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Paninian Sutras of the Type अन्येभ्योऽपि दृश्यते
George Cardona
1. The Mahābhāsya on Astādhyāyī 6.3.109 (yuta sifa Jellyfes) has a well known discussion concerning model Sanskrit speakers, referred to as frien:. The question is posed : If the śistas are the authority with respect to correct speech forms, what purpose does the Astādhyāyī serve? The answer is : The Astādhyāyi serves to make one know the sistas, as follows. Someone who is studying the Astādhyāyi observes that someone else, although he is not studying this grammar, uses the correct forms that are provided for therein. The student then reasons : Due to the grace of fate that is his or to his nature, this person uses the correct forms provided for in the Astädhyāyi without studying it. I reason that he knows other correct forms too?. According to Patanjali, then, a śista is not only a model for the correct speech forms explicitly provided for (fafer: 976T:) through operations stated in sūtras of the Astādhyāyī but he also knows other correct speech forms (PIAT Frife), which are not explicitly provided for in this manner. In this way, the Astādhyāyī serves not only to account directly for correct speech forms but also to account indirectly for such forms, by referring to the usage of accepted model speakers. As Hari puts it': the grammar serves as a means for conveying the correctness of items of the type 997 by virtue of their being sista usage, because one knows who the śistas are.
What Paninīyas say concerning Astādhyāyī 6. 3. 109 thus has important implications for the concept of what a grammar is supposed to accomplish. To begin with, a grammar is a means of explaining (3431CHW) through derivation the accepted usage that is the object of description. In addition, it is taken for granted that this usage includes open sets of items the grammar does not account for directly through description“, so that Pānini recognizes a living native language that is developing. The distinction in question is
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