1.18. Sinerupabbatarājasutta Sineru, King of Mountains (SN 56:49; V 457–58)

Question 1

sinerussa pabbatarājassa

Answer 1

“Sineru, the king of mountains.” Sineru is the name of the mountain, followed by its epithet. Both are masculine genitives, which, according to DOP, suggests that the grains are placed beside the mountain rather than on top of it (in which case the locative would have been used). Just below the two terms are compounded, with sinerupabbatarājā the nominative and sinerupabbatarājānaṃ the accusative.

Question 2

satta

Answer 2

“seven,” qualifying pāsāṇasakkharā.

Question 3

muggamattiyo

Answer 3

“the size of mung beans.” The compound is feminine plural in agreement with pāsāṇasakkharā; the ending -iyo turns muggamattā into a bahubbīhi.

Question 4

pāsāṇasakkharā

Answer 4

“pieces of gravel”; feminine plural in the accusative case. In the question that follows, satta muggamattiyo pāsāṇasakkharā is nominative.

Question 5

upanikkhipeyya

Answer 5

“would place”; a third-person singular optative of upanikkhipati.

Question 6

katamaṃ nu kho bahutaraṃ

Answer 6

see p. 114.

Question 7

upanikkhittā

Answer 7

“placed”; the past participle of upanikkhipati, here a feminine plural nominative.

Question 8

appamattikā

Answer 8

“trifling”; see p. 114. The compound is here feminine plural qualifying pāsāṇasakkharā.

Question 9

saṅkhampi, upanidhampi

Answer 9

“calculation, comparison,” feminine singulars in the accusative case; the pi after each is a copulative.

Question 10

kalabhāgampi

Answer 10

“a fraction”; a masculine singular accusative, again followed by pi.

Question 11

upanidhāya

Answer 11

an absolutive of upanidhāti, used adverbially to mean “compared with,” taking an accusative object.

Question 12

ariyasāvakassa

Answer 12

“a noble disciple,” here singular dative or genitive. The compound can be understood either as a kammadhāraya, “a disciple who is noble,” or a tappurisa, “a disciple of the noble ones.”

Question 13

diṭṭhisampannassa puggalassa

Answer 13

“a person accomplished in view (or endowed with view)”; one who possesses the experiential right view of the four noble truths, at minimum a stream-enterer.

Question 14

abhisametāvino

Answer 14

“broken through, realized”; an active past participle (see pp. 30–31) in the dative or genitive singular, signifying a person who has arrived at abhisamaya, the “breakthrough” or realization; the corresponding verb is abhisameti.

Question 15

parikkhīṇaṃ pariyādinnaṃ

Answer 15

“destroyed and eliminated”; two past participles used almost as synonyms, qualifying dukkhaṃ.

Question 16

avasiṭṭhaṃ

Answer 16

“what remains”; a past participle of avasissati; also qualifying dukkhaṃ.

Question 17

purimaṃ dukkhakkhandhaṃ

Answer 17

“the former mass of suffering”; an accusative in relation to upanidhāya. Dukkhakkhandhaṃ is a genitive tappurisa compound.

Question 18

sattakkhattuparamatā

Answer 18

a compound of satta, “seven,” khattuṃ, a suffix meaning “times,” and the feminine singular abstract noun paramatā, “maximum, at most.” The sense is: “(since) there is a maximum of seven more births.” While paramatā looks like a feminine nominative, it is probably a truncated feminine instrumental in the causal sense, representing paramatāya, “because there is a maximum. . . .”