An Account of the Different Existing Systems of Sanskrit Grammar c4: Preface
An Account of the Different Existing Systems of Sanskrit Grammar c4
- Language
- English
Preface
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The following essay (with the *nom de plume* वाचारम्भणं विकारः ) was offered in competition for the Vishwanath Narayan Mandlik Gold Medal of the University of Bombay. It was approved by the Judges with the remark: It deserves to be printed, as it collects together a great deal of interesting historical information. It is now accordingly published with the kind permission of the University of Bombay.
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In preparing the essay I have utilised the labours of most of the previous workers in the field, to whose writings I have given constant references in the foot-notes. I also enjoyed the exceptional advantage of having at my disposal the entire Government Manuscripts Library at the Deccan College, Poona, and was in fact, at the time of writing this essay, actually engaged in preparing a Descriptive Catalogue of the grammatical works in that Library.
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As the title indicates, it is an essay—a mere tentative attempt—and not a profound treatise; and I have thought it worth while printing it merely because, as far as I know, no work of the kind, covering exactly the field of this essay, has so far appeared. In the ‘Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie’ there was to appear a work which would have made the writing of this essay superfluous, but apparently nothing has come of it so far.
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I have made a few necessary changes in the essay as it was originally submitted, especially in the light of some kind suggestions received from Professor Hari Mahadeva Bhadkamkar of the Wilson College, Bombay, and from Professor Vaijanath Kashinath Rajavade of the Fergusson College, Poona, who were appointed judges for the essay. My old and honoured teacher, Professor K. B. Pathak, had also the goodness to read the essay through and point out certain inaccuracies of fact and statement, for which I am deeply grateful to him. For the most part, however, the essay remains just as it was written in 1909 with the exception of the Chronological Conspectus and the General Index, without which no published work of this nature could be regarded as complete.
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I do not, of course, expect that the essay would be entirely free from mistakes both of omission and of commission. New facts are coming to light every day; and even of facts that have been already known, it is too much to hope—so numerous are the workers in the field and so scattered their writings—that I have taken into consideration all, or even the most important all. I would most thankfully receive, therefore, any corrections or suggestions for improvement. I only hope that the essay contains enough to justify its publication in this present form.
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POONA, November 1914. } S. K. BELVALKAR.
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Postscript: Little did I expect, when I wrote the above in November last, that one of the judges for the essay—Professor H. M. Bhadkamkar of the Wilson College, Bombay—would not live to see it in print. But it is the unexpected that has happened. Professor Bhadkamkar took a genuine interest in me and my work, and by writing this postscript I wish to keep his name permanently associated with what is—though not the first—yet one of the earliest fruits of my literary activity.
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DECCAN COLLEGE, POONA, 15th July 1915. } S. K. BELVALKAR.
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AN ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT EXISTING
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SYSTEMS OF SANSKRIT GRAMMAR
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1. Grammatical speculations in India: Their extent and value.—It would be hardly an exaggeration to say that in no other country has the science of grammar been studied with such a zeal and carried to such a perfection as it has been in India. Even a bare catalogue of the names of grammarians ancient and modern and of such of their works as are still preserved to us can amply bear out the truth of this assertion. On the lowest calulation there are yet current in various parts of India nearly a dozen different schools of Sanskrit grammar, at least three hundred writers in the field including those that are known to us only from quotations, and more than a thousand separate treatises original as well as explanatory. And it is not merely the quantity—for that need not be a source of unalloyed pride to any people—but the quality of the work produced that has won for it a recognition and an honorable mention even at the hands of the rigorously scientific philologists of our own day, who are not ashamed to own their obligations to works and authors of over twenty-five hundred years old.