Dear Dhammafriends:


Please give me a hand....
A sentence in the dutiya-aputtakasutta in Kosalasamyuttam in Samyuttamnikaaya:

Datvaa ca pana pacchaa vippa.tisaarii ahosi--'varameta.m pi.n.dapaata.m daasaa vaa kammakaraa vaa bhu~njeyyun'ti.

PTS's translation is : But afterwards he repented of his gift, saying: 'It were better that the slaves and workmen had eaten it.'

My question is how could we know 'vara.m eta.m' should translate as ' it were better that.. ' ,but not ' this excellent (pi.n.dapaata.m, food)'? Is that a idiom? Ican't seem to find this kind of use in PED. If we should understand it in this way as soon as I see it?


with metta

Tzungkuen




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