Re: How to explain the ablatives uppādā and anuppādā?

Dear Bhante Bhikkhu Bodhi,

On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 6:15 PM you wrote:

Uppādā vā, bhikkhave, tathāgatānaṃ anuppādā vā tathāgatānaṃ, ṭhitāva sā dhātu dhammaṭṭhitatā dhammaniyāmatā. Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā.

This is a famous passage with which you all must be familiar. It is always translated along the lines of "whether there is the arising of Tathagatas or no arising of Tathagatas, that element (principle) stands ... All conditioned things are impermanent."

My question concerns the ablatives uppādā and anuppādā. I consulted several grammars in search of an explanation of the ablative that fits the usage here, but did not succeed in finding one. I skimmed Wijesekera's book on the Pali cases, too, but did not find a fitting explanation of this ablative. It is obviously not the ablative of separation or the ablative of causation. So what aspect of the ablative is involved here? Are there other examples of the ablative used in this way?

The ablative case here is what the classical grammarians call apādāna, which is usually translated as "detachment." And there are several kinds of detachment:

1. Physical detachment. E.g., puriso gāmā gacchati "The man goes from the village." In this example, the ablative of gāmā shows physical detachment.

2. Mental detachment. E.g., puriso corā bhāyati "The man fears `from' the thief." In this example, even though the man may be physically together with the thief, the former's mind is detached from the latter, i.e., shrinks from the latter.

Then, in our case also, the element (dhātu) stands (ṭhitā) detached from (i.e., irrelevant to) the arising or non-arising of tathāgatas. This is why the ablative is justified here. We may call it "natural detachment."

This is just my two cents.

With respect and metta,

Ven. Pandita (Burma)