''Mahabhashya'' (, IAST: '','' , "Great Commentary"), attributed to
Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of
Sanskrit grammar from
Pāṇini
(; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE.
The historical facts of his life ar ...
's treatise, the ''
Aṣṭādhyāyī
The (; ) is a grammar text that describes a form of the Sanskrit language.
Authored by the ancient Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 6th c. bce, 6-5th c.BCE and 4th c.BCE, it describes the language as current in his time, specifica ...
'', as well as
Kātyāyana
Kātyāyana (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana ( century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India.
Origins
According to some legends, he was born in the Katya lineage origina ...
's ''Vārttika-sūtra'', an elaboration of Pāṇini's grammar. It is dated to the 2nd century BCE.
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. 250 BCE). Kātyāyana's work (nearly 1500 verses on ) is available only through references in Patañjali's work.
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
''Shiksha'' (, ) is a Sanskrit word, which means "instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill".Sir Monier Monier-Williams A DkSanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-Europ ...
'' (phonology, including accent) and ''
vyakarana'' (grammar and morphology). Syntax is scarcely touched, but ''
nirukta'' (etymology) is discussed, and these etymologies naturally lead to
semantic
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
explanations. People interpret his work to be a defence of
Pāṇini
(; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE.
The historical facts of his life ar ...
, 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.
Kātyāyana introduced semantic discourse into grammar, which was further elaborated by Patañjali to such an extent that ' can be called a mix of grammar as such as well as a ''philosophy'' of grammar. ''Kāśika-vritti'' by Jayāditya and Vāmana (mentioned by Itsing) included viewpoints of other grammarians also which did not conform to Patañjali's views.
The extant Mahābhāṣya text is available on 1228 of the 3981 sūtras of the Aṣṭādhyāyī. The Mahābhāṣya is divided into eighty five sections called āhnika consisting of subject matter of one day's study each.
Mentions and commentaries
*
Satyapriya Tirtha (c. 1701 – c. 1744), a pīṭhadhipati of
Uttaradi Matha belonging to
Dvaita school of Vedanta wrote a commentary on ''Mahābhāṣya'' named ''Mahābhāṣya Vivarana''.
*
James R. Ballantyne (c. 1813 – c. 1864) published the first part of the of Patañjali in 1856, for the first time opening native Indian grammatical tradition to a wider European scholarly audience.
* Mahabhashya Gopakrishna Shastri of Namasamudram in
Pudukottai a friend and contemporary of
Sadasiva Brahmendra has written a work "Saabtheeka Chintamani" on the Mahabhashya.
References
Bibliography
Editions
* In Sanskrit.
Secondary Literature
*
*
*
Further reading
* The ' of Patañjali with annotation (Ahnikas I–IV), Translated by Surendranath Dasgupta, Published by Indian Council of Philosophical Research
* ' of Patañjali (Śrīmadbhagavat-patañjali-muni- 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.
in CSX at GRETIL.
''VyaakaraN Mahaabhaashya''in Roman transliteration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahabhasya
Vyakarana
Sanskrit texts
Ancient Indian grammar works