Re: Saddatthabhedacintaadiipanii, verse 1

Dear Ven. Dhammanando,

> Sambhaavane in the Abh. passage is from sambhaavanaa rather
> than sambhaavana.

Thanks for pointing this out. It is understood as 'sambhaavanaa' in
the Saddaniiti passage on p. 884 in Ch. 27 and in the CPD entry for
'api'.

> The meaning then is praising or honouring, rather than supposition.

Yes, this is supported by its definition in the Saddaniiti:
sambhaavanaati ukka.msanaa thomanaa (Ch. 4). I think the word is
derived from a causative stem like the causative verb 'sambhaaveti'
defined in Sadd. as: sambhaavetiiti yassa kassaci gu.na.m sambhaaveti
sambhaavayati su.t.thu pakaaseti ukka.mseti (Ch 1). The verb
'pakaaseti' and its cognates are often found in the commentaries in
the sense of explaining. So this could be a clue--cp. 'sa.mva.n.neti'
(praise) with 'sa.mva.n.nanaa' (commentary).

The meaning of 'supposition' is found in the Conspectus Terminorum (in
French) in the appendices to Smith's ed. of Sadd. under 4.2.3.2:
"supposition sambhaavanaa 884,15 (sa.mkaava.t.thaana ?)". The word
'sambhaavanaa' also appears in one of the nine types of
kammadhaarayas: sambhaavanaapubbapada (eg. dhammo
ti buddhi dhammabuddhi). The Conspectus defines this at 5.2.2.2 as: "a
contenu d'un jugement sambhaavanaapubbapada (fonction de iti)".
However, it now seems to me that these definitions may not be right.

[...]

> But this is not entirely clear to me. Where exactly did the
> grammarians perceive the praise that api is meant to convey?
> Are dibbaa kaamaa being praised (i.e. for their superiority
> to maanusaa kaamaa)? Or is api merely highlighting dibbaa
> kaamaa as a means of praising the pa.n.dita who is
> indifferent to them? Obviously the latter is the point of
> the line as a whole, but I am curious about the function of
> api in particular.

I think 'sambhaavanaa' could be linked to 'highlighting' or
'focusing'. I looked up 'even' in the colossal _A Comprehensive
Grammar of the English Language_ by Randolph Quirk et al and found an
interesting category of adverbials called 'focusing subjuncts' that
contain many of the translations of api/pi often met with. Focusing
subjuncts are further divided into two subcategories: 1) restrictives
(exclusives and particularizers) and 2) additives. "Additive subjuncts
indicate that the utterance concerned is additionally true in respect
of the part focused: [jim--these are:]
        again, also, either, equally, even, further, likewise, neither,
        nor, similarly, too, as well as, in addition" -- p.604

Best wishes,
Jim