Upanisads And Grammar On Meaning Of Anuvyakhyana

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269448/1

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Johannes BRONKHORST Upanisads and grammar: On the meaning of anuvyakhyana The word anuvyakhyana occurs four times in Vedic literature, three times in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, once in the Maitrayaniya Upanisad, and nowhere else. It always occurs in the following enumeration of literary works: rgvedo yajurvedah samavedo 'tharvangirasa itihasah puranam vidya upanisadah slokah sutrany anuvyakhyanani vyakhyanani Paul Horsch discussed some of the terms of this enumeration in his Die vedische Gatha- und Sloka-Literatur. The terms anuvyakhyana and vyakhyana, he argues (1966: 32), cannot but refer to texts that explain (vyakhya-). They must be predecessors of the later commentatorial literature. With regard to anuvyakhyana he expresses the opinion that this can only be an additional or extended vyakhyana (p. 32).2 This opinion is not unproblematic. The position of anuvyakhyana between sutra and vyakhyana suggests rather that, if anything, the vyakhyana is secondary to the anuvyakhyana, which in its turn might conceivably be some kind of commentary on the sutra. The enumera 1. BAU 2.4.10, 4.1.2, 4.5.11 ( SB 14.5.4.10, 14.6.10.6, 14.7.3.11) and MaiU 6.32. 2. The standard dictionaries offer the following translations: 'eine besondere Klasse von Schriften' (PW), 'eine best. Klasse von exegetischen Texten' (pw), 'that portion of a Brahmana which explains or illustrates difficult Sutras, texts or obscure statements occurring in another portion' (MW), 'That which comments on and explains Mantras, Sutras &c. ...; especially, that portion of a Brahmana which explains difficult Sutras, texts &c. occurring in another place' (Apte), 'n[om] de portions explicatives des Brahmana' (SNR). Professor D. Seyfort Ruegg has made the suggestion in a private communication that anuvyakhyana might be a graded vyakkyana, just as anusasana is a graded sasana, adapted to the needs of the person taught. While this may be true, I am not sure that it would solve the difficulty to be discussed below.

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188 Johannes BRONKHORST tion, moreover, seems to display a hierarchical structure, beginning as it does with the 'five Vedas' (itihasa and purana being occasionally referred to as 'the fifth Veda'; see Bronkhorst, 1989: 129f.) which supports the idea that anuvyakhyana is 'higher' than vyakhyana and 'lower' than sutra. A search for occurrences of the term anuvyakhyana in post-Vedic literature does not help to solve the problem. Sankara comments on the three words sutra, anuvyakhyana and vyakhyana in the following manner under BAU 2.4.10: sutrani vastusangrahavakyani vede yatha atmety evopasita (BAU 1.4.7) ityadinil anuvyakhyanani mantravivarananil vyakhyanany arthavadahl athava vastusangrahavakyavivaranani anuvyakhyananil yatha caturthadhyaye atmety evopasita ity asya yatha va anyo 'sav anyo ham asmiti na sa veda yatha pasur evam (BAU 1.4.10) ity asyayam evadhyayasesahl mantravivaranani vyakhyananil. The fact that two different explanations are given for the words anuvyakhyana and vyakhyana shows that Sankara was not at all certain about their meaning. According to him, anuvyakhyana is either the explanation of a mantra (mantravivarana) or the explanation of a concise statement of (ultimate) reality (vastusangrahavakyavivarana). In the latter case, vyakhyana is the explanation of a mantra. In other words, the distinction between anuvyakhyana and vyakhyana is not clear to Sankara. The term anuvyakhyana occurs in some other contexts, too, but always, as far I am aware, in passages that are clearly indebted to the Upanisadic enumeration. Horsch (1966: 32) already refers to the scholiast on Yajnavalkyasmrti 3.189, who explains bhasyani with anuvyakhyanani and vyakhyanani. Since Yajnavalkyasmrti 3.189. contains partly the same enumeration as the one we are studying, putting however bhasyani where our passage has anuvyakhyanani vyakhyanani, we can be sure that Horsch's scholiast copied our passage here. The term is also used by Nilakantha in his comments on savaiyakhya in Mahabharata 1.1.50 (= Cr.Ed. 1.1.48). Nilakantha states: savaiyakhyah vyakhyanam adhikrtya kto grantho vaiyakhyas tadyuktah yatha brahmavid apnoti param iti sutrasya vyakhya satyam jnanam iti mantrahl anuvyakhyanam tasmad va etasmad ityadi brahmanam! evam atrapi Upanisads and grammar prathame 'dhyaye sutritasyarthasya dvitiyatrtiyabhyam vyakhyanam uttaragranthenanuvyakhyanam cal. 189 This refers to TA 8.1.1 (8.2 in the edition accessible to me, see the note on p. 591; this passage is identical with TU 2.1), which reads, with extracts of Sayana's commentary: dvitiyasyanuvakasyadau ktsnopanisatsaram samgrahena sutrayati om brahmavid apnoti param iti I... idanim tasya sutrasya samksiptavyakhyanarupam kamcid rcam udaharati... satyam jnanam anantam brahma itil... tam etam anantyopapadanopayuktam srstim darsayati tasmad va etasmad atmana akasah sambhutah... itil. Interestingly, Sayana cites in this context the above enumeration from itihasa onwards, then explains the terms that interest us as follows (p. 563): brahmavid ityadikam sutram/ satyam jnanam ityadikam anuvyakhyanam anukramena sutragatanam padanam tatparyakathanat! tasminn upasamkhyane yo bubhutsito 'rthavisesas tasya vispastam asamantat kathanam vyakhyanam tad idam atra tavat tasmad va etasmad ity arabhyannat purusa ityantena granthenabhidhiyatel. Note that Sayana and Nilakantha use the terms vyakhyana and anuvyakhyana differently. (Sankara on TU 2.1 uses the word sutra in connection with the line brahmavid apnoti param, but does not refer to anuvyakhyana (p. 360): sarva eva vallyartho brahmavid apnoti param iti brahmanavakyena sutritahl sa ca sutrito 'rthah samksepato mantrena vyakhyatah punas tasyaiva vistarenarthanirnayah kartavya ity uttaras tadyrttisthaniyo grantha arabhyate tasmad va etasmad ityadihl)." How do we deal with the problem presented by anuvyakhyana in the Brhadaranyaka and Maitrayaniya Upanisads? Two observations are to be made here. The first one concerns the date of the enumeration in its present form, the second its correct shape. First the date. The portion of the Maitrayaniya Upanisad that contains our enumeration is considered by J.A.B. van Buitenen, who dedi 3. The expression anuvyakhyasyamah occurs in the Sadvimsa Brahmana (ed. B.R. Sharma, 5.6.1, p. 187) in a phrase which throws no light on our question; anuvyakhyasyami at Ch-Up 8.9.3; 10.4; 11.3 clearly means "I will explain further", as Hume (1931: 270f.) translates correctly.

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190 Johannes BRONKHORST cated a study to this Upanisad (1962: 34) - an accretion to an accretion to an insertion into the original Maitrayaniya Upanisad. This raises the question whether the enumeration containing anuvyakhyana might not be late, perhaps added, or completed, by a late redactor. With regard to the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, which is part of the Satapatha Brahmana, it is worthwhile to quote the following observation made by Michael Witzel (1987: 399 n. 76): The final compilation of [the Satapatha Brahmana], made up of several independent portions, is probably a comparatively late one; yet the compiler was able still to put cross-references into the Vedic text;...; the compilator still knew Vedic well enough to produce... sentences referring forwards and backwards in the text. On the other hand: the compiler was different from the (much later) redactor who seems to have lived many generations after Yajnavalkya, even according to the various Vamsas found in [the Satapatha Brahmana] and [the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad]. I suspect that he was a contemporary of the Kanva dynasty or the Satavahana dynasty. (This problem will have to be treated separately). It is only the redactor that was responsible for glorification of Yajnavalkya and for his authorship of the White [Yajurveda]; note that this information is added as the very last words of [the Satapatha Brahmana]...; note that the redactor already describes Janaka as presenting land to Yajnavalkya.... Yet even the Satakarni inscription, 2 cent. A.D., ... still mentions only presents of cows given as daksina to Brahmins, and not a donation of land.... Janaka is described as presenting land to Yajnavalkya at the end of BAU 4.2.4 (so Witzel, op. cit., p. 409 n. 99), not therefore at the very end of the Upanisad. This means that, according to Witzel, the redactor has made additions and modifications in other places than only at the end of the SB and of the BAU. The enumeration of texts containing the term anuvyakhyana might therefore conceivably be late, too. Let us next look at the exact form of the term anuvyakhyana. This term occurs only at the above indicated places of the Brhadaranyaka and Maitrayaniya Upanisads, always in the same enumeration, and in passages that implicitly or explicitly refer to this enumeration, so far as I am aware. This may mean that one single editorial hand, or even one scribal error, may have been responsible for this word, and for its occurrence in this enumeration. And the possibility cannot be discarded that this single editorial hand 'corrected' some other word into anuvyakhyana under the influence of the following vyakhyana. Upanisads and grammar 191 If we accept this last hypothesis, the most likely candidate for the original form underlying anuvyakhyana is, no doubt, anvakhyana. This word occurs a few times in Vedic literature, once, at GB 1.2.10, in another enumeration of literary works. The fact that one ms. of the Gopatha Brahmana has sanvyakhyanah instead of sanvakhyanah confirms our impression that anvakhyana could easily be 'corrected' into anuvyakhyana. We arrive, then, at the hypothetical conclusion that our list originally contained the three terms sutrany anvakhyanani vyakhyanani, in this order. Does this help us to reach some form of understanding? Consider first the pair sutra - anvakhyana. This reminds us of the manuscripts of the Vadhula Srautasutra, which contain both sutra and anvakhyana. Anvakhyana is here the term used for the brahmana-portion accompanying this Srautasutra. For, as Willem Caland (1926: 5 (307)) observed, [d]ie Texte der Vadhulas... haben... dieses Merkwurdige, dass zu dem Sutra ein eigenes Brahmana gehort, eine Art Anubrahmana, ein sekundares Brahmana, das neben dem alten Brahmana der Taittiriyas (oder vielleicht richtiger: neben einem alten Brahmana, das mit dem der Taittiriyas aufs engste verwandt ist) steht: eine noch nie in einem vedischen Sutra angetroffene Eigentumlichkeit. This secondary Brahmana of the Vadhula Srautasutra calls itself *Anvakhyana"." It is, in view of the above, at least conceivable that the author of our enumeration had the Vadhula Srautasutra in mind while adding anvakhyana after sutra (supposing that he actually did so). Interestingly, there is another set of texts that appears to be referred to by the terms sutra and anvakhyana. More precisely, this set consists of three texts, which are, it has been argued, referred to by the terms sutra, anvakhyana and vyakhyana respectively, i.e., by the very three terms that occur in this order in our enumeration. What is more, these texts were already referred to in this manner well before the beginning of our era. I am speaking about Panini's Astadhyayi, a 4. See Caland, 1928: 210 (510), 218 (518); Witzel, 1975: 102 n. 47. Witzel argues (1975: 82) that, in spite of the joint occurrence of Anvakhyanas and Vadhula Srautasutra in the same manuscripts, "Eine Zuordnung zum Srautasutra ist damit.... nicht notwendig gegeben."

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192 Johannes BRONKHORST Upanisads and grammar 193 Sutra-work on grammar commented upon in Katyayana's varttikas, which in their turn are discussed in Patanjali's Mahabhasya. The Mahabhasya is to be dated in the middle of the second century B.C.E. In order to substantiate the above claim, I now cite from an article by R.G. Bhandarkar, written more than a century ago (1876: 347): ... it seems that the verb anvacaste is used by Patanjali as characteristic of the work of Katyayana ... His own work Patanjali calls vyakhyana, and frequently uses the verb vakhyasyamah. Since khya replaces the root caks before ardhadhatuka suffixes by P. 2.4.54 (caksinah khyar), the noun corresponding to the verb anvacaste is anvakhyana. If then Bhandarkar is correct, Katyayana's varttikas form an anvakhyana, and Patanjali's Mahabhasya a vyakhyana, also in Patanjali's own terminology. It is clear that Patanjali's choice of words deserves to be subjected to a closer examination next varttika is meant to show the purpose of this anvakhyana,' which makes no sense if the anvakhyana does not derive from Katyayana. And on another occasion Patanjali ascribes the sentence under consideration to the acarya, and repeats it in a slightly modified way, as he often does with varttikas. In the one remaining case Patanjali uses the word anvacaste in order to describe the activity of the author of the preceding varttika (P. 1.1.44 vt. 16), who, thinking that words are eternal, teaches (anvacaste) the correctness of words actually in use." The terms anvakhyeya and anvakhyana are sometimes used in immediate connection with anvacaste. So in Mbh II p. 83 1. 20 - p. 84 1.1 (evam tarhy anvacaste 'nupasarga iti vartate itil naitad anvakhyeyam ...), III p. 27 1. 15 (the same with yani instead of anupasarga), III p. 349 1. 4-5 (same with upasargad), II p. 265 1. 1213 (evam tarhy anvacaste pautraprabhraiti vartate itil kim etasyanvakhyane prayojanam/). At Mbh I p. 209 1. 1 and 4 anvakhyana refers back to anvacaste on p. 208 1. 16, which here however refers to Panini. In one passage on P. 2.1.1 the sense 'additional communication suffices for anvakhyana (Mbh I p. 363 1. 12, 13 and 27). An additional communication regarding their meaning is given (in sutras like P. 2.2.24 anekam anyapadarthe, P. 2.2.29 carthe dvandvah, etc.) to words which are naturally endowed with those meanings, by way of condition of application. And later it is said that there is no use for an additional communication regarding the meaning of something whose meaning is known." The sense of anvakhyana and anvakhyayaka in the Bhasya on P. 1.1.62 vt. 1 (I p. 161 I. 17-18) is not relevant in the present investiga (i) The word anvacaste in Patanjali's Mahabhasya occurs most often in the expression acaryah suhd bhutva anvacaste, which expression appears to refer in all cases but one -- where it refers to Panini' - to Katyayana (see Bronkhorst, 1987:6f.). In four of the five remaining cases it can reasonably be argued that anvacaste has Katyayana as (understood) subject, even though Kielhorn's edition of the Mahabhasya contains no indication to this effect. They all occur in the following general context: X'iti vartatel evam tarhy anvacaste 'x' iti vartate itil The first part x'iti vartate is commented upon in the immediate sequel and can therefore be considered a varttika. This is confirmed by the fact that on one occasion Patanjali explicitly claims that the 5. At Mbh I p. 208 1. 16. the expression refers to the author of P. 1.2.32. This sutra (rascadita udartam ardhahrasvan) gives supplementary (anu) information concerning preciscly how much of the syarita is udarta, how much anudarta 6. Mbh II p. 83 1. 20 (on P. 3.1.106 vt. 1). p. 265 1. 12 (on P. 4.1.163 vt. 1); III p. 271. 15 (on P. 6.1.20 vt. 1), p. 349 1. 4 (on P. 7.4.24). 7. It is not printed as such in Kielhor's edition on any of the four occasions 8. See Mbh II p. 265 1. 12-15: pautaprabhtiti vartatelevant tarhy anvdcaste patraprabhrfiti, vartate it kimetasyon vahyane prayojanam/ fac ca daivadattyartham (vt. 2). 9. Mbh III p. 349 1. 4-5: upasargad iti vartale evamt farhy dcdyo invacasta upasargad ity anwartata itil. 10. Mbh I p. 104 I. 22-23: yasya punar nityah sabah prayuktunam asaw sudutum anvicasse 11. svabhavata etesan sabdanam elesy arthey abhinivistander nimittatvenanvakhyanam kriyale. 12. na khalv api nirjnatasyarthasyavakhyane kimcid api prayojanam asti.

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194 Johannes BRONKHORST Upanisads and grammar 195 tion because the Bhasya follows here the use of anvakhyana in the preceding varttika We can conclude from the above that anvakhyana and anvacaste carry the meaning additional communication wherever Patanjali uses these terms in his own right (i.e., where he does not borrow these words from the varttika he is explaining). This 'additional communication is in the vast majority of cases embodied in the varuikas of Katyayana. We see that Bhandarkar's remark to the extent that Katyayana's varttikas were known by the designation anvakhyana, and Patanjali's Mahabhasya by the name vyakhyana, is justified, but only to a certain extent. It is therefore at least conceivable that the terms anvakhyana and vyakhyana in our Upanisadic passage (supposing that the first of these two actually belongs there) refers to two-layered commentaries on Sutra works like what we find in the case of Panini's Astadhyayi. Here it must be observed that it is out of the question that the word sutra in our enumeration refers only to the Astadhyayi. There are many other Sutra works connected with Vedic literature, and there may have been even more when our list was made. Nor can we believe that no other commentaries were known to the author of the list. However, one can reasonably raise the question whether other two-layered commentaries were known to him. Suppose there weren't. Suppose further that our author had such a two-layered commentary in mind when he enumerated the three items sutra, anvakhyana, vyakhyana. In that case we cannot but conclude that he lived after Patanjali, i.e., after the middle of the second century B.C.E. All this should not blind us to the fact that the present interpretation of the terms anuvyakhyana (anvakhyana) and vyakhyana is no more than a conjecture. But even though a conjecture, it proposes an explanation for an otherwise obscure term. (ii) The word vyakhyasyamah occurs always, i.e. no fewer than 11 times, in connection with the Paribhasa vyakhyanato visesapratipattir na hi samdehad alaksanam "The precise (meaning of an ambiguous term) is ascertained from interpretation, for (a rule), even though it contains an ambiguous term, must nevertheless teach (something definite)" (tr. Kielhorn, 1874: 2). In all these cases the vyakhyana, i.e., 'interpretation' or 'explanation', is given by Patanjali himself. It can here be said that the Mahabhasya embodies the vyakhyanas. But in Mbh I p. 170 1. 17 vyakhyayate is used to show how a sutra is explained or interpreted in a varttika, viz. in P. 1.1.65 vt. 5. And Mbh I p. 111. 21-23 contains a brief discussion in which vyakhyana is explained to be not just the separation of the words of sutras, but to include, example, counterexample, and words to be supplied'. "Mbh I p. 12 1. 23-27 again rejects this position and returns to the view that separation of words of sutras is vyakhyana." None of these characteristics apply to the Mahabhasya. We must conclude that vyakhyana for Patanjali means 'interpretation' or 'explanation' in general, and that he applies the word most often, but by no means always, to refer to his own Mahabhasya. C.E. ABBREVIATIONS Apte V.S. 13. nanu ca tad eva sutram vigrhitam vakhyanam bhavati na kevalani carcapadani vyakhyanam vrddhih ar aijiti kim tarhil udaharanam pratyudaharanam vakytidhychara ity etat samuditam vyakhyanam bhavati. 14. yad apy weyate sabdapratipattir iti na hi satrata eva Sabdan pratipadyante kim tarhi vyakhyanatas ceti parihtam etad tad eva sutramt vigrhitam vyakhyanam bhavatitil nanu coktam na kevaldni carcapadani vyakhyanam wrddhih ar aij iti kim tarhi udaharanam pratyudaharanam vakyadhyahara ity etat samuditam vyakhyanam bhavanti avijanata etad enam bhavati sutrata eva hi sabdan pratipadyantel ... BAU Ch-Up GB MaiU Mbh MW Apte, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 3 vols., Poona 1957-1959. Byhadaranyaka Upanisad Chandogya Upanisad Gopatha Brahmana Maitrayani Upanisad Patanjali's Vyakarana-Mahabhasya Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford 1899. Paninian sutra

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Johannes BRONKHORST Upanisads and grammar 197 Otto Bohtlingk, Rudolph Roth, Sanskrit-Worterbuch, 7 Bde., St. Petersburg 1855-1875. Otto Bohtlingk, Sanskrit-Worterbuch in kurzerer Fassung, 4 Bde., St. Petersburg 1879-1889. Satapatha Brahmana N. Stchoupak, L. Nitti, L. Renou, Dictionnaire sanskrit-francais, Paris 1932. Taittiriya Aranyaka Taittiriya Upanisad BIBLIOGRAPHY Nilakantha. In: Mahabharatam with the Commentary of Mlakantha, 1: Adiparva. Printed and published by Shankar Narhar Joshi, at Chitrashala Press, Poona. 1929. Patanjali: Vyakarana-Mahabhasya. Edited by F. Kielhorn. Third edition by K.V. Abhyankar. 3 vol. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Re search Institute. 1962-72. Sankara: Sankarabhasya. In: Ten Principal Upanisads with Sankarabhasya. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. (Works of Sankaracarya, 1.) 1964 Sayana. In: Krsnayajurvediyam Taittiriyaranyakam, Srimat Sayanacaryaviracitabhasya-sametam, tatra saptamaprapathakad arabhya dasamaprapathakaparyanto 'yam saparitisto dvitiyo bhagah. Poona: Anandasrama. (Anandasramasanskrtagranthavali, 36.) 1981 Sharma, Bellikoth Ramachandra (ed.)(1967): Sadvisa Brahmana, with Vedarthaprakasa of Sayana. Tirupati: Kendriya Sanskrit Vi dyapeetha (Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Series, 9.) van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1962): The Maitrayaniya Upanisad. A critical essay, with text, translation and commentary. 's-Gravenhage: Mouton. (Disputationes Rheno-Trajectinae, 6). Witzel, Michael (1975): "Eine funfte Mitteilung uber das Vadhulasutra." Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, 1, 75-108. Witzel, Michael (1987): "The case of the shattered head." Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, 13/14 (Festschrift Wilhelm Rau), 363-415. Bhandarkar, R.G. (1876): "Acharya, the friend of the student, and the relations between the three acharyas." Indian Antiquary, 5, 345-50. (Reprinted in: Collected Works of Sir R.G. Bhandarkar I, 136-47). Bronkhorst, Johannes (1987): Three Problems pertaining to the Mahabhasya. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. (Post-graduate and Research Department Series No. 30, Pandit Shripad Shastri Deodhar Memorial Lectures, Third series). Bronkhorst, Johannes (1989): "Veda." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 70, 125-135. Caland, Willem (1926): "Eine dritte Mitteilung uber das Vadhalasutra." Acta Orientalia, 4, 1-41, 161-213. Reprint: Kleine Schriften (Stuttgart 1990), 303-396. Caland, Willem (1928): "Eine vierte Mitteilung uber das Vadhulasutra." Acta Orientalia, 6, 97-241. Reprint: Kleine Schriften, 397-541. Horsch, Paul (1966): Die vedische Gatha- und Sloka-Literatur. Bern: Francke. Hume, Robert Ernest (1931): The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, translated from the Sanskrit. Second edition, revised. Reprint: Ox ford University Press, 1975. Kielhorn, F. (1874): The Paribhasendusekhara of Nagojibhatta. Part H: translation and notes. Second edition by K.V. Abhyankar. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 1960. RESUME Dans la litterature ancienne, le terme anuvakhyana ne se rencontre que dans une enumeration d'ouvrages litteraires qui est repetee trois fois dans la Brhadaranyaka Upanisad et une fois dans la Maitrayaniya Upanisad. Cette enumeration a la forme suivante: rgvedo yajurvedah samavedo 'tharvangirasa itihasah puranam vidya upanisadah slokak sutruny anuvyakhyanani vyakhyanani La forme anuvyakhyana suggere qu'il s'agit d'un vyakhyana additionnel ou etendu, sa position entre sutra et vyakhyana suggere le contraire que le vyakhyana est secondaire a l'anuvyakhyana, qui, a

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198 Johannes BRONKHORST son tour, pourrait vraisemblablement etre une sorte de commentaire sur le sutra. De plus, en commencant par les 'cinq Vedas' (on se refere occasionnellement a itihasa et a purana comme 'le cinquieme. Veda'), l'enumeration semble montrer une structure hierarchique qui sous-tend l'idee qu'anuvyakhyana est 'plus haut que vyakhyana et 'plus bas' que sutra. Une tentative de solution a ce probleme est ici presentee a la lumiere de l'ancienne litterature grammaticale.