Dear Chris,
You wrote:
<< The significance of commas, semicolons, and 'and' in the definitions is
confusing my little brain. E.g., 'cāyu' pg66, has, "pūjā-nisāmanesu =
venerating,
honoring and looking; hearing." It seems that 'and' is separating the
English translations of the Pāḷi definitions of the root, that the
semicolon is separating different translations for the same word, and the
comma is separating synonyms used to clarify the meaning? >>
_________________________________
In "cāyu pūjā-nisāmanesu" where two meanings are given, I think we have to
look at it as: cāyu pūjāyaṃ "and" cāyu nisāmane as if it were two separate
roots with their own distinct meanings. This is like the reverse of one
meaning given to a list of roots. The two English meanings of seeing and
hearing are based on the interpretation of "nisāmana" in the Dhātumālā
(Nisāmanaṃ olokanaṃ savanañca vuccati.). I found no entry for "nisāmana" in
PED or MW (niśāmana) but MW has entries for nisāma and niśam (the verb) of
which the latter gives the meanings: " to observe, perceive, hear, learn".
To choose one meaning for "nisāmana" I would go for "perceiving" (through
seeing and hearing). There are several entries for the root "sam" in the
Dhātumālā. For the root of nisāmana, "1568 sama ālocane" is the relevant
one, ālocana means seeing, perceiving (MW).
When a root is given with two vowels, the one at the end is an indicatory
letter or anubandha which is dropped when forming a word. Most roots end
with "a" but others differ as in "cāyu" and there may be a special reason
for this. I have not yet seen anything in the Pali grammatical commentaries
explaning these letters but Pāṇini does in his Sanskrit grammar. In the case
of a root ending in "i", a nasal is inserted before the second consonant.
Best wishes,
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Valade cjvalade@... [palistudy]"
<palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: October 1, 2016 9:40 PM
Subject: [palistudy] Some questions about the Dhātumālā
I've begun utilizing "Pali Roots in Saddanīti" by Venerable U Silananda,
and I've got a few questions. It's available here:
http://khemarama.com/wp-content/uploads/Pali-Roots-in-Saddaniti-by-Venerable-U-Silananda1.pdf