Padmanabhadatta was a

Sanskrit grammarian Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

. He is a successor to the grammarian

Pāṇini , era = ;;6th–5th century BCE , region = Indian philosophy , main_interests = Grammar, linguistics , notable_works = ' (Sanskrit#Classical Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit) , influenced= , notable_ideas=Descript ...

, and the author of a

Sanskrit grammar The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminating ...

text ''Supadmavyākaraṇa''. He is considered the founder of the Supadma School.

Life

Padmanabhadatta was born in a Brahmin dynasty of

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepal ...

in the 14th century. His father's name was Damodaradatta. Their lineage begins with Vararuchi, who was the king poet of

Kalidas Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

along with

Vikramaditya Vikramaditya (IAST: ') was a legendary king who has been featured in hundreds of traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi'' and ''Singhasan Battisi''. Many describe him as ruler with his capital at Ujjain (Pataliputra or Pratis ...

. In the year 1427, Padmanabhadatta introduced his lineage in his book ''Prishodaradivritti''. Hara Prasad Shastri has written that Padmanabhadatta was a resident of Bhorgram which was situated a few miles from

Darbhanga Darbhanga is the fifth-largest city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Bihar situated centrally in Mithila region. Darbhanga is the headquarters of the Darbhanga district and the Darbhanga division. It was the seat of the erstw ...

Works

Padmanabhadatta composed the ''Supadmavyākaraṇa'' around 1375 A.D. ''Supadmavyākaraṇa'' grammar is written in

Bengali alphabet The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet ( bn, বাংলা বর্ণমালা, ''Bangla bôrṇômala'') is the alphabet used to write the Bengali language based on the Bengali-Assamese script, and has historically been used to w ...

, making it accessible to the Bengal provinces by removing the complexity of Sanskrit grammar. The text is based on Pāṇini's '' Ashtadhyayi'', but remodeled and rearranged with explanatory notes. The main objective of Padmanabhadatta was to make knowledge of Sanskrit grammar clear and simple and to Sanskritize the new words that developed in the language. The work became most popular in Vangala. Due to the simplicity and importance of ''Supadmavyākaraṇa'', several commentaries were written on it. Padmanabhadatta himself has written a commentary on his grammar named ''Panjika''. Apart from these, commentaries have been written by Vishnu Misra, Ramchandra, Sridharchakravarti and Kasishvara on Supadma Vyakarana. Among them Vishnu Mishra's ''Supadmakaranda Tika'' is considered the best. Another work by Padmanabhadatta is a lexicon of synonymous and homonymous words called ''Bhüriprayoga.'' The work is divided into three parts, the homonyms part being bigger than the synonyms. The work was cited in the later thesaurus ''

Amarakosha The Amarakosha (Devanagari: अमरकोशः , IAST: ''Amarakośaḥ'' , ISO: ''Amarakōśaḥ'') is the popular name for ''Namalinganushasanam'' (Devanagari: नामलिङ्गानुशासनम् , IAST: ''Nāmaliṅgānuś� ...

'' by

Amarasimha Amarasimha ( IAST: Amara-siṃha, c. CE 375) was a Sanskrit grammarian and poet from ancient India, of whose personal history hardly anything is known. He is said to have been "one of the nine gems that adorned the throne of Vikramaditya," and a ...

. Other works as stated in his ''Prishodradivritti'' include ''Unadivritti'' (collection of aphorisms on word formation derived by means of unddi suffxes)'', Prayogadipika'', ''Dhatakaumudi'', ''Yelugadivrutti'', ''Definitionvritti'' and others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Padmanabhadatta 15th-century Indian writers Bengali writers Sanskrit grammarians