Dear Nina and Mahipaliha,

thanks. I think Mahipaliha means citta is an adjective, rather than a
past participle. Given the list Nina has provided from Atthasaalinii,
I would say citta is a participle form of cetati, unless cetati is not
a verb at all. However, we would definitely need more information or a
language expert to carry this further.

As for the type of compound, I am satisfied cittagu is a Bahubbiihi.

I have also returned to CSCD to look up on cittagu. The term also
exists in other forms (declensions and compounds), but are all located
in post-canonical sources. This point is merely informative, since we
can't really make use of it for further analysis.

metta,
Yong Peng.

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

> cittaa gaavo yassa, so cittagu can be translated: he (so) whose
> (yassa) cows (gaavo) are spotted (cittaa). Here, i.e., in the
> explanatory sentence, cittaa is an adjective, nom. plural. The
> word citta-gu is a bahubbiihi cpd. A b. cpd can function either
> as a noun or as an adjective. In fact, in languages like Pali, an
> adjective can always function as a noun; e.g. ratto can mean red
> (adj.) or the red one (n.).

N: This answers also Yong Peng as to what kind of compound.