Note 3 — The Story of Ayiwandā

The text has Ansca, evidently intended for Anicca. This is part of a Buddhist exclamation in Pāli, Aniccan̥ dukkhan̥, “transient is sorrow,” often used colloquially to express astonishment. A Buddhist monk of my acquaintance invariably used it to express even slight surprise at anything, strongly accenting the last syllable of the first word; in fact, all is usually pronounced as though it formed only one word. See also p. 71 below. ↑