Dear Nina and Mahinda,

thank you. I do find the style and language of Saddaniti obscure and difficult, but I hope with some assistance I will soon overcome these difficulties and make better translations of the text. I make another attempt with (3) as follows:

vidahanti viduno etaaya saddanipphatti.m aya-loha-aadi-maya.m ayalohaadidhaatuuhi viya-a-ti-pi dhaatu.
arrange / wise ones / from this / word-result / to made of iron,
copper and so on / from the elements of iron, copper and so on /
as-too / verbal root
"just as (the result) made of iron, copper, etc. (is arranged) from the elements of iron, copper, etc., the wise ones arrange the word result from this [i.e. the verbal root dhaatu]", the verbal root (is) too.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Mahinda Palihawadana wrote:

In these three instances, the author continues to give various possible interpretations for the use of the word dhaatu. I think this is what they mean, roughly speaking:

(1) The word dhaatru is so-called because it bears a distinct sense, when associated with one or another prefix for the sake of that distinct sense.
(2) It is also so-called because it is being 'held' by learned persons in various ways, such as "this its meaning", "this suffix follows it" and so on.
(3) It is also so-called because learned persons ordain the production of words with it, just as (people ordain the production of an object of iron , copper etc with elements such as iron, copper etc.

In the case of (1), the reference is to the fact that prefixes at times radically alter the meaning of roots, For example, while the root gam (gacchati) by itself means "to go", it means "to come" when associated with the prefix aa (aagacchati).

> vidahanti viduno etaaya saddanipphatti.m aya-loha-aadi-maya.m
> ayalohaadidhaatuuhi viya-a-ti-pi dhaatu.
> arrange / wise / from this / word-result / to made of iron,
> copper and so on / from the elements to iron, copper and so on /
> as-too / verbal root
> "as from this ayalohaadidhaatu to ayalohaadimaya, the wise
> arrange the word result" too, the verbal root.