Dear Yong Peng

To really understand this sentence, you must know the concept of
"vicchaa" --- the concept of Reduplicated Words. The following
explanation is based on the first chapter of Moggallana.

puriso gaama.m gacchati. Trs.: The man goes to (a / the)
village.
puriso gaama.m gaama.m gacchati. Trs.: The man goes to each / every
village.
puriso gaama.m gacchati gacchati. Trs.: The man always goes to (a /
the) village, i.e., he keeps going there.

You should note the change of content when a noun or a verb is doubled.
This is called "vicchaa".

When you wish to use vicchaa with a noun coupled with a pronominal
adjective, you double the pronoun only --- not the noun itself. So:

so so gaamo Trs.: each of all those villages

Now for the sentence in question to be analyzed with RG.

> Pa.n.ditaa ya.m ya.m desa.m bhajanti tattha tatth'eva puujitaa honti.

> I think the problem here is with "ya.m ya.m" and "tattha tatth'eva", and
> it seems like there are two main verbs here - bhajanti and honti.

We have finished with vicchaa. Now about two main verbs:

I think I have mentioned in a previous post, but I'm not sure, that a
main verb, especially of conjugated form, is the uppermost node of the
sentence tree. It means that, if there are two main verbs, there are two
sentences. Then these would be:

1.Pa.n.ditaa ya.m ya.m desa.m bhajanti.
2.tattha tatth'eva puujitaa honti.

In the first sentence:

pa.n.ditaa ---> bhajanti (ASV - Active Subject relation) == Wise persons
visit
ya.m ya.m ---> desa.m (IAD - Identical Adjective relation) == whichever
place
desa.m ---> bhajanti (IOV - Inactive Object relation) == . . . visit the
place

The whole would become, "Whichever place wise persons visit . . ."

Note that it is a complete sentence in Pali but not in English.

In the second, the subject of the first would follow: the reason would
become clear when the whole sentence is finished. This is the Principle
of Text Insertion in a different form.

pa.n.ditaa ---> puujitaa (AOV - Active Object relation) == Wise persons
are venerated
pa.n.ditaa ---> honti (DASO (Double Active Subject (ordinary) - primary
subject relation) == Wise persons are . . .
puujitaa ---> honti (DASO (Double Active Subject (ordinary) - secondary
subject relation) == . . . are venerated

Note: You can see this relational pattern at RG - 6. In fact, this
sentence is complete without "honti". But the presence of a conjugated
form helps to clearly define the tense of the verb. I mean: if it were
past tense, we can write ". . . puujitaa ahesu.m" , thus clearly showing
the tense.

tattha tattha ---> honti (LOV - Locus - Verb relation) == --- are . . .
in each of those places
eva ---> ? (only an indeclinable that requires no relation)

Then the sentence would amount to ". . .Wise persons are venerated in
each of those places"

When these two sentences are combined, it would become:

"Whichever place wise persons visit, they are venerated at that very place"

Note also that "ya.m ya.m" and "tattha tattheva" are identical in
content, that is, they refer to the same entity. It would mean, in this
sentence, that, if wise persons visit the place X, they would get
honoured at X; if they visit Y, honoured at Y, etc.

with metta

Ven. Pandita