Mahābhāṣya

The Mahābhāṣya (Sanskrit: महाभाष्य, IPA: [mɐɦaːbʱaːʂjɐ], "great commentary"), attributed to Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of Sanskrit grammar from Pāṇini's treatise, the Aṣṭādhyāyī, as well as Kātyāyana's Vārttika-sūtra, an elaboration of Pāṇini's grammar. It is dated to the 2nd century BCE.^[1][2]

Overview[]

Patañjali is one of the three most famous Sanskrit grammarians of ancient India, other two being Pāṇini and Kātyāyana who preceded Patañjali (dated to c. 150 BCE). Kātyāyana's work (nearly 1500 vārtikas on Pāṇini) is available only through references in Patañjali's work.^[3]

It was with Patañjali that the Indian tradition of language scholarship reached its definite form. The system thus established is extremely detailed as to shiksha (phonology, including accent) and vyakarana (grammar and morphology). Syntax is scarcely touched, but nirukta (etymology) is discussed, and these etymologies naturally lead to semantic explanations. People interpret his work to be a defense of Pāṇini, whose Sutras are elaborated meaningfully. Patañjali also examines Kātyāyana rather severely. But the main contributions of Patañjali lies in the treatment of the principles of grammar enunciated by him.^[4]

Kātyāyana introduced semantic discourse into grammar, which was further elaborated by Patañjali to such an extent that Mahābhāṣya can be called a mix of grammar as such as well as a philosophy of grammar.^[5] Kāśika-vritti by Jayāditya and Vāmana (mentioned by Itsing) included viewpoints of other grammarians also which did not conform to Patañjali's views.^[6]

Mentions and commentaries[]

• Satyapriya Tirtha (c. 1701 - c. 1744), a peetadhipathi of Uttaradi Matha belonging to Dvaita school of Vedanta wrote a commentary on Mahābhāṣya named Mahābhāṣya Vivarana.^[7]
• James R. Ballantyne (c. 1813 – c. 1864) published the first part of the Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali in 1856, for the first time opening native Indian grammatical tradition to a wider European scholarly audience.^[8]

References[]

Bibliography[]

Editions[]

• Franz, Kielhorn (1892–1909). The Vyākaraṇa-Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali (2 ed.). Bombay: Government Central Book depot.CS1 maint: date format (link)

Secondary Literature[]

• Cardona, George (1997). Pāṇini: A Survey of Research. Motilal Banarsidass Publications. ISBN 978-81-208-1494-3.
• Malkovsky, Bradley J. (2001), The Role of Divine Grace in the Soteriology of Śaṃkarācārya, BRILL, ISBN 9004120440
• Kahrs, Eivind (1998), Indian Semantic Analysis: The Nirvacana Tradition, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521631884

Further reading[]

• The Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali with annotation (Ahnikas I–IV), Translated by Surendranath Dasgupta, Published by Indian Council of Philosophical Research
• Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali (Śrīmadbhagavat-patañjali-muni-viracitaṃ Pātañjalaṃ Mahābhāṣyam) by Patañjali (in Sanskrit), Publisher: Vārāṇasī : Vāṇīvilāsa Prakāśana, 1987-1988., OCLC: 20995237
• Bronkhorst, Johannes, 1992. Pāṇini's View of Meaning and its Western Counterpart. In, Maxim Stamenov (ed.) Current Advances in Semantic Theory. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. (455-64)
• Scharfe, Hartmut, 1977. Grammatical Literature. Vol. V, Fasc. 2, History of Indian Literature, (ed.) Jan Gonda. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
• Staal, J.F. (ed.), 1985. A Reader on Sanskrit Grammarians. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass.

External links[]

• vyaakaraN mahaabhaaShya in Devanagari.
• vyaakaraN mahaabhaaShya in CSX at GRETIL.
• VyaakaraN Mahaabhaashya in Roman transliteration