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The woman addressed has in vain tried to prevent her lover from leaving her. She is now running after him, being in turn followed by a friend who tries to stop her. This friend addresses her, apparently panting and out of breath. This seems to be the most plausible explanation for the chaotic word-order: acchodiavatthaddhant apatthie...pie is a locative absolute construction, interrupted by mamthar an, which is to be taken with vacca. In the second line the finite verb is standing at the beginning of the sentence, while the interrogative particle vi (Skt api) occurs practically at the end! The Gāthā should be translated as follows:
Now that your lover (pie), held back by you (acchodia), has been able to draw himself free (vyasta) and finally (adhvānte) has left (prasthita), go slowly! Are you then not afraid (cintesi...vi na) that your waist, from the burden of your heavy breasts, might break?
As in the case of the Gathū under discussion the state of the sentence was not recognized. The text was interpreted quite differently and in the course of the transmission of the text some changes were brought about in it to suit this interpretation. The result of these changes can be seen in Weber's Ed.
The commentaries link the word majjha with immediately following bāsam. It is doubtful if this still makes sense. I have, alternatively, taken it with. gad apar iurvaņā in the second line.
Skt punar, meaning 'on the other hand', becomes uņa (occasionally uņo) losing its initial consonant (for an explanation of this loss, see *15). When meaning 'again' the initial p- is usually retained (see puņo in 375), except in the phrase na uro (here and in 941; na una in 818), which apparently was looked upon as one entity, in which case the rules of internal sandhi came to be applied (compare na āņa-, for ņa jāņa-, discussed in *3).
The Gathā is found inscribed on the pedestal of a basrelief, probably from the eleventh century, found near Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (see Katare, 1952). The relief itself depicts a man lying on a couch in a kind of bower with a woman kissing his cheek. The inscription has been deciphered -- rather imperfectly as the accompanying ink-impression
