Pāḷi Grammars
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Kaccāyana-Byākaraṇaṃ · chapter 2 of 8

§227

Kissa ka ve ca

And when ‘va’ follows, [there is] ‘ka’ of “kiṃ”.

Text and translation

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227. 270. Kissa ka ve ca (456)

[Kissa + ka + ve + ca = 4 words]

Kim icc etassa ko ca hoti vapaccaye pare.

Kva gato ’si tvaṃ Devānaṃpiyatissa.

Caggahaṇena avapaccaye pare pi ko ca hoti. Ko taṃ ninditum arahati (Khu. i, 47); kathaṃ bodhayituṃ dhammaṃ.

Ve ti kimatthaṃ? Kuto āgato ’si tvaṃ.

And when ‘va’ follows, [there is] ‘ka’ of “kiṃ”.
And when the suffix ‘va’ follows, “kiṃ” becomes “ka”.
Examples
  1. Kva gato ’si tvaṃ Devānaṃpiyatissa (where have you gone, Devānaṃpiyatissa?):
    • Kva = kiṃ + va (“kiṃ” is substituted by “ka” (§227); ‘a’ is elided (§404)).

By taking “ca”, also when other suffixes which are not ‘va’ follow, there is “ka”.

Examples
  1. Ko taṃ ninditum arahati (who deserves to blame him?); kathaṃ bodhayituṃ dhammaṃ (how to make the Dhamma known?):
    • Ko = kiṃ + si (“kiṃ” is substituted by “ka” (“ca” of §227); ‘si’ is substituted by ‘o’ (§104)).
    • Kathaṃ = kiṃ + thaṃ (“kiṃ” is substituted by “ka” (“ca” of §227)).

What is the purpose of saying ‘va’? [This sutta does not apply when ‘va’ does not follow, such as in:] Kuto āgato ’si tvaṃ (where have you come from?).

Without the footnotes: they are on the chapter card.

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Pāḷi text and English translation by Bhikkhu Nandisena; edition, apparatus and glossary by the Instituto de Estudios Buddhistas Hispano (IEBH). This material may be reproduced for personal use and distributed free of charge. Copyright © 2026 IEBH. Published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21948010.