Dear George, Jim and all,

thank you for making the good moves. I agree that, as the group has
discussed, we can take Saddaniti a bit at a time. And we should
probably stick to just one of the classics now, rather than having
more. We can devote remaining discussions to modern texts, sutta
translations, Pali in general and open questions.

However, I would also like to compromise with Mahinda, who has been
very helpful to our discussions. I like to propose that we cover
padamaalaa first, then work on Baalaavataara, before proceeding with
dhaatumaalaa. But, only one classic at a time, or risk getting
overwhelmed and drowned. ;-)

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, gdbedell wrote:

Returning to Saddaniiti (I am going to change the thread name to
something more transparent), we have been told that it is the longest,
not the oldest, and the most difficult of the grammars; and are
advised to start with Kaccaayana. Saddaniiti is very long, but it can
be broken up into small pieces. Kaccaayana is several centuries older
than Saddaniiti, but this is not immediately relevant (unless perhaps
your primary interest is the development of grammar and its influence
on Paali literature). And with all respect, I am not convinced that
Saddaniiti is more difficult than Kaccaayana. In my limited
experience, perhaps the opposite is true, particularly in the case of
Padamaalaa.

So I am posting a translation below of the opening section of
Padamaalaa, Pariccheda 2, about one page of Smith's edition (pp. 13-14).