[Footnote 1: This explanation probably cannot be found in the early Pâli texts; but Buddhagho@sa mentions it in _Suma@ngalavilâsinî_ on _Mahânidâna suttanta_. We find it also in _Abhidhammatthasa@ngaha_, VIII. 3. Ignorance and the actions of the mind belong to the past; "birth," "decay and death" to the future; the intermediate eight to the present. It is styled as tri@kâ@n@daka (having three branches) in _Abhidkarmakos'a_, III. 20-24. Two in the past branch, two in the future and eight in the middle "_sa pratîtyasamutpâdo dvâdas'â@ngastrikâ@n@daka@h pûrvâparântayordve dve madhye@s@tau_."] [Footnote 2: Aung and Mrs Rhys Davids' translation of _Abhidhammatthasa@ngaha_, pp. 189-190.] [Footnote 3: The twelve links are not always constant. Thus in the list given in the _Dialogues of the Buddha_, II. 23 f., avijjâ and sa@nkhâra have been omitted and the start has been made with consciousness, and it has been said that "Cognition turns back from name and form; it goes not beyond."] [Footnote 4: _M. V._ p. 5 f.] 93 Samutpâda means appearance or arising (_prâdurbhdâva_) and pratîtya means after getting (_prati+i+ya_); combining the two we find, arising after getting (something). The elements, depending on which there is some kind of arising, are called hetu (cause) and paccaya (ground). These two words however are often used in the same sense and are interchangeable. But paccaya is also used in a specific sense. Thus when it is said that avijjâ is the paccaya of sa@nkhâra it is meant that avijjâ is the ground (_@thiti_) of the origin of the sa@nkhâras, is the ground of their movement, of the instrument through which they stand (_nimitta@t@thiti_), of their ayuhana (conglomeration), of their interconnection, of their intelligibility, of their conjoint arising, of their function as cause and of their function as the ground with reference to those which are determined by them. Avijjâ in all these nine ways is the ground of sa@nkhâra both in the past and also in the future, though avijjâ itself is determined in its turn by other grounds [Footnote ref 1]. When we take the betu aspect of the causal chain, we cannot think of anything else but succession, but when we take the paccaya aspect we can have a better vision into the nature of the cause as ground. Thus when avijjâ is said to be the ground of the sa@nkhâras in the nine ways mentioned above, it seems reasonable to think that the sa@nkhâras were in some sense regarded as special manifestations of avijjâ [Footnote ref 2]. But as this point was not further developed in the early Buddhist texts it would be unwise to proceed further with it. The Khandhas.