246 



Terms of add/ ess in use 



p. 7. From Mahana we obtain the word Mahana-unanse or 

 Mahan^ananse, which means :i Reverend ascetic''; but not 

 " the great one" as incorrectly interpreted by Mr. Hardy, 

 probably by confounding it with Maha-unanse. — c the great 

 one,' — which is not the cc collective name " of the priests, but 

 a designation by which the chief of a Monastery is distin- 

 guished from amongst several who happen to form an 

 association, or to be the subject of conversation or writing. 



From the Pali word Samana and era, which in composition 

 becomes nera, we obtain Samanera;* and it means a "young 

 ascetic" " a novice " or "pupil of a priest." The words which 

 bear the same meaning, and are applied to Samaneros or 

 priests who have not received the Upasampada ordination, are 

 Yatiput and Herana. Many honorifics, which are used 

 towards the Upasampada priests are inapplicable to the 

 Samaneros. Thus we find in the Singhalese version of the 

 Milindapprasna, and in one and the same sentence, that a 

 Samanera is spoken of as " Samenerayan wahande " tao<£)®\&3 

 (5 c3£d€)2a^<^ ;t an( l a ihera as, " bikshun wahanse " q3-5g|£€) 

 ea-fid^ed: and where a priest applied " Saminda" to his own 

 teacher, a venerable Samanero of upwards of 60 years of age, 

 the propriety of the designation was questioned in the fol- 

 lowing lines published in the Yatalaba-Sangara, p. 37. 



3. Sthavira (Sans.) Thera (Pali) or Tera (Singhalese,) 

 means an (S Elder." It is synonymous with yati; and both 

 are equally applied to a priest after he has been an Upa- 

 sampada priest of 10 years standing. Before, however, he 

 completes his tenth year after ordination, his career is divided 

 into two periods — the first from the date of ordination till his 



* See Clough's Balawatara, p. 89. 

 | Of the Samaneras the ordained elder priests sometimes use the pronouns 



C&3q arid gsi^. 



