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A. WEZLER
The Adyar Library Bulletin Brahmavidya Golden Jubilee Volume vol. 50 1986
CATTLE, FIELD AND BARLEY:
A NOTE ON MAHABHAṢYA I 337. 24-27 (STUDIES IN PATANJALI'S MAHABHAṢYA III)
1.
By a foot-note (on p. 652) Pdt. Sukhlal Sanghvi and Pdt. Bechardas Doshi-in the marvellous edition of Siddhasena Diväkara's Sammatitarkaprakarana together with Abhayadevasüri's Tattvabodhavidhāyini1 we owe to them-my attention was recently drawn to a passage of the Mahabhasya (=Bh.) which seems to call for a closer study. It significance does not, however, lie in the field of grammar itself, but-as in quite a number of similar instances too-in something which is only implied or simply presupposed by Patanjali when giving an example for the operation of a certain grammatical rule. As for the present case, it is in connection with the view, discussed in the Tattvabodhavidhayini, that vanaspati-s are cetand that the learned editors refer their readers to the Bh. (and a number of related texts); and the passage which they also quote, though only in part, is indeed likely to testify to the fact that Patanjali shared the view of the 'animateness of plants'; but this has to be
