In a number of passages in the EBTs, we find a rather innocuous idiom, evameva pan’. So far as I can tell, it doesn’t seem to be rendered in any particularly distinctive manner, and is often ignored in translation. It may not have been recognized as a distinct idiom, as all its elements are very common.
However, the passages it occurs in are all very similar. They express a certain adversarial sense, a skepticism or challenging of what has been said before.
- In SN 47.3, it’s the Buddha’s response to a monk with a history of laxity who asks for teachings.
- In MN 85 it’s expressing surprise or skepticism that Prince Bodhi didn’t go for refuge.
- In MN 80, it’s challenging whether some ascetics claim to be arahants without knowing the past and the future.
- In MN 87, it’s King Pasenadi lamenting the fact that Queen Mallikā agrees with everything the Buddha says.
And so on. Given the consistency, it seems useful to render it consistently, or at least to capture something of the sense. Something like “even though” or “despite the fact that”. Or maybe rather than directly adversative, it is more exasperation or dismissal: “Well, what do you expect …” “That’s exactly what happens with such foolish people …”