The Great Chronicle of Buddhas
by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw | 1990 | 1,044,401 words
This page describes Four Kinds of Kavi (wise person) contained within the book called the Great Chronicle of Buddhas (maha-buddha-vamsa), a large compilation of stories revolving around the Buddhas and Buddhist disciples. This page is part of the series known as on Pāramitā. This great chronicle of Buddhas was compiled by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw who had a thorough understanding of the thousands and thousands of Buddhist teachings (suttas).
Four Kinds of Kavi (wise person)
The Catukka Nipāta of the Aṅguttara Nikāya describes four kinds of Kavi:
(1) Cinta kavi
(2) Suta kavi
(3) Attha kavi
(4) Patibhāna kavi
(The term kavi is derived from the root, ‘kava’ which means ‘to praise’; so a person who praises things worthy of praises is called kavi meaning a ‘wise person’.)
(1) Cinta kavi:
One who is capable of knowing a given matter by thinking it out for himself is called a Cinta kavi, a wise man of original thinking. It is the province of such persons to sing verses lauding those deserving praise. Thus Cinta kavi is one who composes poems relying solely on his own thinking.
(2) Suta kavi:
One who puts into verse what one knows through hearing is called a Suta kavi.
(3) Attha kavi:
One who does not know through his original thinking or through learning from others but interprets the meaning of a difficult point based upon the knowledge he already possesses of similar problems is called an Attha kavi, a wise man who explains meaning. He writes verses based on a given subject-matter.
(4) Patibhāna kavi:
One who, without having recourse to thinking out himself or listening to others or referring to what is already known, has the ability to penetrate at once the meaning of a given subject is called a Patibhana kavi, a wise man of ready speech (like the Venerable Vangisa Thera during the Buddha’s time).