Dear Jim,

thank you. I should have written '...I originally guessed it to mean "subject proper"'. Of course, that is based on how I understood the verse at that time, then (and even now) without knowledge of the rest of the content.

I could have put ??? for it, but then I would be putting ??? in every other line. So, I would rather put in my humble suggestion, and leave it open for comments.

ettha pariccheda-p-padese attho aacariyena kappiiyati paricchijjiiyaiti
here, the meaning is prepared (defined) and resolved by the teacher within a bounded range.

It looks like we will only find out what the chapters Namakappa and Akhyatakappa contain till we get to it. Stay tuned? ;-)

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Jim Anderson wrote:

> The word kappa literally means rule, but I originally thought it
> to mean "subject proper".

Kappa has several meanings. In the first introductory verse of Kaccaayana there is the word 'susandhikappa.m" at the end. The Nyaasa (Mmd p. 4) gives the following nibbacana on 'kappa' which is along the lines of Aggava.msa's nibbacana on 'paccayaa' :

kappiiyati etthaati kappo. It is circumscribed or delimited at this place, thus it is 'kappa'.

The .tiikaa (Mmd-p.t p. 24) glosses 'kappiiyati' with 'paricchijjiiyati' in the following comment:

kappiiyati etthaati kappoti ettha paricchedappadese attho aacariyena kappiiyati paricchijjiiyaiti yasmaa, iti tasmaa kappo.

I don't fully grasp this comment nor the one before but it suggests to me an area where the subject-matter is circumscrbed or marked out by the teacher.

Of course we could go further and investigate and compare other meanings of kappa (e.g your rule) but I think this is enough.