Dear Nina, Bryan and all,

let us now return to the original sentence in the grammar,

Sunakhakaale pacceka-Buddhe sinehena pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva ta.m rakkhati.

Earlier, I had

Sunakhakaale pacceka-Buddhe sinehena pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva ta.m rakkhati.
Only because of [his former existence as] the dog (which) went about barking with affection at the time of the Pacceka-Buddha, (this) protects him.

* matta (adv) because of
* eva (adv) only

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Bryan's reply:

I would take mattam here as a neuter noun as subject of rakkhati; otherwise I don't see what the subject of the sentence is. matta means "measure" or "quantity" and is used at the end of a compound to mean "nothing but", "the whole or totality", "only" (see Monier Williams dict.). Eva would be there for emphasis. So I would read this as "Only the constant (pavattita) barking [lit: "just the constant barking-totality ], out of love for solitary Buddhas in his former existence as a dog, protects him."

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Nina's reply:

N: I would take mattam as an adverb, and belonging to rakkhati: only his barking.... protected him.

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Sunakhakaale pacceka-Buddhe sinehena pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva ta.m rakkhati.

According to the book, the subject is a phrase, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/15339 .

From what we have been doing under this chapter,

[subject] sunakhakaale pacceka-Buddhe sinehena pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva

[predicate] ta.m rakkhati

We are ok with the predicate: ta.m rakkhati = protects him.

Now, on the subject: sunakhakaale pacceka-Buddhe sinehena pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva. I have the following:

1. sunakhakaale: in former birth as a dog

2. pacceka-Buddhe: at the pacceka-Buddha (only one)

3. sinehena: with affection

4. pavattitabhukkara.na-mattameva, here pavattita (pp) can be "constant" as Bryan suggested, bhukkara.na (n) is "barking", hence "constant barking". I treat mattameva as an emphatic particle making up of two adverbs matta and eva, hence "only because of".

What do you think? Thank you.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/15402
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/15404
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/15406


metta,
Yong Peng.