Dear Nina,

many thanks for the explanation. I did a quick search on CSCD, and
found that cittagu is a post-canonical term. CSCD lists three sources
of the term. Two of them of the philological texts
Moggallaana-byaakara.na.m and Padaruupasiddhi. The third is an
exposition by the late Ledi Sayadaw, Nirutti-diipanii.

I understand that 'citta-miga', spotted antelope, means an antelope
with (beautiful) spots, or simply an antelope with spots/marks on its
body. Here, 'citta' derives from 'cetati'.

Using what we have learnt, 'cittagu' literally means "oxen with
marks/spots". However, the meaning has been twisted to be "[a person]
who has spotted cows and oxen", probably some kind of hunter or
herder. Hence, I guessed the term is a bahubbiihi compound.

What do you think?

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nina van Gorkom wrote:

> 1. Is 'cittagu' a bahubbiihi compound?
>
> 2. What part of speech is cittaa? PED has citta as a neuter noun,
> meaning 'painting'. It also gives an example, citta-miga: the
> spotted antelope. However, cittaa in the phrase seems to be a past
> participle:
>
> cittaa gaavo yassa, so
> were spotted / oxen / of whom / he
> he, of whom the oxen were spotted
>
> So, is 'citta' a past participle?

--------
There are different stems. Citta and citra (cetati): to be bright.
variegated, beautiful. cittaa gavo seems to me a p.p. . Spotted in
the sense of variegated or beautiful. I do not know whether this is a
bahubbiihii compound.
There is a word citta.m meaning painting.