Thank you for your responses. Dr. Pind wrote: "...The alternative would be to interpet pubba.n as an adverb qualifying gama in the sense walking before, in front, cf. Sanskrit puroga, purogama. This is the solution I prefer." If I have it correctly, it would be as follows:
manopubba.ngamaa dhammaa "[Having] mind gone before [are] dhammaa." [Kdh]
manose.t.thaa [dhammaa] "[Having] mind [as] foremost [are dhammaa]." [Kdh]
This makes sense. But I want to continue with this a little. It is interesting to me that the remainder of the verse expands upon the meaning of the first line as the process of karma/kamma:
manasaa ce padu.t.thena bhaasati vaa karoti vaa
tato na.m dukkham anveti cakka.m va vahato pada.m
(Loosely) "If with defiled mind one speaks or acts,
From this ill follows, as the wheel the ox's foot."
This strongly suggests to me that 'mano' and 'dhammaa' in the first line are to be interpreted karmically (at least in this verse). The dhammaa that are produced = good and evil states (and the insight or ignorance that comes from these?), and the 'mano' = cetano/intention, etc.
With this view in mind, I wonder (and here I may only be revealing my grammatical ignorance of Paali) if a different grammatical interpretation of the first compounds are possible. Namely, that it is THROUGH mind that the dhammaa are produced. Isn't this really what manomayaa means? Here is an instrumental usage. In other words: is it possible that manopubba.ngamaa is instrumental singular and not nom.pl.?? Thus: "Dhammaa [are] produced by mind that comes first. by mind that is foremost (also instr.sg.). are mind-made (nom.pl.)."-- Rene
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