Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t3.2

c12.s13.t3.2

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).