Dear Bryan,

Here it doesn't mean "the self", it means "with a self that is pahita".
It's a nominal derivation from another noun:

yassa attaa pahito, so pahitatto.

Another example:

duppa~n~no - one with poor wisdom. Pa~n~naa is feminine, but the word
refers to the man who has it.

Best wishes,

Yuttadhammo

On 12/17/2011 06:59 PM, Bryan Levman wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> The phrase pahitatto occurs dozens of times in the Pāli writings, often in this context below, describing how a practitioner attains Arahantship:
>
>
> eeko vuupaka.t.tho appamatto aataapii pahitatto viharanto... (alone, secluded, diligent, zealous, of resolute will, ... the monk attains the goal (e. g. Mahāsīhanādasutta, DN 1, 177).
>
> where it is usually translated as "of resolute will." All the translations seem to agree that pahita-atto is nom. sing. of attan, self, with pahita meaning "resolute." However, the usual nominative singular of attan is attaa, not atto.
>
> Geiger (section 92) says that attan (like raajan) can be used in the -a declension, but he gives no examples in the nom. sing ending in -o. Is anyone familiar with this form of atto in the nom. sing. in other contexts? Are we correct in taking this as the nom. sing of attan, or is it the nom. sing. of atta ("taken up," "undertaken," "begun"), which however, doesn't appear to make a lot of sense in this context?
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Metta,
>
> Bryan
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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