Re: Mmd: introductory verses

Jim,

This post of yours to Nina reached me just as I was sending the last one.

>  > > natvaana sa.mgham anaghuttamadakkhi.neyya.m //
>>  N: natvaana, from namati: an unsual form to me. I found it in PED.
>>   and this: anagh-uttama-dakkhi.neyya.m,
>>  I have trouble with anagh. uttama: highest.
>>  I also thought at first: buddhima, but it is : budhim assa, of him.
>
>I also had trouble with 'anagha' (an-agha) at first. You will find
>'agha' (evil, etc.) in PED. Cone also has 'anagha' (without sin,
>faultless). There is also a second 'agha' in the meaning of 'sky'. I
>take all three words in the compound to be adjectives modifying
>'sa.mgha'.

So my understanding is, after all, slightly different to yours. I
take uttamadakkhi.neyya.m as literally 'highest giftable' i.e. it is
the supreme 'field of merit'.

bowing down to Š the Community which is sinless and the highest
<community> to which offerings can be given

I suppose, if we take it literally, what is meant is the
ariyasa.mgha, rather than the bhikkhusa.mgha, and especially the
arahats.

[natvaana by the way is an alternative form of absolutive for natvaa
- forms in -tvaana are most frequent in verse]

>  Although the regular dat. or gen. sing. inflection of
>'buddhimant-' is buddhamato or buddhamantassa, I'm now wondering if
>this could differ if such words (in -ant, -vant, -mant) stand at the
>end of a bahubbiihi compound. Just don't recall coming across such a
>compound with these kinds of words at the end and seeing the
>inflection of them in -assa, etc. Let's keep on the look out.
>

I don't think being at the end of a compound would make any
difference. You really don't need a -mat suffix at the end of a
bahubbiihi. I did consider the possibility of a transfer to the 'a'
declension which does occur very rarely in older verse, but I think
that very unlikely in a work of this period and with a highly learned
author. I don't see any problem with the assa or the order. The first
Kaccaayana is the author, the second is the book; assa refers back to
the first:

Lance