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dhammassānudhammaṁ

dhammassānudhamma

accusative singular neuter; a compound word with sandhi contraction

1. in accordance with the Dhamma
2. according to the teaching
3. rightly, lawfully

Built from

• dhamma — root · teaching, law
  From √dhṛ 'to hold, bear'; the Pali reflex of Sanskrit dharma, denoting the Buddha's teaching or the law of nature.
• anu — prefix · along, following
  Trails behind, follows the track of. Cognate with Greek ana- 'along'; here it modifies the sense of the following dhamma into adverbial conformity.
• dhamma — stem · teaching, law
  The same root in the second occurrence, here in the sense of an adverbial object governed by anu-, creating the meaning 'in accordance with'.

Analysis. dhammassa (genitive singular of dhamma 'the teaching, law') + anu (prefix 'along, following') + dhamma (accusative singular, 'teaching'); literally 'along-the-teaching of-the-teaching', i.e. 'in accordance with the teaching'. The first dhamma is genitive of respect; the prefix anu- transforms the second dhamma into an adverbial sense.

Etymology. From dhamma (Pali for Sanskrit dharma, from √dhṛ 'to hold, bear'), which in the Buddhist canon means the teaching, law, or nature of things. The prefix anu- derives from Proto-Indo-European *enu- 'along', cognate with Greek ana- (in the sense 'along, through'). The compound idiomatically means 'rightly, in accordance with doctrine'.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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