Help with a sentence?

[Jacob Baltuch]

Thanks to all for your help. Evidently if sva- can also be exactly
synonymous to aatman- then that clears all problems. I didn't know
that and I didn't know that (I did check whatever grammar, and text-
books I own and they do not signal that usage of sva-, at least
not explicitly, insofar as I didn't miss anything, obviously).

So, if I understand you all well

``sveena maataa-pitroor api sarvam caritram jJaatum na zakyam''

would be just as correct (``the whole life of even a father and
a mother it is impossible for one to know''), or is the equivalence
of sva- and aatman- restricted to when sva- is used in the genitive?

Incidentally, the former would mean that ``svasya maataa-pitroor api
sarvam caritram jJaatum na zakyam'' could also be translated that
way, i.e. as if the genitive ``svasya'' was not depending upon
``maataar-pitroor'' but upon ``zakyam'' with ``svasya...jJaatum
na zakyam (asti)'' meaning ``(there is) not a possibility for one
to know'', couldn't it?

Note that if indeed the equivalence of (one of the meanings of) sva-
and aatman- is complete then that raises a curious terminological
question: are the sva- compounds (sva-ziras) tatpuruSa (sva- used as
pronoun synonymous to aatman-) or are they karmadhaaraya (sva- used
as an adjective). In other words, is sva-ziras equivalent to
``svam zirah'' or to ``svasya zirah''? :) What do the grammarians say?