abhikkamosānaṃ

Dear Friends,

Can anyone in the group help with the expression abhikkamosānaṃ, as it occurs in the stock passage when someone is beset by an illness that grows worse rather than better? For instance in the Anāthapiṇḍikovāda Sutta at MN III 259 the great householder tells Sāriputta: ‘‘Na me, bhante Sāriputta, khamanīyaṃ na yāpanīyaṃ. Bāḷhā me dukkhā vedanā abhikkamanti, no paṭikkamanti; abhikkamosānaṃ paññāyati, no paṭikkamo."

According to DOP, osāna means “stopping, cessation, end,” and thus abhikkamosānaṃ should mean “an advance and an end,” or better “an end of the advance,” which would be a sign of recovery. But his condition is growing worse. Paṭikkamosānaṃ, which might mean “a retreat and an end” (of the illness), would be expected of someone recovering, and it is quite fitting that a patient whose pains are increasing would deny that paṭikkamosānaṃ is occurring.

Ps V 78 (commenting on the passage at MN III 259) says with regard to abhikkamosānaṃ paññāyati no paṭikkamo: “yasmiñhi samaye māraṇantikā vedanā uppajjati, uparivāte jalitaggi viya hoti, yāva usmā na pariyādiyati, tāva mahatāpi upakkamena na sakkā vūpasametuṃ, usmāya pana pariyādinnāya vūpasammati. This I would translate: "On the occasion when pains bordering on death arise, like a blazing fire in an upwind, so long as the heat has not ended it is not possible to make it subside even with great effort; but when the heat has ended, then it subsides.". This does not parse the compound, and neither PED nor  DOP cite the compound under abhikkama.

In translating SN, I simply followed the sense: "... their increase, not their subsiding, is to be discerned."  The Chinese translators of the Agamas translate in a similar way. But it would be useful to see how the compound should be resolved.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-- 
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Chuang Yen Monastery
2020 Route 301
Carmel NY 10512
U.S.A.

Sabbe sattā averā hontu, abyāpajjā hontu, anighā hontu, sukhī hontu!
願眾生無怨，願眾生無害，願眾生無惱，願眾生快樂！
May all beings be free from enmity, free from affliction, free from distress. May they be happy!