Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c14.7

c14.7

It is narrated in the Kathâsaritsâgara that while Śâtavâhana was, on one occasion, bathing with his wives in a tank in a pleasure-garden, he threw water at one of them As she was tired, she told the king not to besprinkle her with water, using the words *modakaiḥ paritâdaya mâm* The king not understanding that the first word was composed of two, *mâ* “do not” and *udakaiḥ* “with waters,” but taking it to be one word meaning “pieces of sweetmeat,” caused sweetmeat to be brought and began to throw pieces at the queen. Thereupon she laughed and told the king that he did not know the phonetic rules of Sanskrit, and that while she meant to tell him not to besprinkle her with water, he had understood her to say that she wanted him to throw pieces of sweetmeat at her. There was no occasion for sweetmeat at the place, and this ought to have led the king to the true sense, but he was not. Thereupon the king was ashamed of his own ignorance while his queen was so learned, and became disconsolate. Guṇâḍhya and Śarvavarman, who were his ministers, were informed of the cause, and the former promised to teach him grammar in six years, though it was a study of twelve. Śarvavarman, however, offered to teach the subject in six months, and his offer was accepted, but as it was not possible to do so, Śarvavarman propitiated the god Kârtikeya or Skanda by his [39] self-mortifications, and the god communicated to him the first Sûtra of a new grammar *Siddho Varṇasamamnâyaḥ*. Thereupon Śarvavarman repeated the other Sûtras, when Kârtikeya said that if he had not been so hasty and allowed him to repeat the whole, the new grammar would have become superior to Pâṇini’s, but since it could not be so now, it would be a small treatise—*Kâtantra*, and would also be called *Kalâpaka* after the tail of his peacock. This new grammar Śarvavarman taught to the king.⁴ The same story is told by Târânâtha in his “History of Buddhism,”⁵ but he makes the name of the king to be Udayana, and of Śarvavarman, Saptavarman, while the competitor of Śarvavarman is represented by him to be Vararuchi instead of Guṇâḍhya. But Udayana is represented as a king reigning in Southern India and Śâtavâhana in the form of Sântıvâhana ıs also mentıoned ın connectıon wıth the story as a southern kıng ın whose domınıons Vararuchı lıved As Udayana frequently fıgures ın Buddhıstıc storıes, the southern prınce Sâtavâhana ıs confounded wıth hım, and thıs seems to be ındıcated by the fact that thıs Udayana ıs represented to have ruled over a country ın the south, though the usual Udayana ıs a northern prınce. It wıll thus appear that the Kâtantra grammar was composed by Śarvavarman at the request of a prınce of the Sâtavâhana famıly And thıs same thıng appears to be alluded to even by Hwan Thsang when he says ın connectıon wıth the shortenıng of the orıgınally large work on grammar by Pânını and others, "lately a Brâhmaṇ of South Indıa, at the request of a kıng of South Indıa, reduced them, further to 2,500 ślokas Thıs work ıs wıdely spread, and used throughout all the frontıer provınces, but the well-read scholars of Indıa do not follow ıt as theır guıde ın practıce "⁶