Re: vitakkehi khajjasi - eaten by your thoughts (Sn 9:11)

Dear Phil,

The root is khaad = eat, bite, chew. 3rd sing khaadati.

The basic rule is: form the present stem of the passive by adding -ya- to the root. (For detail, see e.g. See Warder, lesson 9.)

This would give khaadyati. By the normal rules , -dy- becomes -jj-, and the long -aa- before a doubled consonant becomes short -a-.

So: Active: khaad > khaadati
Passive - khaad + ya > *khaadyati > khajjati.

Often, a doubled (and sometimes mutated) consonant at the end of a verb root immediately before the conjugational ending indicates a passive. E.g. hanati = he kills; *han-ya-ti > ha`n`nati = he is killed.
Pacati he cooks; *pac-ya-ti > paccati he is cooked (i.e. he is tormented).

You quoted Bhiukkhu Bodhi's discussion re 'majjasi'. Same applies here. Root mad > madati. Passive *madyati, mutating by the normal rule (-dy- > -jj-) to majjati.

Vitakkehi is the instrumental plural. So: vitakkehi khajjasi - 'you are eaten by (your) thoughts'.

Metta
James Whelan

----- Original Message -----
From: Phil
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 2:41 PM
Subject: [Pali] vitakkehi khajjasi - eaten by your thoughts (Sn 9:11)




Dear Group

I have been studying the vanasamyutta (SN 9) in Pali. I find the
short suttas in which meditating bhikkhus are chastized by concerned
devata to be very inspiring, and they are a nice short length for a
Pali beginner to have a look at some texts.

I wanted to know more about the expressesion khajjasi. In Bhikkhu
Bodhi's notes, he writes "I read the verb as khajjasi (rather than)
majjasi, "intoxicated with."

I don't know enough yet about conjugations and declinations(?)
to be able to look up words on the online dictionary yet - I keep
shooting blanks.

Could anyone tell me the root form of khajjasi, and anything about
it? Bhikkhu Bodhi uses "eaten" by your thoughts, but when I looked
up "eat" in English/Pali, I didn't see anything that looked like
khajjasi.

Thanks!

Phil




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