Dhammapada 4

Yamaka Vagga

Grammar:

¹akkochi: (a) (he, she) abused; (b) sg. 3rd. pers. aorist of √krus ‘to abuse,’ or 3^rd. pers. sg. pres.act. indic. akkosati ‘to abuse, to scold, to swear at, to revile;’ (c) the TDL (2018:37) writes that the usual past tense, which is called the “aorist” tense, is generally formed directly from the root (more rarely from the present tense stem) by adding special inflections. In the past tense an a- is optionally used before the root. This a goes between the prefix, if any, and the root. It is called the “augment.” The vowel a- is prefixed to the root as an indication of past time, though the difference of inflections avoids ambiguity in most cases;

(d) Duroiselle (idem., p. 94, Nos. 409-410) writes also writes that the radical (or root) aorist is not very common…. Let it be first remarked that the aorist may also take the augment a before it, as the does the imperfect.

4.10 from √gam, and √ga and √gu (subsidiary forms of √gam) ‘to go,’ we have:

(a)        Sing.                                      Plur.
1.         agaṁ, agamā, agamiṁ           agumha
2.         agā, agamā                            aguttha
3.         agā, agami                             aguṁ, agamiṁsu

• Perniola [1997:92(f)] writes that in poetry (including stanzas), the use of the augment depends on the requirements of the metre;
• Perniola (idem., p.71, No.57) further writes that the Pali verb has two voices: the active or parassapada (active) and the middle or attanopada (reflective). The voice of the verb is distinguished by the personal endings which are either parassapada or attanopada. Further the personal endings of the verb may be either primary or secondary. Both primary and secondary endings may be active and middle.

                           Active                                   Middle

                            Primary     Secondary           Primary         Secondary

1^st person sg.       mi              aṁ                    e                      ṁ, aṁ
2^nd person sg.      si               s                        se                    tho
3^rd person sg.       ti                t                        te                     tha

1^st person pl.        ma             ma                    mhe                  mhase
2^nd person pl.       tha             tha                    vho                   vho
3^rd person pl.        nti              u, uṁ                nte, re               re, raṁ

Notes:

• The present indicative (e.g., bhāsati, karoti) and the future (e.g., bhāsissati ‘(she, he, or one) will speak,’ karissati ‘(she, he, or one) will act, do, or make’) take the primary personal endings.
• The aorist and the conditional take the secondary personal endings.
• The optative takes both the primary and the secondary personal endings.
• The imperative takes special endings.

• Warder (2001:23-26, summarized) writes that the aorist is used for all kinds of past actions, including besides the “hiĀstorical” or “narrative” past particularly the (present) perfect: desesiṁ ‘I have taught.’ (When more precise demarcations of time relations are needed, participles are used in conjunction with the main verb). The second and first persons plural are not often found in the Pali texts. The third person is extremeley common, both singular and plural.

In Pali there are four types of aorists which go in pairs:

• Root aorist

• A-aorist

• S-aorist

• IS-aorist

The root aorist is rarely found except in verse. It is formed by adding the secondary personal endings directly to the root preceded by the augment a-.

(e) Duroiselle (idem., p.p.162-163, No. 612) writes that:

(1) the aorist is the principal past tense in Pāli and is therefore extensively used; it expresses indefinite past time, but also includes the Present day. The Aorist may be translated by the Present Perfect or the Past Indefinite (See 405): mukhe pahari, struck him on the mouth; kena kāraṇena rodi, why did you cry? brāhmaṇo … vicari, the brahmin walked about ….

(2) Other usage of the aorist (in bold letters): The indeclinable mā ‘do not’ is used with the aorist to express prohibitions:

 …mā bhāyi ‘… fear not!;’ mā puna evarūpaṁ akāsi ‘do not do so again;’ tāta, mā gami, dear son, do not go.’

(g) Geiger & Norman (2005:153) write that:

 (1) the augment is retained by monosyllabic verbals forms: adaṁ ‘I gave;’ agā ‘he went’ … ;

(2) the augment is always retained, also in the later language, by disyllabic verbal forms derived from the imperfect past tense and the simple aorist or s-aorist: agamā ‘he went;’ adāsi ‘he gave’… ;

(3) in the oldest periods of the language, the use of the augment is arbitrary in disyllabic verbal forms derived from the -is- aorist: alabhiṁ ‘I received’ beside labhi ‘he received;’ omission of the aorist is the rule in post-canonical prose: khādi ‘he ate ;’ bhindi ‘he broke;’

(4) the augment is always retained by trisyllabic verbal forms … ; and

(5) for the rest, forms of three or morke syllables began early to drop the augment, at first quite at random, but regularly later in post-canonical prose. Thus in the Gāthā language (including Dhammapada stanzas) we have still apucchiṁsu ‘they asked’ beside pucchiṁsu; but the forms which later predominate and finally take over completely are desesiṁ ‘I taught;’ khāddimha ‘we ate;’ kathayiṁsu ‘they related.’

^1.1maṁ: me, accusative case

 ^1.2akkochi maṁ, avadhi maṁ, ajini maṁ, and ahāsi me: (a) he abused me, he beat me, he conquered me, he robbed me; (b) the four verbs are the aorist forms of the roots √krus ‘to abuse, to swear at, to sold,’  √vhad ‘to beat, to strike,’  √ji ‘to conquer,’ and √har ‘to rob,’ respectively; (b) Duroiselle [1915/1997:161, No. 605(iii)] writes that with verbs, the personal pronouns are frequently understood, as the endings of the tenses clearly indicate also the person as: gacchati (he) goes = so gacchati; gaccheyyāmi, (I) should go = ahaṁ gaccheyyāmi, etc.

² me: (i) Presumably me is ablative, he took from me, he robbed from me. (Ānandajoti, www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net); (ii) genitive case, ‘my (belongings)’ (Sarada,1993:68 & Na, 2020:22); (iii) genitive case (Rozehnal,ibid., Stanza 3); (iv) the form me, of the genitive, dative, instrumentative, and ablative, singular cases, is enclitic; it is never used at the beginning of a sentence (Duroiselle, 1915/1997, No.289.b); (vi) not found as any case (Tilbe, 1899:59-60); (vii) me= mama, genitive case of the first person pronoun; variant ahaṁ; -‘me= ime (Andersen: 1907, 1996 :210); (viii) the enclitic forms me and te are the instrumentative, dative, and genitive cases of the first person singular (E.Muller, 1884:86-87); (ix) sg. gen. of 1st pron. ahaṁ ‘I’ = mine (Sarao, 2009:5)
³ ye: (a) those who, they who; (b) Ānandajoti (www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net) writes that “we might have expected the genitive, not the nominative, form here, yesaṁ, for those…, the line could easily be rewritten to fit the metre: yesañ-ca upanayhanti, and in the next line: yesaṁ na upanayhanti;
© Declension of ya
???
⁴taṁ: (a) that; (b) From Duroiselle (1915/1997:70, Nos. 292-294):Declension of TAM “IT, THIS, THAT’

Neuter

   taṁ, it, this, that

            Singular           Plural
Nom.   taṁ, tad           tāni ‘they’
Gen.    tassa   tesaṁ, tesānaṁ ‘their’
Dat.     tassa   tesaṁ, tesānaṁ
Acc.     taṁ, tad           tāni
Ins.      tena     tehi, tebhi
Abl.      tasmā, tamhā  tehi, tebhi
Loc.     tasmiṁ, tamhi tesu

Remarks: (a) In the Gen., Dat., Abl., and Loc. singular for( the Masc and) Neut, a form from pro- nominal stem: a, is also used: assa, asmā, asmiṁ in the Feminine too, for the Gen., Dat. and Loc, singular: assā, assaṁ (Loc.).
ln the Neuter, the form tad is used mostly in compound words, as: tad (=taṁ) karo=takkaro, “doing this”, and also before a vowel.

⁵nupanayhanti: (a) do not tie up, do not bind up; do not bear (a lasting grudge); (b) derived from the euphonic union, or sandhi, of na ’not, no’ + upanayhanti ‘tie up, bind up; bear (a lasting grudge),’ with the elision of the final a in na, as written by Duroiselle (Duroiselle,1915/1997:7, No.17) that a vowel before another vowel is elided, e.g., yassa ‘whose’ + indriyani ‘faculties’ = yassindriyani; ajja + uposatho = ajjuposatho ‘the uposatha today’ …; (c) upanayhanti: (1) pl. 3rd  pers.pres.. act. indic. of upanayhati ‘ties up, binds; bears (a lasting grudge), derived from upanah ‘to understand, to realize’ + -ya + -nti (a verbal suffix indicating the active indicative present tense  of the pl. 3^rd.pl.nom.); (2) upanah is derived from   the prefix upa ‘close by, near’ + √nah ‘to bind’ = bind themselves to, to bear, + -ya- + -nti, with the metathesis between the final h and the initial y; (3) Perniola (2004:78-79, No.65) writes that upanyhanti belongs to the fourth class of verbs which form their stems of the active indicative present tense  by adding the suffix ya to the root:

nah-   to tie  nah-ya-ti > nayhati ‘(she, he, or one) ties or binds’

Other examples:

jā- to be born                   jā-ya-ti      > jāyati    ‘(she, he, or one is) born’
mad- to be intoxicated    mad-ya-ti  > majjati  ‘(she, he, or one) is intoxicated
muh- to be infatutaed     muh-ya-ti  > muyhati ‘(she, he, or one) is infatuated

(4)About metathesis between h and y: as written by Duroiselle (idem., p. 20, No.78) that
when y follows h, a metathesis, the transposition of letters, takes place:
(i) √sah+ya=sahya, and by metathesis = sayha ‘to be conquered, to be defeated, to be overcome;’ (sahati ‘to defeat’)
(ii) √guh+ya=guhya=guyha ‘to be hidden;’ (guhati ‘to hide, to conceal’).

Note: Perniola (1997:142©) writes that the suffix -ya has been used to form the future participle passive. It is usually, though not always, added to the root in its guṇa (or strengthening) grade:
bhid-ya > bhed-ya > bhejja ‘to be broken;’ bhuj-ya > bhoj-ya > bhojja ‘to be eaten;’ bhu-ya > bhav-ya > bhabba ‘to be capable of;’
han-ya > hañña ‘to be killed;’
√guh+ya > guhya > guyha ‘to be hidden.’
(5) nayhati: to tie, to bind; Davids & Stede (1921-1925/2005: 183, Part IV) writes that nayhati is used only in compounds with the preposition upa- as upanayhati.

⁶veraṁ: (a) (nt. nom.) enmity, hostility, hatred; (b) formed from vera ‘enmity, hostility, hatred’ + –ṁ, a suffix in the form of the niggahīta (ṁ) to form the nominative and accusative forms or cases of neuter nouns, like dukkha, cakka and pada (in stanza 1 where dukkhaṁ, a nominative form, becomes dukkham due to the following vowel in anveti, cakkam, also a nominative form, remains unchanged, and padaṁ, an accusative form), and sukha (stanza 2 where sukhaṁ becomes sukham due to the same reason)
^{7 & 7.1}veraṁ tesūpasammati: (I) enmity amongst them/those grows calm;
(II) formed from either (1) veraṁ tesaṁ + upasammati ‘their enmity grows calms (against which Warder (2014 :237) writes that (i) very rarely a final niggahīta may be elided:idaṁ + ahaṁ > idahaṁ; (ii) when niggahīta is followed by eva, y may be inserted: santaṁ + eva > santaṁ yeva; ekaṁ eva > ekaṁ yeva; (iii) final niggahita followed by y may combine with it to form mñ: tesaṁ + eva > tesaṁñeva), or (2) veraṁ tesu  + upasammati ‘enmity amongst them/those grows calm,‘  which two translations result from an analogy to: (1) tesaṁ jetthabatha ‘their eldest brother;’ or (2) tesu jetthabatha ‘the oldest amongst their brothers’ (Coulardeau, 2006:8, in “7eme Journees de l’ERLA – BREST, 9-the relation of partitivity, November 2006, quoting T.Y. Elizarenkova’s The Pali Language, 1976);

(III)(1) Ānandajoti (www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net) writes “This is an unexpected formation here; we either have tesaṁ + upasammati giving sandhi tesūpa-, or the locative is being used: tesu + upasammati; if it is the former, then we might have expected tesañ-ca sammati, to match the verb in the preceding Stanza;” (IV) tesūpasammati: (i) Sarao (2009:5) gives tes’ūpasammati, formed from tesaṁ + upasammati, with the elision of the suffix -aṁ, which is a rare case; examples: itthaṁ eke … > itth’ eke … (DN 1 Pali: Brahmajāla Sutta, as noted by Warder, 2014:225, Note 8, or Warder, 2001:205, Note 2); pubbantaṁ ‘the East’ anissita ‘unsupported by the East’ is rewritten as pubbaṁ antaṁ anissita (poetical)  Sn 849 (Rhys & Stede, 1921-1924, Part V, p.90) (ii) itthaṁ is formed from ima + thaṁ, where ima chanes to i and the initial t is doubled, as written Kaccāyana, § 234,265, Thitza) ; (ii) formed from tesu + upasammati, either (1)  with the elision of the final u in tesu dan the lengthening of the initial u in upasammati (following Duroiselle, 1915/1997:7, No. 17); Clough (1824:14) calls it the suppression of of the final a and the lengthening of the initial u; and Perniola [1915/1997:8, No.6(a)] calls is contraction), or (2) as written by Duroiselle (idem., p. 8, No.22) that when two vowels of the same organ meet (i.e., the final and initial u’s),  the result is generally long, that is: (i) u + u = ū; another is example: a + a = ā; or (3) when two vowels of the same organ meet, the result will generally be a long vowel of the given organ; but two short vowels may give rise to a short vowel before conjunct consonants (e.g., dd, ddh, tt, tth, kk, kkh) (Tilbe, 1899 :10, No.80), e.g., du + ???

(VI) upasammati: (i) derived from the prefix or preposition upa* ‘a little, towards, near to’ (as opposed to apa- ‘away’) + sammati ‘calms down, becomes quiet or tranquil;’ (ii) is part of the verbs that seem to be passive but are actually transitive in meaning: anutappati ‘repents, miyyati ‘dies,’ paccati ‘ripens,’ dissati ‘appears’ (Perniola, 1997 :280, No. 222);

*upa-: (1) a prefix denoting (a) towards, nearness or close touch, usually with the idea of approach from below or rest on top，on，upon，up，by; (2) In compounds, 
(i) a- + upa is always contracted to ūpa, e.g., devūpaṭṭhāna, lokūpaga, puññûpatthambhita; upakiṇṇa ‘covered over;’ upajīvati ‘lives on, lives by someone, depends on, is supported by;’(c) (diminutive use) nearly，about，somewhat, a little，secondary，by –，miniature，made after the style of, e.g., upaaḍḍha ‘about half;’ upakacchaka ‘like a little hollow;’ upakaṇḍakin (= upapaṇḍukin?) ‘whitish;’ upadeva ‘a minor god;’ upapurohita ‘minor priest;’ uparajja ‘viceroyalty; upavana ‘a little forest,’ etc. (Davids & Stede, 1921-1925:138-139, Part I).

(d) Duroiselle (idem., p.8, No. 21) writes about the contraction or diphthongization of:

  (i) a + or ā + i or ī = e; and
(ii) a or ā + u or ū = o.

EXAMPLES:

1. a or ā + i or ī

            upa + ikkhati = upekkhati

            jina + īritanayo = jineritanayo

            ava+ecca=avecca

            bandhussa+ iva=bandhusseva

 Exceptions:    (a) iti preceded by ā becomes āti, as:

            tassa+iti=tassāti
tissa+iti=tissāti

Sometimes ā + i becomes i, as: seyyathā+idaṁ=seyyathidaṁ

II.  a or ā + u or ū:

            canda + udayo = candodayo
na + upeti = nopeti
udaka + ūmi = udakomi
yathā+ udaka = yathodaka

(VII) sammati: (a) calms down, becomes tranquil, quiet, or calm;’ (b) is part of the verbs that seem to be passive but are actually transitive in meaning: anutappati ‘repents, miyyati ‘dies,’ paccati ‘ripens,’ dissati ‘appears’ (Perniola, idem.); (c)
(1) √sam belongs to the verbs of the seventh class; (2) Perniola (idem., p.80, No.68) writes that to the seventh class belong the verbs which form the stem of the (active indicative) present tense (for the singular 3d person)  by inserting –n before the final consonant of the root and by adding the suffix –a. Then, the -n is adapted to the consonant following it. Hence: (i) √sam + -n > sanm > samm* + -a + -ti (a suffix indicating a 3^rd. pers. pres. act. indic. tense) > sammati; (ii)  lip ‘to smear” + -n > = linp > limp + -a = -ti > limpati ‘smears.’ So, the adaptation (or nasalization, or euphonic union, or sandhi) of –n to the consonants following it is exactly like that of the niggahta (ṁ);

*regressive (internal) assimilation in that the dental n is assimilated to the following m, as written by Duroiselle (idem., pp.16-17, I & II):
(a) √lip ‘to smear’ + -ta = lipta = litt ‘smeared’
(b) √dam ‘to subdue’ + -ta = damta = danta ‘subdued,’ (with the shift of the labial m into the group of dental consonants (d, dh, t, th, n, and s) for ease of pronunciation)
Progressive assimilation:
√lag ‘to cling’ +  -na = lagna = lagga ‘clung’√budh ‘to know’ + -ta = budhta = buddha ‘known,’ (with the shift of the aspirate h to before the final a for ease of pronunciation)

General Rules of Assimilation

General Rules of Assimilation
51.       Assimilation takes place mostly in the formation of the Passive Voice, the Passive Perfect Participle, the base of verbs of the third conjugation of the Infinitive, Gerund the Potential Passive Participle and in the formation of the Desiderative; also under the influence of certain suffixes in the derivation of words.
55        In Pāli, regressive assimilation is the more common.
56        (a) When a mute meets with an initial mute (non-nasal), there is regressive assimilation gener- ally, that is the first consonant is assimilated to the second:
(i)         sak + ta = sakta = satta
(ii)        sak + thi = sakthi = satthi

57.       A gutteral assimilates the following dental:
(i)         lag + na = lagna = lagga
(ii)        sak + no = sakno = sakko + ti = sakkoti

58.       A gutteral assimilates a final dental:
(i)         ud + kamāpeti = ukkamāpeti
(ii)        tad + karo = takkaro
(iii)       ud + gacchati = uggacchati

59.       A final palatal* being followed by a dental surd or sonore, assimilates it into a lingual (also called as cerebral):
(i)         √maj + ta = maṭṭha or maṭṭa
(ii)        √pucch + ta = puṭṭha
(iii)       √icch + ta = iṭṭha
(iv)       √duss + ta  =  duṭṭha

(a) j however sometimes is assimilated to the following t:
(v)   √huj + ta = bhutta
(b) c also becomes assimilated to t:
(vi)       √muc + ta = mutta

*To better understand these changes, the student ought to bear in mind that no word can end in a palatal nor in h, because these letters are not primitive letters; the palatals have sprung into existence from the contact of gutteral consonants with certain vowels; and h represents an old gh and is the aspirate of j; the original gutterals, therefore, reappear at the end of words either pure or transformed into a lingual, and then assimilate or are assimilated by the following dental. For instance: √pucch = puṭh + ta = puṭṭha, but √muc = muk + ta = mukta = mutta;

(3)nasal-nasal: a nasal consonant (ń, ñ, ṇ, n, or m), when followed by another nasal consonant, is assimilated to the latter: saṁ-nisīdati > sannisīdati ‘he sinks down’ [Perniola, 2001:23, No.15(a)]. Hence, by analogy: (i) √sam + -n > sanm > samm + -a + -ti (a suffix indicating a 3^rd. pers. present act. indic. tense) > sammati. Perniola (idem., p.80, No.68) gives the following examples:
ric-   to live          ri-n-c-a-ti   > riñcati     ‘(she, he, it, or one)     leaves
yuj-   to join          yu-n-j-a-ti  > yuñjati     ‘(she, he, it, or noe)     joins
muc  to free         mu-n-c-a-ti > muñcati   ‘(she, he, it, or one)   frees, liberates
bhuj  to eat          bhun-j-a-ti  > bhuñjati   ‘(she, he, it, or one)    eats
lip    to smear     li-n-p-a-ti   >  limpati     ‘(she, he, it, or one)     smears

Notes:

• The letters c and j belong to the class of palatal consonants [c, ch, j, and jh, and ñ (a nasal palatal consonant)]
• The letters m and p belong to the class of labial consonants [b, bh, p, and  ph, and m (a nasal labial consonant)]

(4) The adaptation above exactly follows that of the niggahīta (ṁ). Tilbe (1899:10-11) writes that when niggahīta (ṁ) meets either a vowel or consonant, the group may remain intact; niggahīta may be elided; a vowel following niggahīta may be elided; or one of the following changes may occur (with the examples in the parentheses given by the present author):
(1) niggahīta preceding a vowel generally changes to m; or if the vowel is e, the group changes to ññ;
(2) niggahīta followed by a mute [mute sonants: (i) gutturals: g, gh; (ii) palatals: j, jh; (iii) linguals (or retroflex): ḍ, ḍh; (iv) dentals: d, dh, (v) labials: b, bh; (vi) liquids: y, r, ļ, v; (vii) aspirant: h)] is generally changed to the nasal (ń, ñ, ṇ, n, or m) of the class (guttural: ń, palatal: ñ, lingual (or retroflex): ṇ, dental: n; or labial: m) to which the mute belongs;
(3) when niggahīta is followed by y, the group may become ññ; or
(4) when niggahīta precedes h, it may change to ñ.