devanagari

tan      ca     sva-bhava-wunyan pawyati       sma
   |           |           |         |             |               |                |
N.m.    conj.    Adj.    N.m.      Adj.         V.pres.         part.
Acc.pl.     |           |         |        Acc.pl.        3.sg.             |
    |           |           |_____|             |               |_________|
    |______|                |__________|                        |
          |                              |___________________|
          |__________________________|

tan, Acc. pl. of sa-, them

ca-, conj.: and

svabhavawunya-, m.:

1) sva-, adj.: own

2) bhava-, m.: existence (from bhu-)

3) wunya-, adj.: empty,

And he saw them as void of any existence on their own.

    These skandhas are impermanent and subject to a constant change.
    Avalokitewvara in his insight saw that they don't exist simply by themselves, they are "empty of any self-existence" - that we are basically "creating" them by our own ignorance of the true nature of the things - emptiness. So, he saw just a constant appearance and disappearance of these skandhas, not permanent entities.
    Mahayana thus accepted the very core of older Buddhism - the teaching of anatman, no-soul. But it stresses the characteristic of emptiness, which was not done so extensively in the older schools of Buddhism.

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