • to graze
  • to bring about
  • to live
  • to live the religious life
• for cārikaṁ caramāno:
  • journeying on foot
• carāmi: go; travel; wander; live the religious life
• carantu: go
• caraṁ: walking; walk on almsround; live the religious life
• cārikaṁ: journeying
• caritvāna: walked; fare
• carati: fare
• carantaṁ: walking on almsround
• careyya: walk (for alms)
• caranti: graze; live the religious life
• caritvā: undertake; conduct oneself
• carimha: bring about
• cariṁsu: live
• carāmase: live
• brahmacariyaṁ caritvā: live the religious life
• brahmacariyamacariṁsu: live the religious life
• brahmacariyaṁ carati: live the religious life
• carassu brahmacariyaṁ: live the religious life
• carantaṁ: live the religious life
• carissasi: live the religious life
• care: live the religious life

Khaggavisāṇa means ‘rhinoceros horn’

Norman has carefully explained why khaggavisāṇa means ‘rhinoceros horn’ not ‘rhinoceros.’ He concludes that:

• ‘When the Pāli can be so translated, when the earliest interpretation takes it that way, and when the Indian rhinoceros is unique among animals in India in having only one horn, it seems certain to me that the reference is to the single horn, and I think that there is no problem if we translate: ‘Let him wander all by himself (eko adutiyo) having a resemblance to the rhinoceros horn, which is also eko adutiyo’ (GD p.154).

But Norman is not curious to understand why translators have persisted to render khaggavisāṇa as ‘rhinoceros,’ and why even today we find it as a meaning in the 2001 Dictionary of Pāli. So let us see why that is.

Persistently ‘rhinoceros’: the underlying problems

The continual refrain of the Khaggavisāṇa Sutta is eko care khaggavisāṇakappo, and many would agree with Norman when he says it means one should ‘wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.’ But this is unconvincing for two reasons:

1) It is unconvincing because of the obvious fact that although rhinceroses wander, their horns really do not. But the impossible conception of ‘wandering horns’ is not the only problem of Norman’s translation.

2) Another problem of ‘wandering solitary as a rhinoceros horn’ is where the bhikkhu is in fact stationary. For example in verse in Snp 72 Norman says ‘one should resort to secluded abodes, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.’ And, even more problematic, in verse Snp 74, which apparently concerns the time of death, Norman says ‘not trembling at [the time of] the complete destruction of life, one should wander solitary as a rhinoceros horn.’

We translate the verses like this:

• Like a strong-toothed lion, the king of beasts, having overpowered [Māra], having overcome [the Destroyer], conducting oneself [in accordance with the teaching], one should make use of secluded abodes. One should live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn.

Sīho yathā dāṭhabalī pasayha rājā migānaṁ abhibhuyya cārī
Sevetha pantāni senāsanāni eko care khaggavisāṇakappo. (Snp 72)

• Having abandoned attachment, hatred, and undiscernment of reality, having slashed the ties to individual existence, being unterrified at the [imminent] destruction of one’s life, one should live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn.

Rāgañca dosañca pahāya mohaṁ sandālayitvāna saṁyojanāni
Asantasaṁ jīvitasaṅkhayamhi eko care khaggavisāṇakappo. (Snp 74)

Carati means brahmacariyaṁ carati

Both problems are resolved if we recognise eko care khaggavisāṇakappo as an abbreviation for eko brahmacariyaṁ care khaggavisāṇakappo ‘live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn.’ The abbreviation of carati in this way occurs elsewhere in the scriptures, not only in the Khaggavisāṇa Sutta, but only in verses, and is therefore to be explained and excused on metrical grounds. See Illustrations below. In prose brahmacariyaṁ carati is common enough, but never abbreviated. Even in verse it is sometimes unabbreviated, for example:

• I am an arahant living the religious life.

arahaṁ ahaṁ brahmacariyaṁ carāmi. (SN i 169)

• He would live the religious life vigorously applied [to the practice].

Ātāpiyo brahmacariyaṁ careyyā ti. (Uda 48)

Kappo

That kappo means ‘like’ or ‘resembling,’ see Group of Discourses p.154.

Carati

We first illustrate the meanings of carati, then afterwards deal with eko care khaggavisāṇakappo.

➥ carāmi: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carāmi, go

Seeing that the body subsists on food, I go searching

Āhāraṭṭhitiko samussayo iti disvāna carāmi esanaṁ. (Tha 123)

Illustration: carāmi, travel

I travel the whole world on my own earnings

Nibbiṭṭhena carāmi sabbaloke. (Snp 25)

Illustration: carāmi, wander

I wander in the world, a sage, liberated from the perception of existence.

akiñcano manta carāmi loke. (Snp 455)

Illustration: carāmi, live the religious life

Clad in robes, I live the religious life without a home, with a shaven head, with ego completely extinguished.

Saṅghāṭivāsī agaho carāmi nivuttakeso abhinibbutatto. (Snp 456)

➥ carantu: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carantu, go

Go, sirs. The religious life is lived under the ascetic Gotama

carantu bhonto samaṇe gotame brahmacariyavāso. (MN i 524)

➥ caraṁ: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: caraṁ, walking

• Whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining

Caraṁ vā yadi vā tiṭṭhaṁ nisinno uda vā sayaṁ. (Iti 117)

Illustration: caraṁ, walk on almsround

Walk on almsround through the streets,

visikhantare caraṁ. (Tha 1119)

Illustration: caraṁ, live the religious life

And I would take delight in that supreme teaching, great Seer, understanding which, one living the religious life, one who is mindful, would overcome attachment to the world [of phenomena].

Tañcāhaṁ abhinandāmi mahesi dhammamuttamaṁ
Yaṁ viditvā sato caraṁ tare loke visattikaṁ. (Snp 1054)

➥ cārikaṁ: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: cārikaṁ, caramāno, journeying

Journeying by stages he arrived at Kapilavatthu.

Anupubbena cārikaṁ caramāno yena kapilavatthu tadavasari. (Vin.1.82)

➥ caritvāna: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: caritvāna, walked

Having walked on almsround

piṇḍacāraṁ caritvāna. (Snp 414)

Illustration: caritvāna, fare

Whoever formerly fared alone who then pursues sexual intercourse, in the world is called a ‘lurching vehicle,’ ‘contemptible,’ a ‘common man.’

Eko pubbe caritvāna methunaṁ yo nisevati
Yānaṁ bhantaṁ va taṁ loke hīnamāhu puthujjanaṁ. (Snp 820)

➥ carati: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carati, fare

He in this world who lives the religious life having spurned [the accumulating of] merit and demerit, who fares in the world with reflectiveness, he is truly called a bhikkhu.

Yodha puññañca pāpañca bāhetvā brahmacariyavā
Saṅkhāya loke carati sa ve bhikkhū ti vuccati. (SN i 182)

➥ carantaṁ: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carantaṁ, walking on almsround

Walking on almsround in such unsuitable alms resorts (that would make his knowledgeable companions in the religious life suspect him of unvirtuous ways of conduct)

yathārūpe agocare carantaṁ. (MN i 10-11)

Comment:

An incoming bhikkhu should ask about suitable and unsuitable alms resorts, called gocara and agocara

➥ careyya: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: careyya, walk (for alms)

He should walk on almsround in the village at the right time. Bonds [to individual existence] bind one who walks on almsround at the wrong time.

Gāmañca piṇḍāya careyya kāle
Akālacāriṁ hi sajanti saṅgā. (Snp 386)

➥ caranti: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: caranti, graze

The cows are grazing in the water-meadow where the grass grows lush

kacche rūḷhatiṇe caranti gāvo. (Snp 20)

Illustration: caranti, live the religious life

Everything is unlasting. Having understood this, the wise live the religious life.

sabbamaniccaṁ evaṁ samecca caranti mutattā. (Tha 1215)

Those who live the religious life without confrontation, rid of spiritual defilement, free of expectations, I call them sages.

Visenikatvā anīghā nirāsā caranti ye te munayo ti brūmi. (Snp 1078)

➥ caritvā: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: caritvā, undertake

Having undertaken many bad deeds

Bahuni ca duccaritāni caritvā. (Snp 665)

Illustration: carati, conduct oneself

He conducts himself rightly by way of body, speech, and mind.

So kāyena sucaritaṁ carati vācāya sucaritaṁ carati manasā sucaritaṁ carati. (AN iii 386)

One who is attached, overpowered, and overcome by attachment, misconducts himself by way of body, speech, and mind.

Ratto kho āvuso rāgena abhibhūto pariyādinnacitto kāyena duccaritaṁ carati vācāya duccaritaṁ carati manasā duccaritaṁ carati. (AN i 216)

➥ carimha: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carimha, bring about

We have brought about your death, sensuous yearning

Vadhaṁ carimha te kāma. (Tha 138)

➥ cariṁsu: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: cariṁsu, live

For forty-eight years they lived the religious life as virgins.

Aṭṭhacattārīsaṁ vassāni komāraṁ brahmacariyaṁ cariṁsu te. (Snp 289)

➥ carāmase: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carāmase, live

Because we have not known the true teaching we’ve been living miserably mother.

addhammassa anaññāya amma dukkhaṁ carāmase. (SN i 210)

➥ brahmacariyaṁ caritvā: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: brahmacariyaṁ caritvā, live the religious life

Lived the religious life under the Blessed One Vipassī

vipassimhi bhagavatī brahmacariyaṁ caritvā. (DN ii 50)

➥ brahmacariyamacariṁsu: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: brahmacariyamacariṁsu, live the religious life

They lived the religious life under the one of excellent wisdom.

Brahmacariyamacariṁsu varapaññassa santike. (Snp 1128)

➥ brahmacariyaṁ carati: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: brahmacariyaṁ carati, live the religious life

He lives the celibate life disgruntled

anabhirato ca brahmacariyaṁ carati. (AN iii 69)

➥ carassu brahmacariyaṁ: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carassu brahmacariyaṁ, live the religious life

Live the religious life under that Blessed One

carassu tasmiṁ bhagavati brahmacariyaṁ. (Snp 696)

➥ carantaṁ: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carantaṁ, live the religious life

The world [of beings] with its devas does not despise the sage living the religious life, free of craving.

Taṁ taṁ nittaṇhaṁ muniṁ carantaṁ
Nāvajānāti sadevako pi loko ti. (Uda 77)

Ireland: the world with its devas does not despise that cravingless sage as he fares along.

A sage, living the religious life, abstaining from sexual intercourse,

Muniṁ carantaṁ virataṁ methunasmā. (Snp 220)

➥ carissasi: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: carissasi, live the religious life

Let wither what is past. Let there not be for you anything at all [hoped for] in the future. If you do not grasp at what is in between you will live the religious life inwardly at peace.

Yaṁ pubbe taṁ visosehi pacchā te māhu kiñcanaṁ
Majjhe ce no gahessasi upasanto carissasi. (Snp 949)

➥ care: (main article see: eko care khaggavisāṇakappo)

Illustration: care, live the religious life

Having renounced violence towards all creatures, not harming any of them, one should not wish for a son, let alone a companion. One should live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn.

Sabbesu bhūtesu nidhāya daṇḍaṁ aviheṭhayaṁ aññatarampi tesaṁ
Na puttamiccheyya kuto sahāyaṁ eko care khaggavisāṇakappo. (Snp 35)

[People] consort and associate [with others] for the sake of selfish advantage. Nowadays friends without selfish motives are hard to find. Men who are wise as to selfish benefits are foul. One should live the religious life as solitarily as a rhinoceros horn.

Bhajanti sevanti ca kāraṇatthā nikkāraṇā dullabhā ajja mittā
Attaṭṭhapaññā asucī manussā eko care khaggavisāṇakappo. (Snp 75)