Talk:Dhutanga

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The article translates dhutanga as "renunciation" and cites [1] which justifies this translation with the etymology "to abandon (dhuta); state of mind (aṅga)". The derivation of dhūtāṅga from dhūta + aṅga is sound, but the translation of aṅga as as "state of mind" is doubtful. It doesn't even make sense in the context of the article, where it appears in each of the names of each of the thirteen dhutanga practices and seems to be translated as "practice" instead. The usual translation of aṅga is "limb" (cf. Ashtanga) although in some contexts it is metonymically extended to meaning "body", similar to how the Chinese 体 can mean both the body or just a limb.

According to the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary dhūta has the primary meaning of "shaken" which is often extended to "shaken-off, abandoned" (which affirms the reference). Accordingly, the expected translation would be something like "shaking-off limbs", "shaking-off the body", or, perhaps less literally, "the limbs of abandonment" referring to each of the thirteen "limbs" of dhutanga, much like the ashtanga refers to the eight limbs or branches of Yoga in the Yoga Sutras. The translation "shaking-off the body" would actually fit the description in the article well: "to help the practitioner to develop detachment with material things including the body".

Therefore, I suspect the reference is wrong. However, I don't know Pali, so maybe I'm mistaken and there's aṅga can mean "state of mind" in some contexts, maybe as "limbs of the mind" or something. Scyrme (talk) 02:58, 21 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]