Dear John,

> I've been puzzling over this small passage from the
> Milindapa~nha - number III.5.4 (Miln 71):
>
> Raajaa aaha “bhante naagasena, dhammo tayaa
> di.t.tho”ti.

Tayaa is the instumental of tva.m. So the question is "Have
you seen the Dhamma?" (lit. "Has the Dhamma been seen by
you?")

> Buddhanettiyaa kho, mahaaraaja, buddhapa~n~nattiyaa
> yaavajiiva.m saavakehi vattitabban”ti.

Rhys Davids translates:
"Have not we disciples, O king, to conduct ourselves our
lives long as under the eye of the Buddha, and under his
command?"

And then adds the footnote:

"Mr. Trenckner thinks there is a lacuna here; and
Hiinati-kumburee's version perhaps supports this. He renders
the passage: "How can a man use a path he does not know? And
have not we our lives long to conduct ourselves according to
the Vinaya (the rules of the Order), which the Buddha
preached, and which are called the eye of the Buddha, and
according to the Sikkhaapada (ethics) which be laid down,
and which are called his command?" But there are other
passages, no less amplified in the Sinhalese, where there is
evidently no lacuna in the Paali; and the passage may well
have been meant as a kind of riddle, to which the Sinhalese
supplies the solution."

Horner translates:

"Disciples have to proceed for as long as they live, sire,
with the Buddha as guide, with the Buddha as [the one]
laying down the rules."

And adds a footnote repeating what Rhys Davids has said,
then continuing:

"....The words Buddhanetti and Buddhapa~n~natti may have a
reference to D. ii 154: mayaa dhammo ca vinayo ca desito
pa~n~natto. Cf. also: dhammaa Bhagava.mnettikaa at M. i 310,
A. i 199, etc."

Her translation seems fine to me. In the Kankhaavitara.nii
(a commentary to the Paatimokkha) there is the gloss:

Buddhapa~n~nattenaa' ti buddhena .thapitena, vihitenaa* ti
attho.
(* vihita: past participle of vidahati)

'By what has been laid down by the Buddha': by what has been
fixed and prescribed by the Buddha is the meaning.

And in the Milinda.tiikaa are the glosses:

Buddhanettiiyaa' ti nibbaana.m neti etaaya sadevake loke' ti
netti, suttantaabhidhammapaali.

'With the Buddha as guide': the guide by which one in this
world, with its devas, is guided to Nibbaana: the text of
the Suttas and Abhidhamma.

(Buddhapa~n~natti) pa~n~naayapiiyati etaaya bhagavato
aa.naa' ti pa~n~natti. Buddhassa pa~n~natti
buddhapa~n~natti, vinayapaali.

(Buddha's prescription): 'thereby it is prescribed.' The
command of the Blessed One is the prescription. The
prescription of the Buddha is the Buddha prescription: the
text of the Vinaya.

> By best translation attempt so far is:
>
> The king asked: “Venerable Nagasena, is the Dhamma to
> be seen from a three-way perspective?”
> Your majesty, as a conduit to awakening, as a
> designation of the enlightened one, and something to
> be practised by disciples all life-long.”
> You are clever, venerable Nagasena.”
>
> Am I missing something here?

Best wishes,

Dhammanando