translated by Nick Prior
This page contains my translation of Thönmi Sambhoṭa's grammatical treatise, The Thirty,1 along with Ngülchu Dharmabhadra's commentary, The Words of Situ.2 I have made this translation freely available online so that anyone, no matter their means, may easily access and read it.
The Thirty is one of the two foundational texts of Tibetan grammar, along with The Application of Signs.3 Both texts are attributed to Thönmi Sambhoṭa, who is also credited with the creation of the Tibetan alphabet. The Thirty discusses the 34 letters of the Tibetan alphabet, and explains how these letters are combined to form the various particles of the Tibetan language. The Application of Signs groups these letters into various gender categories, and discusses the orthography, pronunciation, and semantics of each gender category.
To navigate this page, you may use the Page Contents on the left-hand side (or in the menu button on mobile devices). If you click on a specific heading, you will be taken directly to that section. For ease of navigation, I have provisionally subdivided The Words of Situ into five headings – 1) the opening, 2) the alphabet, 3) the dependent particles, 4) the independent particles, and 5) advice.
To watch a video about this translation, click here. I have removed the analysis section since making the video. I'm planning to eventually create a downloadable PDF of these texts (containing the original Tibetan, my translation, and an analysis section) which I will make freely available on my website once complete. The translation here on this wiki will not be updated further, so check my website for future updates.
Notes:
1) Tib. sum cu pa, pronounced “Sumchupa”
2) Tib. si tu'i zhal lung, pronounced “Sitü Shellung”
3) Tib, rtags kyi 'jug pa, pronounced “Takkijukpa”. Translation in progress.
In the Indian language: vyākaraṇa-mūla-triṁśad-nāma
In the Tibetan language: lung ston pa rtsa ba sum cu pa zhes bya ba
[In the English language: The Root Grammar called "The Thirty"]
I bow down to the Lord of Speech, Mañjughoṣa.
I bow down to the Jewels
which have the greatest qualities.
I bow down to Mañjughoṣa
who has spoken all speech.
I bow down to Sadāśiva
who previously spoke the basis of words.
I bow down to the scholars who do metrics well,
and also to the gurus.
I will explain the joining of letters
which upholds the basis of all the trainings,
which is the cause of the proclamations of the Vedas,
and which is the basis of all words, phrases, and expressions.
There are two kinds of letters:
four, i and so on, that clarify āli,
and precisely thirty kāli.
Of those, there are ten suffix letters;
of those, five are also affixed before,
and twenty are not affixed.
The kāli are seven and a half rows
divided into four each, of which
the ten suffix letters are declared to be
the last two from the first, third, and fourth,
as well as the third of the sixth,
and all but sha from the seventh.
Of the ten suffix letters,
the first, third, fifth, sixth,
and seventh are also prefixed.
Whether two or three main letters are connected,
even if they bear the four vowels,
they do not apply to anything, nor are they even joined.
If the ten suffix letters
are joined to the end of some word
and the fourth āli is joined to them,
that should be known as the conclusive.
Of the ten suffix letters,
if the tenth is placed at the end of some word
and the second āli is joined to it,
the eighth is placed at the end of some word
and the second, u, is also joined to it,
the third is placed at the end of some word
and the second āli is joined to it,
and the fourth and ninth are bare,
these are the accusative, purposive, locative,
equative, and temporal la-sounds.
The way of agreeing with i
to the ten suffix letters is this:
the first agrees with the first two,
kya is joined to the third, fifth, and tenth,
and the seventh to the same seventh,
while gya is joined to the rest;
when i is joined to those, they are the ground of connection.
If the tenth is joined to those same ones,
that should be known as the agent.
If you erase the āli and join the second,
that is two phrasal ornaments and inclusion.
If you erase the u from the la-equivalent su
and join to that the first of the third,
and join to that the third āli,
that is the together-with-remainder (lhag ma dang bcas pa, a.k.a. lhag bcas).
If the sixth is joined to the ten suffix letters,
that is the analytic-synthetic.
If the tenth is joined to the fourth and the ninth
of the ten suffix letters,
that is the ground of the origin,
and likewise also isolation and inclusion.
If kye is joined at the beginning
of expressing some word, that is the vocative.
If i is joined to the fourth,
which agrees with the end of any word,
that is the phrase of isolation and emphasis.
If the second is joined to the third
in between some words,
that is the synthetic, analytic,
rational, temporal, and instructive.
If e is joined to the third
at the beginning of some word,
that is three in terms of designation,
four in terms of thing,
and two in terms of time.
If the second is joined to the first
at the beginning of expressing some word,
that is general pervasion.
At the end of some word,
if the puliṅga is joined
to that which has no puliṅga sound,
that should be known as the ground of the owner.
At the beginning of expressing some word,
if the strīliṅga is joined
to that which has no strīliṅga sound,
that should be known as the location of negation.
If there are verse conjunctions
that are even slightly abbreviated,
they should be joined in that manner.
Whether there is a prefix or not,
whatever the main letter may be,
whether there is a double or a triple connection,
and whichever of the four āli there may be,
if it doesn't end in the ten suffixes,
it cannot be joined to another word.
If you know the meaning of the suffixes,
then you will have no impediment in the conjunction sounds
of writing, reading, and explaining,
and you will be the best proclaimer of connections.
Furthermore, by knowing the suffixes,
even if you don't see the joining of the meaning,
you will know the joinings that agree with the meaning.
If you know the joining of the suffixes,
then by joining the text's meaning, the joining,
and the guru's intimate instructions,
you will settle on the meaning.
A person who makes effort in their training
should first learn the svaras,
and then study the prefix letters, main letters, and suffix letters
for the sake of reading.
The four joinings of suffix letters
are joined for the purpose of hearing, contemplating, and teaching.
By the power of those branches,
settle on the meaning for the sake of the result.
By this order of study,
even someone of little effort
will quickly release wisdom.
Therefore, first train in this one,
then listen to the extensive ones too,
and listen from gurus
to the texts of whatever training you have faith in.
One who apprehends the teacher as such,
and has given up laziness and distraction,
and is good-tempered and grounded in faith:
that person will quickly understand;
they should be extensively instructed.
The converse is the opposite of that.
[end]
The Words of Situ, the Greatest Scholar: an Exposition1 of The Thirty and The Application of Signs, which are Grammatical Treatises of the Language of the Snowy Land
Namo guru-mañjughoṣāya2
I humbly bow to the Three Jewels, undeceiving and of the greatest qualities;
to Jñānādarśa3 and Candraśekhara;4
to the general collection of Indian and Tibetan scholars -
Aśvaghoṣa, Candragomin, Sambhoṭa, and so on;
and specifically to the collection of kind gurus
who, with a good current of milk of the excellent dharma
have strengthened the body of oft-heard quotes5
and brought it to maturity at the wish-fulfilling hands of understanding.
I will explain in brief phrases
the keeper of the sindhu,6 source of the jewels of words and phrases;
the substantial cause7 of the proclamations of the four Vedas;
the oceanic covering8 that gives rise to the sprouts of the three trainings.
Now, the explanation of just a few of the meanings of the phrases9 of The Thirty and The Application of Signs, which are the original models of all the grammatical treatises in the language of this snowy land, has two parts: the explanation of The Thirty, and the explanation of The Application of Signs. The first has two parts: the branch that applies to the composition of the treatise, and the actual treatise. The first has two parts: the meaning of the title, and the translator's prostration.
Notes:
1) Tib. rnam bshad, Skt. vyākhyā
2) i.e. “I bow down to Mañjughoṣa, the guru”
3) Tib. ye shes me long, i.e. “Mirror of Wisdom”, an epithet of Mañjughoṣa
4) Tib. gtsug na zla ba, i.e. “Moon-Crowned One”, an epithet of Śiva
5) Tib. lung
6) Tib. sind+hu'i bdag, a literary term for the ocean. This line is a reference to the Indian idea of the ocean as a source of jewels, for example in the myth of the Churning of the Ocean.
7) Tib. nyer len rgyu, Skt. upādānakāraṇa
8) Tib. rgya mtsho'i gos, a literary term for the ocean. The earth is poetically referred to “that which has the ocean as a covering” – Tib. rgya mtsho'i gos can, Skt. jalanidhivasanā
9) Tib. tshig don, Skt. padārtha
As for the first:
རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བྱཱ་ཀ་ར་ཎ་མཱུ་ལ་ཏྲིཾ་ཤད་ནཱ་མ།
བོད་སྐད་དུ། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྩ་བ་སུམ་ཅུ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
In the Indian language: vyākaraṇa-mūla-triṁśad-nāma
In the Tibetan language: lung ston pa rtsa ba sum cu pa zhes bya ba
[In the English language: The Root Grammar called "The Thirty"]
vyākaraṇa is lung ston pa,
mūla is rtsa ba,
triṁśad is sum cu pa,
and nāma is zhes bya ba.
In other words, that which defines10 the characteristics of sound11 and is the supporting basis12 of the later chapters13 consists of thirty ślokas, a textual measure, and so it is thus called.
Here, the Indian language is used for the purpose of understanding that it is modeled after the treatises14 of Indian scholars, and the use of the name “Thirty” for that which has thirty-three ślokas is because the homage15 and compositional pledge16 are in common with the other sections.17
Notes:
10) Tib. lung du ston; this is a gloss of the meaning of vyākaraṇa.
11) Tib. sgra, Skt. śabda. This is a term for the eight kinds of sound in general, but also for language in particular; grammar is thus known as "the knowledge of sound” (Tib. sgra'i rig pa, Skt. śabdavidyā).
12) Tib. rten gzhi; this appears to be a gloss of the meaning of mūla.
13) Tib. le'u phyi ma rnams. This seems to refer to Thönmi's other treatises, because a similar phrase (skabs phyi ma rnams) is used later in the commentary to refer to a set of texts that includes The Application of Signs.
14) Tib. bstan bcos, Skt. śāstra
15) Tib. mchod brjod
16) Tib. rtsom par dam bca'
17) And thus are not included in the count for this particular text, hence thirty ślokas rather than thirty-three.
As for the second, the translator's prostration:
ངག་གི་དབང་ཕྱུག་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
I bow down to the Lord of Speech, Mañjughoṣa.
Thönmi himself made the translator's prostration to noble Mañjuśrī, in accord with the translated sūtras and tantras, in order to teach this treatise just like the authentic treatises that were translated from the Noble Land [i.e. India].
Second, the actual treatise, has two: the homage and compositional pledge as a branch of the general text, and the extensive explanation of The Thirty itself, the present topic. The first has two: the homage and the compositional pledge. The first has four: the general prostration to the Three Jewels, the prostration to Mañjughoṣa in particular, the prostration to Sadāśiva out of necessity, and the prostration to the general and particular scholars in order to acknowledge their kindness.
As for the first:
གང་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་མཆོག་མངའ་བའི། །
དཀོན་མཆོག་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
I bow down to the Jewels
which have the greatest qualities.
I humbly bow down with the three doors to the Three Jewels, which have the greatest qualities: the Buddha, who has the quality of completing the two objectives,18 the Dharma, which has the quality of the two truths of cessation and the path, and the Sangha, which has the quality of knowledge and freedom.19
Alternatively: I bow down. To what? To the Jewels which have the greatest qualities.20 Either explanation is acceptable.
Notes:
18) Tib. don gnyis, i.e. one's own objectives, and others' objectives.
19) Tib. rig grol, which may be subdivided into eight – four qualities of knowledge, and four qualities of liberation.
20) This reading simply reinterprets the gang la as being a shortened interrogative phrase, rather than a correlative phrase.
As for the second, the prostration to Mañjughoṣa in particular:
གང་གིས་སྒྲ་དབྱངས་ཀུན་གསུངས་པའི། །
འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
I bow down to Mañjughoṣa
who has spoken all speech.
I bow down to he who is the Lord of Speech,21 because he has spoken all expressions of speech; to he whose speech has the quality of being gentle, free from the rough touch of the flaws of speech.22
Also, because this bhaṭṭāraka23 is the essence of the wisdom of all the conquerors, and because that wisdom is the cause of speech, and because speech is the source of all expressions of speech, Mañjughoṣa is described as the speaker of speech.24
Notes:
21) Tib. gsung gi dbang phyug, Skt. Vāgīśvara
22) The second line here is a gloss of Mañjughoṣa's name – “he of gentle (mañju) speech (ghoṣa)”. The grammar of the Tibetan line here clearly glosses his name as an exocentric compound (Tib. ‘bru mang po’i tshig bsdud, Skt. bahuvrīhi-samāsa). “Flaws of speech” (Tib. ngag gi nyes pa) is perhaps a reference to the four vāgduścarita (Tib. ngag gi nyes pa spyod pa), i.e. the four non-virtues of speech.
23) Tib. rje btsun, this is a common epithet for various teachers and bodhisatvas. Here, it is of course referring to Mañjughoṣa.
24) This whole passage contains many words for “speech”, and the mythology here is also worth discussing. See the “Analysis” section for further discussion of this passage.
As for the third, the prostration to Sadāśiva out of necessity:
གང་གིས་མིང་གཞི་སྔོན་གསུངས་པ། །
རྟག་ཞི་བ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
I bow down to Sadāśiva
who previously spoke the basis of words.
I bow down to the Great Lord:25 the Greatest of Gods,26 Sadāśiva, renowned on earth as the one who previously27 was the speaker of the letters of vowels and consonants, which are the basis of all words, phrases, and expressions.28
Also, this was said in order to accommodate non-Buddhists, in conformity with the account that the creator of letters was the Great Lord, as per the explanation of the twenty-four creators in the texts of the brahmins.29
25) Tib. dbang phyug chen po, Skt. maheśvara
26) Tib. lha'i dbang po, Skt. devendra
27) The word “previously” could perhaps be interpreted in several ways – as “long ago”, as “at first”, as “at the beginning [of the grammar text]” (see the following footnote), or perhaps even as “before [Mañjughoṣa]”; Ngülchu's commentary does little to specify, but in the absence of other context I would lean towards the meaning of “long ago” or “at first”. For example, the way to say “which (of two options) came first?” in Exile Dialect is ག་གི་སྔོན་ལ་བྱུང་པ་རེད།.
28) Śiva's ḍamaru is often described as the source of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet; sounding his ḍamaru fourteen times, he produced the fourteen Śivasūtras (see e.g. https://www.indica.today/long-reads/glory-shri-kameshwara-nandikesvara-maheshvara-sutras/). The Śivasūtras are a list of the Sanskrit vowels and consonants found at the beginning of Pāṇini's grammar, Aṣṭādhyāyī, and are also found (with slight variations) at the beginning of other grammars such as Candragomin's Candravyākaraṇa.
29) I am not sure what this is a reference to.
As for the fourth, the prostration to the general and particular scholars in order to acknowledge their kindness:
སྡེབ་སྦྱོར་ལེགས་མཛད་མཁས་རྣམས་དང་། །
བླ་མ་ལ་ཡང་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས། །
I bow down to the scholars who do metrics well,
and also to the gurus.
I bow down in general to the scholars who compose and teach texts that can produce wisdom which is not confused about phrases and meanings, in that they reveal how to properly join expressions of speech and meanings together.30
In particular, I also bow down to the gurus, such as the brahmin Lipikara and so on, who performed such a function for those same scholars.31 ནས། is a continuative sound.
Notes:
30) The translation of this fourth section is tentative. The commentary seems to hinge on interpreting “metrics” (Tib. sdeb sbyor, Skt. chanda), one of the five minor fields of knowledge, as a verb meaning “to join together”, which is a literal calque of the Tibetan term sdeb sbyor. What do the scholars join together? Phrases (Tib. tshig, Skt. pada) and meanings (Tib. don, Skt. artha).
31) This seems to be saying that just as the general scholars produce texts that clarify the connections between phrases and meanings, so too did the gurus before them produce such texts to educate the general scholars.
As for the second, the compositional pledge:
བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་གྱི་གཞི་འཛིན་ཅིང་། །
རིག་བྱེད་སྨྲ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ། །
མིང་ཚིག་བརྗོད་པ་ཀུན་གྱི་གཞི། །
ཡི་གེའི་སྦྱོར་བ་བཤད་པར་བྱ། །
I will explain the joining of letters
which upholds the basis of all the trainings,
which is the cause of the proclamations of the Vedas,
and which is the basis of all words, phrases, and expressions.
I will explain the joining of letters,32 which upholds the basis (since they all depend on it) of the Buddhist trainings of śīla, samādhi, and prajñā; which is also the cause of the proclamations of all the textual traditions of the four Vedas (Ṛg, Yajur, Sāma, Atharva) together with their branches; and which is the basis of all words, phrases, and expressions, both mundane and supramundane, because in general, from letters come words, from words come phrases, and from phrases come expressions.33
Also, the joining of Tibetan letters is the topic,34 lack of confusion in the points to adopt and reject (blang dor) of the two texts (gtsug lag gnyis) is the purpose,35 the attainment of the ultimate knowledge of aspects (mthar thug rnam mkhyen) is the essential purpose,n36 and the interconnection of former and latter is the connection.37
Notes:
32) This clearly states that the topic (Tib. brjod par bya ba, Skt. abhidheya) of this text is the joining of letters. The meaning of the terms “joining” and “letters” is discussed more in the “Analysis” section.
33) “Words”, “phrases”, and “expressions” are technical terms; they are translations of the Tibetan ming, tshig, and brjod pa, which in turn translate the Sanskrit nāma, pada, and ___. See Verhagen.
34) topic = Tib. brjod bya, Skt. abhidheya; this is a technical term for one of the components of a traditional commentary. See https://wiki.learntibetanlanguage.org/en/Wilson-Resources/tibetan-vocabulary-notes
35) purpose = Tib. dgos pa, Skt. prayojana; this is a technical term for one of the components of a traditional commentary. ibid.
36) essential purpose = Tib. nying dgos, Skt. not known; this is a technical term for one of the components of a traditional commentary.
37) connection = Tib. 'brel pa, Skt. sambandha; this is a technical term for one of the components of a traditional commentary. Compare །བསྟན་བཅོས་བརླམས་པ་ལ་ཐོག་མར། འབྲེལ་བ་དང༌། དགོས་པ་དང༌། བརྗོད་པ་དང༌། བརྗོད་པར་བྱ་བ་བཞི་ངེས་པར་བརྗོད་པར་བྱ་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ། (https://tibetan.works/etext/reader.php?collection=tengyur&index=3986) and śāstraṃ racayitum ādau sambandha - prayojana - abhidhānābhidheyacatuṣṭayaṃ kiṃ na nirvacanīyam ?(https://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/321/1285)
Second, the extensive explanation of The Thirty itself, the present topic, has two parts: the extensive explanation of the joining of letters, and the conclusion which gives instructions.
The first has two parts: the explanation of the system (rnam gzhag) of letters, which is the object of joining; and the explanation of the application of the phrase-links (tshig phrad), which is the way of joining.
The first has two parts: identifying the vowels and consonants of Tibetan writing, and describing the analysis of their distinctions.
As for the first:
ཡི་གེ་ཨྰ་ལི་ཀྰ་ལི་གཉིས།
ཨྰ་ལི་གསལ་བྱེད་ཨི་སོགས་བཞི༎
ཀྰ་ལི་སུམ་ཅུ་ཐམ་པའོ༎
There are two kinds of letters:
four, i and so on, that clarify āli,
and precisely thirty kāli.
In general, letters consist of āli, i.e. the vowel letters, the string of a and so on; and kāli, i.e. the consonant letters, the string of ka and so on.38 Tibetan letters in particular consist of four letters – ཨི་ཨུ་ཨེ་ཨོ་ – which clearly exemplify the function of the āli of Sanskrit,39 and precisely thirty – ཀ་ཁ་ག་ང་། ཅ་ཆ་ཇ་ཉ། ཏ་ཐ་ད་ན། པ་ཕ་བ་མ། ཙ་ཚ་ཛ་ཝ། ཞ་ཟ་འ་ཡ། ར་ལ་ཤ་ས། ཧ་ཡ། – which exemplify the kāli.
Notes:
38) āli and kāli are sixth-declension tatpuruṣa compounds, meaning respectively “the string (āli) of a”, and “the string (āli) of ka”, hence were translated into Tibetan as a phreng and ka phreng. See Negi for the correspondences.
39) The second line uses the term གསལ་བྱེད་ to refer to the vowels, but this is usually a term for the consonants (specifically, as a translation of vyañjana). This demands explanation, and so the commentary glosses the second line as saying that the four letters i, u, e, and o clearly exemplify the function of the Sanskrit āli (ལེགས་སྦྱར་གྱི་ཨྰ་ལིའི་བྱ་བ་གསལ་བར་མཚོན་པར་བྱེད་པ).
The second, the description of the analysis of their distinctions, has two parts: the brief description and the extensive explanation. As for the first:
དེ་ལ་རྗེས་འཇུག་བཅུ་ཡིན་ཏེ༎
དེ་ལས་ལྔ་ནི་སྔོན་དུའང་འཇུག།
མི་འཇུག་པ་ནི་ཉི་ཤུའོ༎
Of those, there are ten suffix letters;
of those, five are also affixed before,
and twenty are not affixed.
If we analyze those kāli letters that were just explained, they are analyzed into three categories: the ten suffix letters, the five prefix letters (since five of those suffix letters are also prefixed), and the twenty letters which are not affixed either before or after.
The second, the extensive explanation, has two parts: the description of how they are analyzed in general, and their particular individual explanation. As for the first:
ཀྰ་ལི་ཕྱེད་དང་བརྒྱད་སྡེ་ནི།
བཞི་བཞི་དག་ཏུ་ཕྱེ་བ་ལས༎
The kāli are seven and a half rows
divided into four each, of which
Those thirty kāli are divided into seven and a half rows, consisting of seven full rows (the ཀ་ row, ཅ་ row, ཏ་ row, པ་ row, ཙ་ row, ཞ་ row, and ར་ row) and the half row of ཧ་. Each row is divided into four letters each. ལས། is an originative sound.
Second, their particular individual explanation, has three parts: the explanation of the suffix letters, the explanation of the prefix letters, and the explanation of the non-affixed letters. As for the first:
དང་པོ་གསུམ་པ་བཞི་པ་ལས༎
མས་གཉིས་དྲུག་པའི་གསུམ་པ་དང་༎
བདུན་པ་ལས་ནི་ཤ་མ་གཏོགས༎
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་རུ་འདོད༎
the ten suffix letters are declared to be
the last two from the first, third, and fourth,
as well as the third of the sixth,
and all but sha from the seventh.
What is the explanation of the “ten suffix letters” mentioned above? They consist of the last two letters of the first, third, and fourth rows each, i.e. ག་ང་། ད་ན། བ་མ།, as well as the third of the sixth row, i.e. འ་, and all of the seventh except for ཤ་, i.e. ར་ལ་ས་.
Also, because these are affixed after all letters, they are called "suffix letters", and they are defined as this count of ten letters.
As for the second, the explanation of the prefix letters:
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་ཉིད་ལས༎
དང་པོ་གསུམ་པ་ལྔ་པ་དྲུག།
བདུན་པ་རྣམས་ནི་སྔོན་དུའང་འཇུག།
Of the ten suffix letters,
the first, third, fifth, sixth,
and seventh are also prefixed.
What is the explanation of the “five prefix letters” mentioned above? They are the first, i.e. ག་, the third, i.e. ད་, the fifth, i.e. བ་, the sixth, i.e. མ་, and the seventh, i.e. འ་, of those very same ten suffix letters.
Since they are not only affixed after, but are also affixed before, they are also called “prefix letters”, and they are defined as this count of five letters.
As for the third, the explanation of the non-affixed letters:
མིང་གཞི་གཉིས་སམ་གསུམ་སྦྲེལ་ལམ༎
དེ་ལ་དབྱངས་ཀྱི་བཞི་ལྡན་ཡང་༎
གང་དུའང་འཇུག་མིན་སྦྱར་བའང་མིན༎
Whether two or three main letters are connected,
even if they bear the four vowels,
they do not apply to anything, nor are they even joined.
The rest, which are neither prefix nor suffix letters, are the exclusive main letters40 which are precisely twenty in number: ཀ་ཁ། ཅ་ཆ་ཇ་ཉ། ཏ་ཐ། པ་ཕ། ཙ་ཚ་ཛ་ཝ། ཞ་ཟ་ཡ། ཤ། ཧ་ཨ་. Whether two or three are connected within a single tsheg-interval,41 or are joined with any one of the four vowels, i and so on, e.g. ཙཀ། ཚཕཁ། ཝཟིཡ།, they are not applied to any term known in the Snowy Land (gangs ljongs), and so it is not even admissible to have joined them in this way.
Also, regarding the main letters in this context, a main letter is a consonant letter which is the target of application42 of both prefix and suffix letters, and thus the five prefix letters can be either prefix, suffix, or main letters; the other five suffix letters can be either suffix or main letters; and the twenty non-affixed letters can only be main letters; of this threefold analysis, here we are commenting on the last one.
Notes:
40) Tib. ming gzhi kho na
41) Tib. tsheg bar
42) Tib. 'jug yul; [verb] + yul being a way to mark an indirect object.
The second, the explanation of the application of phrase-links (tshig phrad), which is the way of joining, has two parts: the explanation of the links that depend on the suffix letter, together with the declensions; and the explanation of the independent links that do not depend on the suffix letter.
The first has eight parts: the explanation of the conclusive, the explanation of the la-equivalent, the explanation of the i-bearing, the explanation of the ornamental-synthetic, the explanation of the continuative, the explanation of the analytic-synthetic, the explanation of the originative, and the explanation of the vocative.
[standardize all of the vocab in the preceding two paragraphs]
As for the first:
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པོ་ནི༎
མིང་གང་གི་ནི་མཐར་སྦྱར་བ༎
དེ་ལ་ཨྰ་ལི་བཞི་པ་སྦྱར༎
སླར་བསྡུ་བར་ནི་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༎
If the ten suffix letters
are joined to the end of some word
and the fourth āli is joined to them,
that should be known as the conclusive.
When those same ten suffix letters that were previously explained are joined to the end of some word, and you join to them the fourth āli (i.e. the letter ཨོ་, the naru),43 that concludes the content of the present topic, and so it is called the conclusive sound44 or the completion phrase.45
Furthermore, there are eleven in total: ten which are explicitly described in the text, as in རྟག་གོ བཟང་ངོ་། ཡོད་དོ། ཡིན་ནོ། སྒྲུབ་བོ། བསམ་མོ། བྱའོ། འགྱུར་རོ། སེལ་ལོ། བྱས་སོ།, and one that is implicitly described: ཏོ་, which agrees with the strong ད་,46 as in གྱུརད་ཏོ།.
Notes:
43) Tib. sna ru
44) Tib. slar bsdu'i sgra
45) Tib. rdzogs tshig
46) Tib. da drag
As for the second, the explanation of the la-equivalents:
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་རྣམས་ལས༎
གང་མིང་མཐའ་ན་བཅུ་པ་གནས༎
དེ་ལ་ཨྰ་ལི་གཉིས་པ་སྦྱར༎
གང་མིང་མཐའ་ན་བརྒྱད་པ་གནས༎
དེ་ལ་གཉིས་པ་ཨུ་ཡང་སྦྱར༎
གང་མིང་མཐའ་ན་གསུམ་པ་གནས༎
དེ་ལ་ཨྰ་ལི་གཉིས་པ་སྦྱར༎
བཞི་པ་དགུ་པ་དངོས་ཀྱང་སྟེ༎
ལས་དང་ཆེད་དང་རྟེན་གནས་དང་༎
དེ་ཉིད་ཚེ་སྐབས་ལ་སྒྲ་ཡིན༎
Of the ten suffix letters,
if the tenth is placed at the end of some word
and the second āli is joined to it,
the eighth is placed at the end of some word
and the second, u, is also joined to it,
the third is placed at the end of some word
and the second āli is joined to it,
and the fourth and ninth are bare,
these are the accusative, purposive, locative,
equative, and temporal la-sounds.
In order to join the la-equivalent declensions to the end of some word, if you place the tenth of those same suffix letters, the letter ས་, and join to that the second āli, the letter ཨུ་, you get སུ་. Likewise, you place the eighth, the letter ར་, by joining it to the end of a word within a single tsheg-interval, e.g. ལྷག་པར་. Also there is རུ་, which you get by joining that same letter ར་ and the letter ཨུ་ onto a split tsheg-interval. If you place the third suffix letter, ད་, and join to that the letter ཨུ་, you get དུ་. The fourth and ninth suffix letters, ན་ and ལ་, are placed bare, unadorned by vowels. These six are explicitly described, and together with the implicitly described ཏུ་, which is the letter ཏ་ ending in ཨུ་, there are seven in total. [revise/restructure to be similar to the above]
These should be known as:
When all of those are joined as a declension, they are called la-sounds because they mostly agree with the applications of the sound ལ་, and because it is the final consonant. However, ན་ and ལ་ cannot be used to have the meaning of the equative; as in The Door of Speech,47 when explaining the fourteen or so applications of ན་, its application to the equative is not mentioned: “དུ་ and so on agree with ལ་; the equatives are the rest.”
Notes:
47) Tib. smra sgo; a famous text on Tibetan grammar written by the Indian teacher Smṛtijñānakīrti. I am intending to translate this later.
The third, the explanation of the i-bearing declensions, has two parts: the brief description, and the extensive explanation.
As for the first:
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པོ་ལ༎
ཨི་དང་མཐུན་ལུགས་འདི་ཞེས་བྱ༎
The way of agreeing with i
to the ten suffix letters is this:
The way in which the declension links joined with the letter i are joined in agreement to words that end in one of the ten suffix letters is this and this.48
Notes:
48) This reading elaborates on the original Tibetan quite a lot. “The ten suffix letters” is interpreted as “words that end in one of the ten suffix letters”, and “with i” is interpreted as “the declension links joined with the letter i”, and “the way of agreeing” is interpreted as “the way in which… [they] are joined in agreement”.
The second, the extensive explanation, has two parts: the explanation of the connective sound, and the explanation of the agentive sound.
As for the first:
དང་པོ་གཉིས་ལ་དང་པོ་མཐུན༎
གསུམ་ལྔ་བཅུ་ལ་ཀྱ་དང་སྦྱར༎
བདུན་པ་ཉིད་ལ་བདུན་པ་སྟེ༎
ལྷག་མ་རྣམས་ལ་གྱ་སྦྱར་བ༎
དེ་དག་ཨི་སྦྱར་འབྲེལ་བའི་ས༎
the first agrees with the first two,
kya is joined to the third, fifth, and tenth,
and the seventh to the same seventh,
while gya is joined to the rest;
when i is joined to those, they are the ground of connection.
The first suffix letter (ག་) agrees with words ending in either of the first two of the ten suffix letters (ག་ and ང་). Likewise, ཀྱ་ is harmonically joined to those ending in the third suffix letter (ད་), and the fifth (བ་), and the tenth (ས་). The seventh (the letter འ་) is harmonically joined to those ending in the same seventh (འ་), whether or not there is an explicit འ་; and the implicitly described ཡ་ is harmonically joined to those ending in འ་ when filling a foot [of verse].49 Lastly, གྱ་ itself is harmonically joined to those ending in the remaining four (ན་མ་ར་ལ་).
By joining the letter i, the gi gu, to all of those, you respectively get གྱི། ཀྱི། འི། ཡི། གྱི་; by joining one of those with an individual word whose sound corresponds with it, you get བདག་གི། གང་གི། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི། རྒྱབ་ཀྱི། གཡས་ཀྱི། དེའི། དེ་ཡི། ་མདུན་གྱི། ལམ་གྱི། གསེར་གྱི། དངུལ་གྱི་ and so on.
Because those are sounds that have the meaning of expressing the mutual connection of word and meaning, such as support and supported, or branch and branch-haver, and so on, they are called the ground of connection, the sixth declension.
Although there may seem to be many former and latter applications to other meanings which are not explicitly described in this text, such as the application of གི་ and so on to a discordant phrasal ornament, since they are not commented on in the explicit descriptions of this text, they can be understood in other texts such as The Door of Speech.
Notes:
49) Tib. shugs bstan ‘a mtha’ can la rkang pa kha skong dgos pa'i tshe ya yig sbyar ba dang /. This line is a great example of an initial adjective applying to a whole phrase (shugs bstan + {'a mtha… sbyar ba}), as well as the insertion of the temporal condition of a verb in between two of its arguments.
As for the second, the explanation of the agentive sound:
དེ་ཉིད་ལ་ནི་བཅུ་པ་སྦྱར༎
བྱེད་པ་པོ་རུ་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༎
If the tenth is joined to those same ones,
that should be known as the agent.
By joining the tenth suffix letter, ས་, to those same five sounds of the sixth declension explained above, གི་ ཀྱི་ འི་ ཡི་ གྱི་, you get གིས་ ཀྱིས་ འིས་ ཡིས་ གྱིས་. They indicate that something joins to the verb (bya ba), and so they are known as the ground of the agent, the third declension. For example, བདག་གིས་བསྟན། ("I taught"), ཁོད་ཀྱིས་ཉན། ("You listen"), དེའིས་བྱིན། ("That person gave"), འདི་ཡིས་བླངས། ("This person took"), གསེར་གྱིས་ཉོས། ("bought with gold").50
Notes:
50) Several of these examples could comfortably be translated in the passive voice too, which allows the particle's agentive function to be more easily seen: “taught by me”, “given by that person”, “taken by this person”. In the last example, “bought with gold”, the gold is more of an instrument (byed pa) than an agent (byed pa po), which shows that the agentive sound can be used for both agents and instruments.
As for the fourth, the explanation of the ornament-inclusion:
ཨྰ་ལི་ཕྱིས་ནས་གཉིས་པ་སྦྱར༎
ཚིག་རྒྱན་གཉིས་དང་སྡུད་པར་འགྱུར༎
If you erase the āli and join the second,
that is two phrasal ornaments and inclusion.
If you erase the āli of three of those connective sounds explained above, ཀྱི་ འི་ ཡི་, and join to each one the second suffix letter, ང་, you get ཀྱང་ འང་ ཡང་. These are sounds of two phrasal ornaments – the ornament that indicates that the former and latter phrases agree, as in གསལ་ཡང་གསལ། མཛེས་ཀྱང་མཛེས།, and the ornament that indicates that the former and latter phrases do not agree, as in བཏུད་ཀྱང་ཁྲོ། ("although they bowed, they were angry"), མཛའང་སླུ། ("they were friendly, but deceiving") – and of including and joining the basis or meaning to something else, as in མིར་མ་ཟད་ལྷས་ཀྱང་བཏུད་དོ། ("Not only the humans, but even [or also] the gods bowed down.").
As for the fifth, the explanation of the continuative:
ལ་དོན་སུ་ལ་ཨུ་ཕྱིས་ནས༎
དེ་ལ་གསུམ་པའི་དང་པོ་སྦྱར༎
དེ་ལ་ཨྰ་ལི་གསུམ་པ་སྦྱར༎
དེ་ནི་ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པའོ༎
If you erase the u from the la-equivalent su
and join to that the first of the third,
and join to that the third āli,
that is the together-with-remainder (lhag ma dang bcas pa, a.k.a. lhag bcas).
If you erase the letter ཨུ་, the zhabs kyu, from one of the la-equivalents, སུ་,51 and join to that standalone ས་ the first of the third row of kāli, the letter ཏ་, and join to that in turn the third āli, the ‘greng bu, you get སྟེ་. Together with the དེ་ found below, and the implicitly described standalone ཏེ་, there are three. When joined to the end of any word-phrase, they elicit the remainder of the description, and so they are called the together-with-remainder sound.
Furthermore, they are coarsely analyzed into three:
Notes:
51) W1KG24776 has a typo here, saying དུ་ instead of སུ་.
As for the sixth, the explanation of analysis-synthesis:
རྗེས་མཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པོ་ལ༎ (typo in Tibetan)
དྲུག་པ་སྦྱར་ན་འབྱེད་སྡུད་ཡིན༎
If the sixth is joined to the ten suffix letters,
that is the analytic-synthetic.
If, to the ten suffix letters, you join the sixth of them, the letter མ་, you get གམ། ངམ། དམ། ནམ། བམ། མམ། འམ། རམ། ལམ། སམ།, and with the implicitly described ཏམ།, there are eleven. They are applied as sounds which individually analyze the particulars from a single basis of analysis, as in ཕུང་པོ་ནི་ལྔ་སྟེ། གཟུགས་སམ། ཚོར་བའམ། འདུ་ཤེས་སམ། འདུ་བྱེད་དམ། རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པའོ། ("There are five aggregates: form and feeling and perception and compounders and cognition."); and which synthesize many different phrases and meanings into one place, as in གཟུགས་སམ། ཚོར་བའམ། འདུ་ཤེས་སམ། འདུ་བྱེད་དམ། རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ནི་ཕུང་པོའོ། ("Form and feeling and perception and compounders and cognition are the aggregates.").
Furthermore, because interrogative phrases such as ཡོད་དམ་མེད། also are phrases which analyze the distinctions of existence and nonexistence, they are defined as the same sound of analysis.
The seventh, the origin, has two parts: the explanation of the actual origin, and the way that it's applied to isolation and inclusion.
As for the first:
རྗེས་འཇུག་ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པོ་ཡི༎
བཞི་པ་དགུ་པ་ལ་བཅུ་པ༎
སྦྱར་བ་འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ས་ཡིན་ཏེ༎
If the tenth is joined to the fourth and the ninth
of the ten suffix letters,
that is the ground of the origin,
If you join the tenth suffix letter ས་ individually to both the fourth of those ten suffix letters, ན་, and the ninth, ལ་, you get ནས། and ལས།. Because those are applied similarly to the meaning of indicating that something is separate from or arises from some dharma, as in ས་ནས་རྩྭ་སྐྱེས། ("grass grew from the earth"), བ་ལས་འོ་མ་འཇོ། ("milking milk from the cow"), they are the ground of the origin, the fifth declension. ཏེ་ is a continuative.
In addition, the application of only the ལས་ sound to a reason, as in དུ་བ་ལས་མེར་ཤེས། ("to know of fire due to smoke"), does not go beyond the fifth declension, because the reason for knowing of fire occurs from seeing smoke.
Second, the way that it's applied to isolation and inclusion:
དགར་དང་སྡུད་པའང་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིན༎
and likewise also isolation and inclusion.
The ནས་ and ལས་ sounds explained above do not only apply to an origin, but also apply to the meaning of isolating something away from a basis of isolation, and likewise the ནས་ sound alone also applies to the meaning of delineating and including a set.
ནས་ is applied to a basis of isolation and a dharma of isolation which have the same class, e.g. ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ནང་ནས་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་མཛེས། ("Śakra is the most beautiful of the gods"); whereas ལས་ is applied to a basis of isolation and a dharma of isolation which have different classes, e.g. ལྷ་ལས་མི་དམན། ("humans are inferior to gods"), and ནས་ is applied to inclusion,52 as in གཟུགས་ནས་རྣམ་མཁྱེན་གྱི་བར། ("from form up to the knowledge of aspects").
Both isolation and inclusion are included within the fifth declension, because in the case of isolation, a dharma of isolation seems to be differentiated from a basis of isolation, and in the case of inclusion, the object of inclusion seems to occur from the start of some beginning.
Notes:
52) W1KG24776 has a typo here, reading སྡོད་པ་ instead of སྡུད་པ་.
As for the eighth, the explanation of the vocative sound:
གང་མིང་བརྗོད་པའི་དང་པོ་རུ༎
ཀྱེ་སྦྱར་ན་ནི་བོད་པ་ཡིན༎
If kye is joined at the beginning
of expressing some word, that is the vocative.
If ཀྱེ་ is joined to the beginning of expressing some word, like ཀྱེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་ ("Hail, great king!"), it is a sound that clarifies a call to a special target. The implicitly taught ཀྭ་ཡེ་, ཀྭ་, and ཝ་ཡེ་ are sounds that clarify a call to an inferior target.53
Notes:
53) Presumably the term “clarify” is used here because it is not strictly necessary to mark the eighth declension with vocative sound, and so the eighth declension may be confused with the first declension. Therefore when a vocative sound is used, it, it clarifies that a word is being used in the eighth declension.
The second, the explanation of the independent links that do not depend on the suffix letter, has six parts: the explanation of the ནི་ sound, the explanation of the དང་ sound, the explanation of the དེ་ sound, the explanation of the གང་ sound, the explanation of the owner sound, and the explanation of the negation sound.
[standardize the above terminology]
As for the first:
གང་མིང་མཐའ་དང་མཐུན་པ་ཡི༎
བཞི་པ་ལ་ནི་ཨི་སྦྱར་བ༎
དགར་དང་བརྣན་པའི་ཚིག་ཏུ་འགྱུར༎
If i is joined to the fourth,
which agrees with the end of any word,
that is the phrase of isolation and emphasis.
By joining the vowel ཨི་ to the fourth suffix letter, ན་, which is a link that can be joined in agreement with the end of any word-phrase, you get ནི་. That is a phrase that applies to the meaning of specifying something as separate from a basis of isolation, and then isolating it, as in སྦྱོར་དངོས་འཇུག་གསུམ་གྱི་དང་པོ་ནི།. It also applies to the meaning of focusing on or earnestly emphasizing some meaning, as in དལ་བའི་རྟེན་བཟང་པོ་ནི་ཐོབ། དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་དང་ནི་མཇལ། བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱི་མིག་དང་ནི་སྡན།. Its applications to filling a phrase, as in སྡོམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡན་པར་ནི།, are also the same emphasis sound.
As for the second, the explanation of the དང་ sound:
མིང་གང་རུང་བའི་བར་མཚམས་སུ༎
གསུམ་པ་ལ་ནི་གཉིས་པ་སྦྱར༎
དེ་ནི་སྡུད་དང་འབྱེད་པ་དང༎
རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཚེ་སྐབས་གདམས་ངག་ལྔའོ༎
If the second is joined to the third
in between some words,
that is the synthetic, analytic,
rational, temporal, and instructive.
If you join the second suffix letter, ང་, to the third suffix letter, ད་, in between some word-phrases, you get དང་. This is applied to five meanings:
54) Consider, by contrast: “Examples of the rational given by other scholars, such as དུ་བ་མཐོང་བ་དང་མེར་ཤེས་སོ།, are not admissible whatsoever, because that indicates the time of knowing, and does not indicate the reason.” -Ngawang Phuntsok (sum cu pa dang rtags kyi ‘jug pa’i dka' 'grel don gsla me long, W2PD17428 vol. 12 p. 307)
As for the third, the explanation of the དེ་ sound:
གང་མིང་གི་ནི་ཡ་མཐའ་རུ༎
གསུམ་པ་ལ་ནི་ཨེ་སྦྱར་བ༎
ཐ་སྙད་དབང་དུ་གསུམ་ཡིན་ཏེ༎
དངོས་པོའི་དབང་དུ་བཞི་རུ་འགྱུར༎
དུས་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་གཉིས་ཡིན་ནོ༎
If e is joined to the third
at the beginning of some word,
that is three in terms of designation,
four in terms of thing,
and two in terms of time.
If the vowel ཨེ་, the 'greng bu, is joined to the third suffix letter, ད་, at the beginning, i.e. the start, of some word, you get དེ་.
When analyzed just in terms of the designations which, not existing before, have been newly assigned (btags pa), it is applied to three:
That way of analysis pervades all applications of the དེ་ sound.
Next, when analyzed in terms of the principal meaning of the things of general phenomena, it is applied in all three times to four:
That way of analysis pervades all applications of the དེ་ sound other than the continuative.
Next, when analyzed in terms of time, it is applied to two:
That way of analysis pervades all applications of the དེ་ sound connected with expressing exclusivity.
Notes:
55) The phrasing here is difficult to understand; other commentaries tend to be much clearer, and explain that this is when you first name the object explicitly, and thereafter just refer to it as “that”.
As for the fourth, the explanation of the གང་ sound:
གང་མིང་བརྗོད་པའི་དང་པོ་རུ༎
དང་པོ་ལ་ནི་གཉིས་པ་སྦྱར༎
སྤྱི་ལ་ཁྱབ་པ་ཉིད་དུ་འགྱུར༎
If the second is joined to the first
at the beginning of expressing some word,
that is general pervasion.
If you join the second suffix letter, ང་, to the first suffix letter, ག་, at the beginning of expressing some word, you get གང་. This is a sound that mainly has the meaning of general pervasion,56 without holding any of the meaning's particulars as a focus, as in གང་ཞིག གང་དག གང་བྱེད།. It also mostly agrees with the application of the sounds ཅི་ ཇི་ སུ་.57
Notes:
56) “General pervasion” is a logical term.
57) This sentence has great syntax.
As for the fifth, the explanation of the owner sound:
གང་མིང་གི་ནི་མ་མཐའ་ན༎
པུ་ལིངྒ་ཡི་སྒྲ་མེད་པ༎
དེ་ལ་པུ་ལིངྒ་སྦྱར་ན༎
བདག་པོའི་སར་ནི་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༎
At the end of some word,
if the puliṅga is joined
to that which has no puliṅga sound,
that should be known as the ground of the owner.
At the ends of words, if you newly join any of the three puliṅga58 sounds to that which previously did not have them, that should be known as the ground that clarifies the meaning of an owner. As is said in the Candrapa, “…together with the row of ut”, pu is the པ་ row and liṅga is the sign, and so the three sounds are the male sign པ་, the female sign མ་ and the neuter sign བ་, which come from the པ་ row. For example, ཇ་པ། ཆང་མ། ཁ་ལོ་བ། and གྱོས་པོ། སྒྱུག་མོ། ཟླ་བོ། are owner sounds that exhibit the three signs.
Examples such as བློ་ཅན་ and ཤེས་སྡན་ may seem to be similar to owner sounds in that they indicate that someone has something, but those two sounds are also applied to inert matter, and so they are not actual owner sounds.
However, while the two, པ་ and མ་, are established as the male and female signs, how is it proven that the letter བ་ is the neuter sign? Because, as said in The Door of Speech, “བ་ is posited as general, without place and time taken as definite. As with ཟ་བ་ བཟའ་ ཟ་པོ་, it is posited as neuter."
Notes:
58) “Puliṅga” is the Sanskrit word for the masculine gender. “Pu” also refers to the pavarga; this convention is found in Candravyākaraṇa. See for example the Varṇasūtra. See also https://archive.org/details/bdrc-W19968/page/n239/mode/2up?view=theater p.224-225.
As for the sixth, the explanation of the negation sound:
གང་མིང་བརྗོད་པའི་ཡ་མཐའ་ན༎
སྟྲཱི་ལིངྒ་ཡི་སྒྲ་མེད་པ༎
དེ་ལ་སྟྲཱི་ལིངྒ་སྦྱར་ན༎
དགག་པའི་གནས་སུ་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༎
At the beginning of expressing some word,
if the strīliṅga is joined
to that which has no strīliṅga sound,
that should be known as the location of negation.
At the beginning, i.e. the start, of expressing some word, if you join the strīliṅga59 to that which did not previously have the strīliṅga (i.e. female sign) sound (which was explained above; both the letter མ་ and the ancillary letter མི་), that should be known as the location of negation, because it indicates that the meaning of the target of joining is not that, or does not have that. For example, མ་མཐོང་། ("unseen"), མི་རིགས། ("inadmissible").
Notes:
59) “Strīliṅga” is the Sanskrit term for the feminine gender.
The second, the conclusion which gives instructions, has four parts: the instruction on how verses are released, the instruction related to pleasing listeners, the instruction on the stages of how to train, and the instruction on the necessity of giving instructions to a suitable recipient.
As for the first:
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པའི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་རྣམས༎
ཅུང་ཟད་བསྡུས་པ་ཡོད་ན་ཡང་༎
དེ་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་སྦྱར་བར་བྱ༎
If there are verse conjunctions
that are even slightly abbreviated,
they should be joined in that manner.
When verses are properly joined to the Conqueror's words and treatises60 along with their branches, there are many compounds,61 so what need to speak of the greatly abbreviated conjunctions62 of declensions, phrase-links, and so on? If there are any that are even slightly abbreviated, they should be added and joined according to the explanations of the conclusive and so on that were described here above, so that you can penetrate into the meaning being explained. For example, it's like how with ཟག་བཅས་ཟག་པ་མེད་ཆོས་རྣམས།, after adding the synthesis sounds, connective sounds, and so on, thus getting ཟག་པ་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཆོས་རྣམས་དང་། ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་རྣམས།, one should then contemplate the meaning oneself, and explain it to others.
Notes:
60) Tib. bka' bstan, i.e. the Kangyur and Tengyur.
61) Tib. tshig sdud, Skt. samāsa
62) Tib. mtshams sbyor, Skt. sandhi
The second, the instruction related to pleasing listeners, has three parts: the teaching that the absence of suffix letters is inadmissible, the teaching on the purpose of knowing the suffix letters, and the teaching of how that settles on the meaning.
As for the first:
སྔོན་འཇུག་ཡོད་དམ་མེད་ཀྱང་རུང་༎
མིང་གཞིའི་ཡི་གེ་གང་ཡིན་ལ༎
ཉིས་འབྲེལ་ཡོད་དམ་གསུམ་འབྲེལ་ཡོད༎
ཨཱ་ལི་བཞི་ལས་གང་ལྡན་ཡང་༎
རྗེས་འཇུག་བཅུ་པོ་མ་ཞུགས་ན༎
མིང་གཞན་སྦྱོར་བ་ཡོད་མི་སྲིད༎
Whether there is a prefix or not,
whatever the main letter may be,
whether there is a double or a triple connection,
and whichever of the four āli there may be,
if it doesn't end in the ten suffixes,
it cannot be joined to another word.
In the joinings of word-phrases,63 (note: ) whether or the prefix letters mentioned above are present or absent at the beginning (e.g. བཀའ་ and ཀ་), and whether any of the main letters, which are the target of application of 'phul rten,64 have a double connection (e.g. སྐ་) or a triple connection (e.g. སྐྱ་), and whether those bear any of the four vowels (e.g. བཀི། ཀུ། སྐེ། སྐྱོ།), if they do not also end in one of the ten suffix letters, then their application and joining to a word-meaning other than that very same letter-form is never possible in this system.
For example, although nowadays སྐྱོ་ may seem to apply to a meaning, the final འ་ of སྐྱོའ་ was erased for the purpose of parsimonious letters at the time of the language reform, but is not without function (thob thang)65 for the meaning.
Notes:
63) Personal note regarding the phrasing of the commentary here: X kyi Y rnams seems to mean X rnams kyi Y sometimes.
64) This is a technical term for the prefix letters ('phul) and suffix letters (rten).
65) This seems to be an important technical term, and it also appears in The Application of Signs, but I've not been able to work out exactly what it means.
As for the second, the teaching on the purpose of knowing the suffix letters:
རྗེས་འཇུག་བཅུ་ཡི་དོན་ཤེས་ན༎
འདྲི་དང་ཀློག་དང་བཤད་རྣམས་ཀྱི༎66
མཚམས་སྦྱོར་སྒྲ་ལ་ཐོགས་མེད་ཅིང་༎
འབྲེལ་བ་སྨྲ་བའི་མཆོག་ཏུ་འགྱུར༎
གཞན་ཡང་རྗེས་འཇུག་ཤེས་པ་ཡིས༎
དོན་གྱི་སྦྱོར་བ་མ་མཐོང་ཡང་༎
དོན་དང་མཐུན་པའི་སྦྱོར་བ་ཤེས༎
If you know the meaning of the suffixes,
then you will have no impediment in the conjunction sounds
of writing, reading, and explaining,
and you will be the best proclaimer of connections.
Furthermore, by knowing the suffixes,
even if you don't see the joining of the meaning,
you will know the joinings that agree with the meaning.
If, in that way, you know well the ways of application of sound and meaning of the links, declensions, and so on, which are mainly connected with the function of the ten suffix letters, then when writing the sutras, tantras, and treatises in letters, correctly reading their written expressions, releasing and explaining the extensive phrase-meanings, composing treatises and so on, and engaging in debate in order to demolish others' objections, you will have no impediment in applying the light of your intellect to the sound and meaning of the conjunctions of former and latter phrase-meanings. You will also be the best at proclaiming only those former and latter phrase-meanings that have a rationale ('thad pa dang ldan) and are interconnected ('brel ba chags pa), without the flaws of inversion (go log pa), non-connection (mi ‘brel ba), contradiction (’gal ba), and so on.
Furthermore, by proper knowledge of the meaning of the suffix letters, you will know the joining that differentiates the meaning of the treatises etc., even if you have not previously seen their commentarial explanations ('grel bshad) etc., by inferring the joining of the phrases (tshig gi sbyor ba)67 that agrees with the meaning of the commentarial explanations etc.
Notes:
66) Other variants of the text write this as ‘bri, klog, ’chad.
67) Note that tshig sbyor ba = vigraha, which is a term for the explicit analysis of the internal grammar of a compound word. Compound words are considered a type of phrase (tshig) in Tibetan grammar. This line might be referring to vigraha, or to something else.
As for the third, the teaching of how that settles on the meaning:
རྗེས་འཇུག་སྦྱོར་བ་མཁས་པ་ན༎
ལུང་གི་དོན་དང་སྦྱོར་བ་དང་༎
བླ་མའི་མན་ངག་གསུམ་སྦྱར་ནས༎
དོན་གྱི་ཐོག་ཏུ་དབབ་པར་བྱ༎
If you know the joining of the suffixes,
then by joining the text's meaning, the joining,
and the guru's intimate instructions,
you will settle on the meaning.
One who has become educated in the joinings of the suffixes and wishes to train in the common and uncommon fields of knowledge should, at that time, properly join in one place three things:
Thereby having settled on whatever textual meaning (gzhung don) one wants to know, one will easily understand it.
Also, it is the meaning of the purpose of joining the textual meanings (gzhung don) which are difficult to understand and have a basis for confusion with the meaning of the extracts, and the purpose of releasing the profound and vast meaning of the extracts by means of the intimate instructions; it is not the purpose of collecting all three in each subtle tshig-sbyor.
As for the third, the instruction on the stages of how to train:
བསླབ་ལ་བརྩོན་པའི་གང་ཟག་གིས༎
དང་པོར་ང་རོ་རྣམས་ལ་སྦྱང་༎
སྔོན་འཇུག་མིང་གཞི་རྗེས་འཇུག་གསུམ༎
ཀློག་གི་ཆེད་དུ་བསླབ་པ་ཡིན༎
རྗེས་འཇུག་བཞི་ཡི་སྦྱོར་བ་ནི༎
མཉན་བསམ་བསྟན་པའི་དོན་དུ་སྦྱར༎
ཡན་ལག་དེ་དག་མཐུ་ཡིས་ནི༎
འབྲས་བུའི་ཆེད་དུ་དོན་ལ་དབབ༎
བསླབ་པའི་རིམ་པ་འདི་ཡིས་ནི༎
གང་ཞིག་འབད་པ་ཆུང་ངུས་ཀྱང་༎
ཤེས་རབ་མྱུར་དུ་གྲོལ་བར་འགྱུར༎
དེ་ཕྱིར་དང་པོར་འདི་ཉིད་བསླབ༎
དེ་ནས་རྒྱས་པའང་མཉན་བྱས་ཏེ༎
བསླབ་པ་གང་ལ་དད་པ་ཡི༎
གཞུང་ཉིད་བླ་མ་དག་ལས་མཉན༎
A person who makes effort in their training
should first learn the svaras,
and then study the prefix letters, main letters, and suffix letters
for the sake of reading.
The four joinings of suffix letters
are joined for the purpose of hearing, contemplating, and teaching.
By the power of those branches,
settle on the meaning for the sake of the result.
By this order of study,
even someone of little effort
will quickly release wisdom.
Therefore, first train in this one,
then listen to the extensive ones too,
and listen from gurus
to the texts of whatever training you have faith in.
Among people who effortfully engage in training in any field of knowledge, a beginner should first learn the pronunciation of the svaras, i.e. the standalone letters, as described in the Varṇasūtra, in accordance with each one's place of articulation, manner, and outer and inner exertion; as well as the pronunciation of the individual reading of the vowel-bearers, associated with the way that each one's svara is produced.
Then, they should also train in how to join the five prefix letters, the thirty main letters which are the target of application of the ‘phul rten, and the ten suffix letters, within a single tsheg-interval, as described in The Children’s Easy Entrance (byis pa bde 'jug) in order to properly know how to read them.
After learning reading, then by combining the suffix letters and also the prefix letters, one should listen from a guru to the good explanations of the four kinds of joinings, as described in The Application of Signs – applied to what sound and meaning, applied by what letter, applied in what way, and applied for what purpose.68
Once one has properly contemplated and penetrated their meaning, one joins them for the purpose of teaching others, and thus trains as a scholar.
By the power of those two branches of reading and brda dag, then having settled on the meaning in order to obtain the fruit of knowing one's object of study, one should practice it experientially (nyams su star).
Thus, by this order of training, even someone who makes little effort will quickly release wisdom which is without confusion as to phrases and meanings; what need to speak of an individual who has great diligence in hearing and contemplating?
For that reason, those who want to be educated should first train in this text, The Thirty, and once they know this they should listen to and penetrate the later sections69 such as The Application of Signs, and also the various other extensive texts of grammar, and then they should listen from gurus to the textual tradition of whatever foundational training of the three vehicles they have faith in and wish to train in, along with its branches.
68) Interestingly, the description of the first application here disagrees with Ngulchu's own commentary on The Application of Signs. There, sound and meaning are aspects of the application in what way, not the application to what.
69) “the later sections” – Tib. skabs phyi ma rnams; cf. le'u phyi ma rnams from the explanation of the title.
As for the fourth, the instruction on the necessity of giving instructions to a suitable recipient:
སློབ་དཔོན་དེ་ཉིད་དུ་འཛིན་ཅིང་༎
ལེ་ལོ་གཡེང་བ་རྣམ་པར་སྤངས༎
ཟོ་བཟང་དད་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་པ༎
སྐྱེས་བུ་དེས་ནི་མྱུར་རྟོགས་ཏེ༎
དེ་ལ་དུས་སུ་འདོམས་པར་བྱ༎
ཅིག་ཤོས་དེ་ལས་ལྡོག་པའོ༎
One who apprehends the teacher as such,
and has given up laziness and distraction,
and is good-tempered and grounded in faith:
that person will quickly understand;
they should be extensively instructed.
The converse is the opposite of that.
A recipient who is fit to be taught (bstan du rung ba) the instructions of this very treatise apprehends the teacher who gives instructions as a teacher, and respectfully acknowledges their kindness; has given up the contradictory conditions of laziness (i.e. weak enjoyment in the area to be trained in) and distraction (i.e. engagement in some other task); has persistent70 diligence (which is not harmed even by those flaws); and has the concordant conditions of being good-tempered (i.e. good-natured) and having devoted71 diligence (which has complete faith in the area of training).
An individual who has the three characteristics72 will quickly understand anything they train in, and so, knowing the time, they should be extensively instructed.
The converse of the receptive one explained above – who does not have devotion for the teacher, has laziness and distraction, and is bad-natured and lacking in faith – is not receptive, and so they should be instructed briefly (this has the opposite meaning from “extensively instructed”).
(end)73
Notes:
70) persistent – Tib. rtag sbyor
71) devoted – Tib. gus sbyor
72) The term “three characteristics” comes at the end of a list followed by a continuative sound, so it would seem that it is meant to refer to that list. The internal structure of the list is complex, but given the syntax and line breaks, the intended reading seems to be: 1) viewing the teacher as such and acknowledging their kindness, 2) having persistent diligence, which is free from the two contradictory conditions of laziness and distraction; and 3) having devoted diligence, which is associated with the two concordant conditions of being good-tempered and having faith.
73) This is the end of the explanation of The Thirty. As mentioned in the outline at the beginning, The Words of Situ also includes an explanation of The Application of Signs. My translation of The Application of Signs, along with its explanation in the second half of The Words of Situ, is in progress.
Main textual witness: W1KG24776 (si tu'i zhal lung)
(Note: this W number is a BDRC text identifier called a “Work ID”.)
Also consulted:
For an alternate translation of Ngülchu's commentary, see Tibetan Grammar: The Words of Situ, by Lama Tony Duff. I have not referred to Duff's work in making my translation, and have instead relied upon the original Tibetan of the root text and its commentaries.