''Mahabhashya'' ( sa, महाभाष्य, IAST: '','' , "great commentary"), attributed to

Patañjali Patanjali ( sa, पतञ्जलि, Patañjali), also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it i ...

, is a commentary on selected rules of

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 ...

from

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

's treatise, the ''

Aṣṭādhyāyī The (Devanagari अष्टाध्यायी) is a grammar that describes a form of an early Indo-Aryan language: Sanskrit. Authored by Sanskrit philologist and scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 500 BCE, it describes the language as cu ...

'', as well as

Kātyāyana Kātyāyana (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana (est. c. 6th to 3rd century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. पतञ्जलीमहर्षिः Patanjali Maharsh ...

'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. 150 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'' ( sa, शिक्षा IAST: ISO: Śikṣā) is a Sanskrit word, which means "instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill".Sir Monier Monier-WilliamsSiksha A DkSanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arra ...

'' (phonology, including accent) and '' vyakarana'' (grammar and morphology). Syntax is scarcely touched, but ''

nirukta ''Nirukta'' ( sa, निरुक्त, , "explained, interpreted") is one of the six ancient Vedangas, or ancillary science connected with the Vedas – the scriptures of Hinduism.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Nirukta" in The Illustrated Encyclope ...

'' (etymology) is discussed, and these etymologies naturally lead to

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and compu ...

explanations. People interpret his work to be a defence of

, 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 peetadhipathi of

Uttaradi Matha Shri Uttaradi Math (IAST:''Śrī Uttarādi Maṭha'') (also known as Uttaradi Peetha), is one of the main monasteries (matha) founded by Madhvacharya with Padmanabha Tirtha as its head to preserve and propagate Dvaita Vedanta (Tattvavada) outs ...

belonging to Dvaita school of Vedanta wrote a commentary on ''Mahābhāṣya'' named ''Mahābhāṣya Vivarana''. *

James R. Ballantyne James Robert Ballantyne (1813–1864) was a Scottish Orientalist. From 1832 to 1845 he was a master at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy in Edinburgh, teaching Persian Hindi and Arabic to prospective officers of the East India Company. Fro ...

(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.

References

Bibliography

Editions

* In Sanskrit.

Secondary Literature

* * *

External links

''vyaakaraN mahaabhaaShya''
in Devanagari.

in CSX at GRETIL.
''VyaakaraN Mahaabhaashya''
in Roman transliteration {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahabhasya Vyakarana Sanskrit texts Ancient Indian grammar works