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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t3: Sanskrit Grammar

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t3

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Sanskrit Grammar

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The legends in the Sanskrit versions of the Bṛhatkathā introduce Pāṇini and Vararuchi as contemporaries of the Nandas; the Āryamañjuśrīmūlakalpa also refers to Pāṇini as a friend of the Nanda. On the basis of the Bṛhatkathā legends it was held by Max Müller, Weber and others that Pāṇini flourished about 315 B.C.; but as has been proved by several writers from Goldstücker onwards, Pāṇini and Kātyāyana could not have been contemporaries in view of the changes that the language had undergone in the days of the latter, and Pāṇini could at the latest be assigned only to 500 B.C., and in this respect, Tāranāth whose account puts Pāṇini a generation earlier than Kātyāyana is less faulty. In the period of the Nandas and Mauryas, there was indeed a great deal of grammatical activity. The Prātiśākhyas are to be referred to the post-Pāṇinian age, and between Pāṇini and Patañjali, there appeared a number of Vārttikakāras who appended their vārttikas or addenda et corrigenda (uktā-’nukta-durukta-chintana) to Pāṇini’s aphorisms.

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The foremost of the post-Pāṇinian grammarians is Vyāḍi, a descendant of Pāṇini himself removed from him by at least two generations, as we learn from his matronymic Dākshāyaṇa derived from Dākshi, the gotronymic of Pāṇini’s own mother. Vyāḍi followed his ancestor’s system and produced the grand work (śobhana as Patañjali describes it) called Samgraha in 100,000 verses. Patañjali held Vyāḍi in as much respect as Pāṇini himself. In fact, Bhartṛhari says at the end of the second book of his Vākyapadīya that the Mahābhāshya is based on the Samgraha. Vyāḍi’s view that vyakti or dravya constituted padārtha, as expounded in his Samgraha is cited by Kātyāyana, Patañjali (I. ii. 64), Bhartṛhari and others. A grammatical tradition noted in the Laghu-paribhāshāvṛtti ascribes the Paribhāshās or the rules for interpreting Pāṇini’s Sūtras to Vyāḍi, and some manuscripts, Vyāḍiparibhāshā and Vyāḍiparibhāshāvṛtti¹, support the tradition. Besides these a lexicon named Utpalini, containing a reference to Buddhism, is also remembered as a work of Vyāḍi. As other grammarians of this time like Kātya and Kātyāyana Vararuchi are also quoted in the lexicons, we have to suppose that besides writing grammatical treatises, the authors compiled, somewhat after the manner of the older Nighaṇṭu, lists of words as accessories to their grammatical treatises. The story in the initial book of the several versions of the Bṛhatkathā would make Vyāḍi and Vararuchi class-fellows and friends; Vyāḍi is however, as we have seen, one of the authorities quoted by Kātyāyana (I. ii.64).

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¹ Aufrecht, Catalogus Catalogorum I. p. 618b.

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The mention in these *Br̥hatkathā* legends of an Indradatta in a group of which the two others, Vyāḍi and Vararuchi, are grammarians may lead us to surmise that he too might have been a grammarian, not necessarily a contemporary, and though there is no evidence, it may be suggested that the Aindra grammar mentioned in the traditional accounts as having been superseded by the Pāṇinian and as being the basis of the Tamil system of the Tolkāppiyam and of the Sanskrit *Kālāpa*, may in reality be a work of this Indradatta.

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The Vārttikakāras of grammar belonging to this age are headed by one whom Patañjali refers to with reverence as Bhagavān Kātya (III. ii. 3) and correspondingly his *vārttikas* are known as Mahāvārttikas in contrast not only to the other miscellaneous *vārttikas* but to those of Kātyāyana Vararuchi himself. In his Bhāshya (IV. ii. 65), Patañjali gives the illustration ‘Mahāvārttika’ meaning ‘one who has studied the Mahāvārttika’ and in the encyclopaedic *Śr̥ṅgāra Prakāśa* of king Bhoja we actually get quotations of two *vārttikas* from the Mahāvārttikas under Pāṇini II. i. 51 and I. iv. 21. Kātya like Vyāḍi added a lexicon to his grammatical contribution.

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As distinct as the Mahāvārttikas, are the metrical dicta of a Vārttika character quoted by Patañjali, which, as can be made out from Bhartr̥hari, Kaiyaṭa and Nāgoji, formed part of a work called the *Ślokavārttika*. Coming chronologically after Vyāḍi were the followers of the grammar of Gautama (VI. 2. 36). The other Vārttikas referred to by Patañjali are Bhāradvājīya, Saunāga, Kroshṭīya, Saura Bhagavad and those of Kuṇi Vāḍava or Kuṇaravāḍava, all of these being later than the *vārttikas* of Kātyāyana on which they have bearing. It is not known if the *Māthurī Vr̥tti* mentioned by Patañjali under IV. iii 101 is another Vārttika.

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The most important of these Vārttikakāras is the one known generally as the Vārttikakāra of grammar, viz., Kātyāyana alias Vararuchi. From the literary traditions referred to, we may take him to be a contemporary of the Nandas. He is also the author of the *Vājasaneyiprātiśākhya*, where he deals with the language and the gramm ar ofthe *Vājasaneyisamhitā*, and the Kathāsaritsāgara story too makes mention of his proficiency in the Prātiśākhya taught by Vyāḍi (I. 2. 38). In this Prātiśākhya, Kātyāyana gives a number of criticisms of the relevant sūtras of Pāṇini. In his Vārttikas which number about 4,000, he subjects about 1,500 sūtras of Pāṇini to his critical observations, these comprehending on the whole about 10,000 grammatical points. Kātyāyana was neither hostile to Pāṇini nor rash in his criticism as one might be led to believe from the way Patañjali handles him; the natural phenomena of linguistic change necessitated the compilation of Kātyāyana's corrections and additions. Besides the dicta, Kātyāyana sometimes made his grammatical observations in verses which Patañjali quotes as *bhrājāḥ ślokāḥ* and Kaiyaṭa identifies as Kātyāyana's. As noticed already Patañjali speaks of him as a southerner fond of Taddhita forms, while the *Bṛhatkathā* story makes him a native of Kauśāmbi, an all-round scholar, sometime minister of Nanda at Pāṭaliputra and an incarnation of a Śivagaṇa known as Puṣpadanta. The Buddhistic *Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa* too mentions him as a minister under Nanda.

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The Prātiśākhyas are a class of works designed to preserve Vedic texts correctly, as handed down in their several *śākhās* or groups of *śākhās* (Prati-śākhā); and these treatises may generally be assigned to the period between Pāṇini and Patañjali according to Goldstücker, say between 600 B.C. and 200 B.C. Mention has already been made of the *Vājasaneyi Prātiśākhya* of the Vārttikakāra Kātyāyana. As Vyāḍi is several times quoted in the *Ṛgveda Prātiśākhya* ascribed to Śaunaka, we may assign that Prātiśākhya too to our period. To Vyāḍi himself is ascribed a treatise on *Veda lakṣaṇa*¹.

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¹ Aufrecht, *Catalogus Catalogorum* III part.

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