A History of Sanskrit Literature c20.s3: Grammar

c20.s3.1

On the native grammatical literature see especially Wackernagel, *Altindische Grammatik*, vol. i. p. lix. *sqq.* The oldest grammar preserved is that of Pāṇini, who, however, mentions no fewer than sixty-four predecessors. He belonged to the extreme north-west of India, and probably flourished about 300 b.c. His work consists of nearly 4000 sūtras divided into eight chapters; text with German trans., ed. by Böhtlingk, Leipsic, 1887. Pāṇini had before him a list of irregularly formed words, which survives, in a somewhat modified form, as the *Uṇādi Sūtra* (ed. by Aufrecht, with Ujjvaladatta's comm., Bonn, 1859). There are also two appendixes to which Pāṇini refers: one is the *Dhātupāṭha*, "List of Verbal Roots," containing some 2000 roots, of which only about 800 have been found in Sanskrit literature, and from which about fifty Vedic verbs are omitted; the second is the *Gaṇapāṭha*, or "List of Word-Groups," to which certain rules apply. These *gaṇas* were metrically arranged in the *Gaṇaratna-mahodadhi*, composed by Vardhamāna in 1140 a.d. (ed. by Eggeling, London, 1879). Among the earliest attempts to explain Pāṇini was the formulation of rules of interpretation or *paribhāshās*; a collection of these was made in the last century by Nāgojībhaṭṭa in his *Paribhāshenduçekhara* (ed. by Kielhorn, Bombay Sansk. Ser., 1868 and 1871). Next we have the *Vārttikas* or "Notes" of Kātyāyana (probably third century b.c.) on 1245 of Pāṇini's rules, and, somewhat later, numerous grammatical *Kārikās* or comments in metrical form: all this critical work was collected by Patanjali in his *Mahābhāshya* or "Great Commentary," with supplementary comments of his own (ed. Kielhorn, 3 vols., Bombay). He deals with 1713 rules of Pāṇini. He probably lived in the later half of the second century b.c., and in any case not later than the beginning of our era. The *Mahābhāshya* was commented on in the seventh century by Bhartṛihari in his *Vākyapadīya* (ed. in Benares Sansk. Ser.), which is concerned with the philosophy of grammar, and by Kaiyaṭa (probably thirteenth century). About 650 a.d. was composed the first complete comm. on Pāṇini, the *Kāçikā Vṛitti* or "Benares Commentary," by Jayāditya and Vāmana (2nd ed. Benares, 1898). In the fifteenth century Rāmachandra, in his *Prakriyā-kaumudī*, or "Moonlight of Method," endeavoured to make Pāṇini's grammar easier by a more practical arrangement of its matter. Bhaṭṭoji's *Siddhānta-kaumudī* (seventeenth century) has a similar aim (ed. Nirṇaya Sāgara Press, Bombay, 1894); an abridgment of this work, the *Laghu-kaumudī*, by Varadarāja (ed. Ballantyne, with English trans., 4th ed., Benares, 1891), is commonly used as an introduction to the native system of grammar. Among non-Pāṇinean grammarians may be mentioned Chandra (about 600 a.d.), the pseudo-Çākaṭāyana (later than the *Kāçikā*), and, the most important, Hemachandra (12th cent.), author of a Prākrit grammar (ed. and trans. by Pischel, two vols., Halle, 1877–80), and of the *Uṇādigaṇa Sūtra* (ed. Kirste, Vienna, 1895). The *Kātantra* of Çarvavarman (ed. Eggeling, *Bibl. Ind.*) seems to have been the most influential of the later grammars. Vararuchi's *Prākṛita-prakāça* is a Prākrit grammar (ed. by Cowell, 2nd ed., 1868). The *Mugdhabodha* (13th cent.) of Vopadeva is the Sanskrit grammar chiefly used in Bengal. The *Phiṭ Sūtra* (later than Patañjali) gives rules for the accentuation of nouns (ed. Kielhorn, 1866); Hemachandra's *Lingānuçāsana* is a treatise on gender (ed. Franke, Göttingen, 1886). Among European grammars that of Whitney was the first to attempt a historical treatment of the Vedic and Sanskrit language. The first grammar treating Sanskrit from the comparative point of view is the excellent work of Wackernagel, of which, however, only the first part (phonology) has yet appeared. The present writer's abridgment (London, 1886) of Max Müller's Sanskrit Grammar is a practical work for the use of beginners of Classical Sanskrit.