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ArchivesRe: Origin of Saundarananda
in reply to a message by ajay rawat
Saundarananda is not the name of a person, it is the name of a text dealing with sundarAnanda: The -a suffix to form a noun meaning `related to', `descendent of', etc. often removes a final vowel and does `vRddhi' (back dipthong) on the first vowel.
Now sundarAnanda is definitely composed of two elements in a `samAsa' (compound word), and these are sundara and Ananda. sundara (unknown etymology; probably from su- of uncertain orgin meaning good and nR man, with the -d- unexplained) means beautiful and Ananda (from A- from, towards etc., but often completely and nand, to please) means happiness; and the two are obviously joined in a `dvandva samAsa' (coordinate elements), but whether it is `karmadharaya' (attribute-noun) version of that is the question. Since in such conjuntive situations, a modification clearly perceived as due to a suffixial feminine gender marker is removed, the first element could equally well be sundarI (feminine for sundara).
Both meanings are thus possible: Ananda was also called sundara, and the subject matter of the composition is sundara's conversion to buddhism over his attachment to his wife sundarI holding him back, and so, I would not consider either of these two translations wrong. In fact, even in Sanskrit, different scholars have glossed the name of this early work differently.
Now sundarAnanda is definitely composed of two elements in a `samAsa' (compound word), and these are sundara and Ananda. sundara (unknown etymology; probably from su- of uncertain orgin meaning good and nR man, with the -d- unexplained) means beautiful and Ananda (from A- from, towards etc., but often completely and nand, to please) means happiness; and the two are obviously joined in a `dvandva samAsa' (coordinate elements), but whether it is `karmadharaya' (attribute-noun) version of that is the question. Since in such conjuntive situations, a modification clearly perceived as due to a suffixial feminine gender marker is removed, the first element could equally well be sundarI (feminine for sundara).
Both meanings are thus possible: Ananda was also called sundara, and the subject matter of the composition is sundara's conversion to buddhism over his attachment to his wife sundarI holding him back, and so, I would not consider either of these two translations wrong. In fact, even in Sanskrit, different scholars have glossed the name of this early work differently.
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