Sarvadarshanasangraha 13.1-3

13.1

atha pāṇinidarśanam

Now begins the system of Pāṇini.

If any one asks, "Where are we to learn how to separate a root and an affix so as to be able to say, 'This part is the original root and this is an affix,'" may we not reply that to those who have drunk the waters of Patañjali this question produces no confusion, since it is notorious that the rules of grammar have reference to this very point of the separation of the original roots and affixes? Thus the very first sentence of the venerable Patañjali, the author of the "Great Commentary," is "atha śabdānuśāsanam," "Now comes the exposition of words." The particle atha ("now") is used here as implying a new topic or a commencement; and by the phrase, "exposition of words," is meant the system of grammar put forth by Pāṇini. Now a doubt might here arise as to whether this phrase implies that the exposition of words is to be the main topic or not; and it is to obviate any such doubt that he employed the particle atha, since this particle implies that what follows is to be treated as the main topic to the exclusion of everything else.

13.2

nanv ayaṃ prakṛtibhāgo ’yaṃ pratyayabhāga iti prakṛtipratyayavibhāgaḥ katham avagamyata iti cet:

Now, if it is asked: How is the division between base and suffix understood, as in "this part is the base, this part is the suffix"?

13.3

pītapātañjalajalānām etac codyaṃ camatkāraṃ na karoti/ vyākaraṇaśāstrasya prakṛtiprayayavibhāgapratipādanaparatāyāḥ prasiddhatvāt/ tathā hi patañjaler bhagavato mahābhāṣyakārasyedam ādimaṃ vākyam: atha śabdānuśāsanam iti/ asyārthaḥ: athety ayaṃ śabdo ’dhikārārthaḥ prayujyate/ adhikāraḥ prastāvaḥ/ prārambha iti yāvat/ śabdānuśāsanaśabdena ca pāṇinipraṇītaṃ vyākaraṇaśāstraṃ vivakṣyate/ śabdānuśāsanam ity etāvaty abhidhīyamāne saṃdehaḥ syāt/ kiṃ śabdānuśāsanaṃ prastūyate na veti/ tathā mā prasāṅkṣīd ity athaśabdaṃ prāyuṅkta/ athaśabdaprayogabalenārthāntaravyudāsena prastūyata ity asyābhidhīyamānatvāt/ anena hi vaidikāḥ śabdāḥ śaṃ no devīr abhiṣṭaye ityādayas tadupakāriṇo laukikāḥ śabdā gaur aśvaḥ puruṣo hastī śakunir ityādayaś cānuśiṣyante vyutpādya saṃskriyante prakṛtipratyayavibhāgavattayā bodhyanta iti śabdānuśāsanam/

This objection causes no surprise to those who have drunk the waters of Patañjali, because the science of grammar is well known to be devoted to teaching the division of bases and suffixes. For the revered Patañjali, author of the Mahābhāṣya, has this opening statement: 'Now begins the instruction on words' [atha śabdānuśāsanam]. The meaning of this is: this word 'now' [atha] is employed in the sense of commencement; 'commencement' means proposal, which is to say, beginning. And by the word 'instruction on words' [śabdānuśāsana] is meant the science of grammar composed by Pāṇini. If merely 'Instruction on words' were stated, there would be doubt: 'Is instruction on words being proposed or not?' So that this might not happen, he employed the word atha; because by force of employing the word atha, excluding other senses, it is stated that it is being proposed. For by this [treatise] Vedic words such as 'śaṃ no devīr abhiṣṭaye' and, serving them, everyday words such as 'cow', 'horse', 'man', 'elephant', 'bird', etc., are taught—they are derived and correctly formed, that is, made understood as possessing the division into bases and suffixes; thus it is 'the instruction on words' [śabdānuśāsana].

The word "exposition" (anuśāsana), as here used, implies that thereby Vaidic words, such as those in the line śaṃ no devīr abhiṣṭaye,[2] &c., and secular words as ancillary to these, as the common words for "cow," "horse," "man," "elephant," "bird," &c., are made the subject of the exposition, i.e., are deduced from their original roots and properly formed, or, in other words, are explained as divided into root and affix. We must consider that the compound in this phrase represents a genitive of the object [śabdānuśāsanam standing for śabdasyānuśāsanam], and as there is a rule of Pāṇini (karmaṇi ca, ii. 2, 14), which prohibits composition in such a construction, we are forced to concede that the phrase śabdānuśāsanam does not come before us as a duly authorised compound.