"Moreover, these flocks of birds (have been)
transformationally created by the Tathagata
Amitayus (to) make the Dharma sound come
forth.  With such arrays of qualities of a
Buddhaland, Sariputra, is this Buddhaland
adorned."

  In the Amitabha Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha
has just told his disciple Sariputra that
not even the names of the three evil paths
exist in the Land of Happiness of Amitabha
Buddha.  Why then are there birds?  Sakyamuni
Buddha continues saying:  punah "moreover,"
te "these" (nom. pi. mas. of the
demonstrative adjective with stem in ta-),
paksi-sanghas "flocks" (sanghas) "of birds"
(paksin, paksi in compound--literally 'wing
paksa possessors -in').  The compound is
nom. pl. mas., and subject of the sentence.
They have been nirmita(s) "transformationally
created."  Note that final -s of the
nom. pi. mas. form was lost before the
following voiced sound dh-.  nirmitas is
the perfect passive participle, nom. pl.
mas. agreeing with te and paksisanghas. It
is formed from root û ma- "measure" + prefix
nir- "forth/out" + the perfect passive
suffix -ta which = English -ed.

  The birds were created tena "by the",
literally "by that," instrumental singular
masculine of the demonstrative adjective
with stem in ta-, tathagatena "Tathagata"
(inst. sing. mas. of tatha "thus" + either
gata "gone" or agata "come"-the form in
sandhi can mean both--amitayusa "Amitayus"
(inst. sing. mas. of the perfect passive
participle amita "un-measured" from root
û ma- "measure" + prefix a- "un-" + the
perfect passive participle suffix -ta.
Note that in both nirmita and amita the
root û ma- is weakened to û mi- when that
suffix is added).  amitayus is a combination
of amita + ayus "life," and here, as the
Buddha's name, is a possessive adjective
compound, mas. agreeing with tathagata,
meaning literally "one who possesses a life
that is unmeasured/measureless."

   Those flocks of birds, transformationally
created, niscarayanti "make come forth"
the dharma "Dharma" sabdam "sound," accusative
singular of the masculine noun sabda.
niscarayanti is the finite verb of the
sentence, 3rd pi. present  active indicative
of the causative stem from root û car-
"go/come" + prefix nir- "forth/out" (-r
changes to -s before following c-).  The
causative stem is formed by adding -aya-,
and -nti is the 3 pl. present active indicative
suffix.

   The Buddha Amitayus, Amitabha Buddha,
created those flocks of birds by transformation
so they would bring forth the sound
of Dharma.  Note how in the writing system
paksisanghas is linked with tena, and how
the final -a of tena combines with the
following a- of amitayusa as one long a.

   evamrupaih sariputra buddhaksetragunavyuhaih
samalamkrtam tad buddhaksetram.
"With such arrays of qualities of a Buddhaland,
Sariputra, is this Buddhaland adorned
This is again the refrain that closes the
major sections of description of the Land
of Happiness.  The script and grammar were
thoroughly discussed  in  issue  #89,  and  this
is  the  fourth  occurrence.     Section  Six  has
discussed the birds that speak the Dharma
in Sukhavati,  which form part of that  land'
adornments.