Dear Ven. Kumara,

It is a gerundive form (future passive participle) meaning "to be [verb]ed", so any reasonable meaning of sevati can be substituted for the [verb] which makes sense in the context. Therefore "to be cultivated" or "to be practiced" could be the meaning, as well as "to be performed", "to be served", "to be honoured", to be obeyed", "to be employed", "to be used", "to be studied", etc. See Monier Williams dictionary under "sev" for a list of all the meanings associated with sev/sevati (PED does not have all of them)

Bryan

--- On Sat, 4/23/11, Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...> wrote:

From: Kumara Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...>
Subject: [Pali] sevitabba
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Received: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 6:48 AM
















 









Dear friends,



How would you translated sevitabba?



Before you reply, I suggest you have a look at Sevibbaasevitabba Sutta (MN114), where it's probably used the most often in all of Pali texts. Ven Bhikkhu Bodhi have it as to be cultivated, but it's rather odd to speak of robes, almsfood, villages and towns that are to be cultivated!



kb



























[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]