What is "yeva" modifying here?

Q & A
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“[…] tatra ce tumhe assatha kupitā vā anattamanā vā, tumhaṃ yevassa tena antarāyo.”

I am confused about which word yeva is modifying in the above sentence. My grammar (Duroiselle) tells me that adverbs come before the word they qualify. To my mind to regard this being here also the case speaks the fact that yeva stands in sandhi with assa. (Is this a valid indicator actually?) The commentary, however, seems to regard it as modifying tumhaṃ: “[…] tumhākaṃyeva tena kopena […]”, supposedly against the statement in my grammar. Are you aware of any rules which are able to settle the issue? How would you assess and read it? Thank you very much!

Mettā

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Yeva is qualifying tumhaṃ. It normally appears after the word it emphasizes.

I’m not sure about the adverb thing: I see that the PTS dict calls eva an adverb, but normally it is simply called an indeclinable.

And yes, in this phrase yeva and assa are sandhi’d. But this is a mere phonetic phenomenon: in terms of meaning, it applies to the word before.

I translated the phrase:

You’ll get angry and upset, and that would only be an obstacle for you.

Perhaps, though, it should be:

You’ll get angry and upset, and that would be an obstacle for you alone.

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Thank you bhante for the helpful reply. :anjal:

I think if yeva modifies tumhaṃ than your second translation appears to be express the meaning better and more accurately. Even though just being a small difference, the meaning is affected …

Blessings

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You’re quite right, and I think I will change it. So many tiny details!

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