Hi Larry,

It is actually vā pana "or else" (see PED under Pana) + assa (of him, his). Pana goes with the previous word and then comes the genitive pronoun. Final a of pana is elided that's why the two words appear together. It could also be written pan' assa. It is not a compound but sandhi.

Rosa
_____

From: Pali@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Pali@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Larry Rosenfeld
Sent: dilluns, 24 / gener / 2011 02:51
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Pali] how best to translate "panassa"?




Dear Bhantes, friends, teachers & Pali-language gurus -

In the (Maha)-Satipatthana Sutta (DN 22/MN 10, e.g., as found in the
SLTP at
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sltp/MN_I_utf8.html#pts.055),
the following refrain is found about two dozen times:

Atthi kāyoti [/or /vedanāti /or /cittanti /or /dhammāti] vā
panassa sati paccupaṭṭhitā hoti ....

What is the best way to translate "panassa"? For instant, is it a
dative or genitive form of (what I thought was the indeclinable) "pana,"
or a compound of "pana" and "assa," or something else?

To facilitate some analysis, please allow me to share the following
translations of the above sentence fragment:

- Bhikkhu Analayo (2003, 2006, Windhorse Pub., p. 4): "Or, mindfulness
that 'there is a body' is established in him ...."
- Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi (1995, 2001, MLDB, p. 146): "Or else
mindfulness that 'there is a body' is simply established in him ...."
- Nyanasatta Thera (1994, ATI): "Or his mindfulness is established with
the thought: 'The body exists'...."
- Soma Thera (1999, ATI): "Or indeed his mindfulness is established with
the thought: 'The body exists'...."
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2008, ATI): "Or his mindfulness that 'There is a
body' is maintained ...."
- VRI (1985, 1996, p. 7): "Now his awareness is established: 'This is
body!'"
- Maurice Walshe (1987, 1995, LDB, p. 336): "Or else, mindfulness that
'there is body' is present to him ...."

Also, for what it is worth, I see through Dr. Peter Friedlander's
BodhgayaNews search engine (http://www.bodhgayanews.net/pali.htm), that
this term, "panassa," actually can be found in 346 SLTP BJT records
(canonical and post-canonical), so it is certainly not unique to these
suttas; for some reason, I've just stumbled across it here at this time,
and I thought others might more readily recognize/value the term in this
context.

As always, thank you ahead of time for any shared insights or wisdom.
With metta,
Larry

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