B.Three Types of Comments

  1. Iti Comment (Ulliṅga)
  2. Non-iti Comment (Vutti)
  3. Relational Comment (Sambandha) Examples

1. --Posoti Puriso:- In this sentence, the commented unit poso is explained as having the sense, "man". It is termed as iti comment due to the use of the indeclinable iti.

2. --Poso Puriso:- Here the explanation is the same, but iti is not used; therefore, it is la- belled non-iti comment.

3. --Abhivādiya bhāsissaṃ abhidhammatthasaṅgahaṃ. (Commented unit)

abhidhammatthasaṅgahaṃ bhāsissanti sambandho. (Comment unit)

The phrase abhidhamma --- sambandho implies that abhidhammattha- saṅgahaṃ is the inactive object of the verb bhāsissaṃ.

Note: In the comment unit above, the word order of the commented unit is changed to clarify the relation between abhidhammatthasaṅgahaṃ and bhāsissaṃ. Such a com- ment serves to indicate the word-to-word relations, hence the term relational comment.

The phrase iti sambandho, having the sense "This is the relation", is typical of this type but not an essential component --- whenever the word order of a commented unit is changed to throw light on the relations within it, it can be termed a relational comment.1

1 It should be noted, however, that it is also possible to use relational comments for some indeclinables having no relation to other words if such an explanation would serve to make the syntax clearer.

For example,

  • buddhaṃ dhammaṃ saṇgañca abhivādiya (Commented unit)
  • buddhañca dhammañca saṇgañca abhivādiyāti sambandho (Comment unit)
  • The phrase " buddhañca dhammañca" implies that ca of saṇgañca is the conjunction that joins buddhaṃ, dhammaṃ, and saṇgaṃ together.