se.t.tha.m -- derivation 2

Se.t.tha.m: Derivation Two

1st text: sundare satipa.t.thaanaadibhede dhamme esati gavesatii ti
se.t.tho. -- Kacc-va.n.n

Translation: He searches out, investigates the beautiful dhammas in
the category of satipa.t.thaana and so on, thus 'se.t.tho'.

2nd text: atha vaa sundare satipa.t.thaanaadibhede dhamme esati
gavesati esi.m gavesinti vaa se.t.tho, buddho. supubbo-esa gavesane
ta. tassa ra.t.tho. susaddo sundarattho. -- Namakkaara.tiikaa, p.11

Translation: Alternatively, he searches out, investigates the
beautiful dhammas in the category of satipa.t.thaana and so on; a
searcher, an investigator; thus 'se.t.tho', the Buddha. The root 'esa'
in the sense of 'tracking' preceded by the prefix 'su', 'ta' (the past
participle affix). In the room of 'ta' there is '.t.tha'. 'su' has the
sense of 'sundara' (beautiful).

Comments:

1) "esa gavesane" -- this is the sort of expression one finds in a
standard list of roots (dhaatus) with their meanings. This particular
one is not to be found in any of the three Pali root lists I have,
suggesting that it is from another list. Four works on Pali roots are:

1. Dhaatupaa.tha (abbr. Dhaatup) of the Moggallaana school by an
unknown author (639 roots). 2. Kaccaayana-dhaatuma~njuusaa (Dhaatum)
by Siilava.msa (884 roots). 3. Dhaatumaalaa which is the second volume
of the Saddaniiti by Aggava.msa (1687 roots). 4. Dhaatvatthadiipanii
which I have never seen. Perhaps the "esa gavesane" comes from that
one.

The closest match found in the first three works is "esa gavesa
maggane" -- Dhaatup 297-8. The Dhaatumaalaa has a "gavesa maggane"
without the "esa" -- Sadd 1653 [see note below] but being in the
curaadi class, the 3rd pers. sing. verb is 'gaveseti' and if there had
been an "esa" the verb-form would be "eseti". The corresponding root
in the Saddaniiti is "isa pariyesane" -- Sadd 993 (cp also isa
pariyese Dhaatum 433; both are unknown in Panini's list). In two
commentaries one finds: pariyesatii ti maggati Th-a II 131; maggati
gavesati As 162,28. This shows the close connection in meaning of the
roots: isa, esa, gavesa, magga (cp magga gavesane Sadd 1323; Panini X
302 maarga anve.sa.ne).

[note: To avoid confusing Sadd 1653 with a sutta number, I thought a
convenient way to refer to locations in the Saddaniiti would be to use
Sadd 1653 (for instance) when referring to a specific root in the
Dhaatumaalaa, Sd 34 when referring to a sutta in the Suttamaalaa, and
either Sadd p.64 or Sadd I 64 when referring to a page no., references
are to H. Smith's edn.]

2) In Cone's dictionary there are 5 main entries for the verb "esati"
but here we only need concern ourselves with the first one in the
meaning of: "seeks, seeks to obtain, searches for, probes." I find the
last one "probes" most fitting in the context of a se.t.tha or Buddha.
Out of the "probes" we can add some more meanings such as:
investigates (from L. vestigare -- to track), inquires into, studies
carefully and from the meaning of "maggane" we can think of tracking
or tracing dhammas. I chose 'searches out' in my translation after
recently coming across it in E. Hardy's introduction to the
Nettippakara.na, p. ix (to search out the evidence).

3) One of the reasons for the "esati gavesati" is to point to the root
esa or isa, the gavesati helps to indicate which one of the several
similar looking roots applies. The active present form of the verbs
also tell us that 'se.t.tha' is a pure or simple agent-noun
(suddhakattu) in this derivation.

4) The past participle affix 'ta'. The 'a' of 'esa' is an indicatory
letter (anubandha) which is elided giving us 'es' to which 'ta' is
added. Now, a rule from Kc applies:

Kc 573 (575). saadi santa puccha bhanja hansaadiihi .t.tho.
  sakaaranta puccha bhanja hansa iccevamaadiihi dhaatuuhi tapaccayassa
sahaadibya~njanena .t.thaadeso hoti .thaane.
  tu.t.tho, ahinaa da.t.tho naro, mayaa pu.t.tho, bha.t.tho,
pabha.t.tho, ha.t.tho, paha.t.tho, yi.t.tho. evama~n~nepi dhaatavo
sabbattha yojetabbaa.

The part of the rule that applies in our case is that the substitute
".t.tha" (.t.thaadeso) is in the place (.thaane) of the affix 'ta'
together with the first consonant 's' (sta) of roots ending in the
letter 's' (santa = sa-kaaranta). es + ta > esta > e.t.tha (by Kc
573).

5) The prefix 'su'. The is one of the prefixes (upasaggas) in a
standard list of 20 found at Sadd p.880. Five meanings of this prefix
are given at p.885: sobha.na (beautiful, splendid), sukha (pleasant,
easy), su.t.thu (well), sammaa (complete, proper, perfect), and
samiddhi (success). Compare also Abh 1179: su sobhane sukhe
sammaa-bhusa-su.t.thu-samiddhisu. Although there is no 'sundara' in
the 2 lists of meanings it's possible that it could be a synonym of
sobhana, but on the other hand 'sammaa' is also possible. In
sammaadi.t.thi, for instance, the 'sammaa' is explained at Pa.tis-a I
95: pasatthaa vaa sundaraa vaa di.t.thii ti sammaadi.t.thi. Also worth
noting is the explanation of the 'sa.m' in sambojjha"nga on p. 95:
pasattho sundaro ca bojjha"ngo sambojjha"ngo. It's very interesting to
see the intertwined connections of pasattha, sundara, and magga in our
word se.t.tha so far. su + e.t.tha > se.t.tha with the elision of the
'u' of 'su' which brings in yet another Kc rule which we will leave
for another time as this message is already too long.

6) One last comment. We could also come up with the same result if we
took the root isa (for i.t.tha) instead of esa using the same Kc 573
rule plus the Kc 14 explained in my last message. I also wonder if
'sa' can take the place of the prefix sa.m as this also has the
meaning of sammaa (which includes pasattha &  sundara). I just haven't
found a rule to support a sa from sa.m yet.

Best wishes,
Jim