Do You Speak Sanskrit On A Class Of Sanskrit Texts Composed In Late Middle Ages

SR No.: 269644
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler
Total Pages: 11
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 1

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DO YOU SPEAK SANSKRIT? ON A CLASS OF SANSKRIT TEXTS COMPOSED
IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
A. Wezler
1. In 1960 appeared-as No. 4 of The Maharaja Sayajirao University Oriental Series of the Oriental Institute, Baroda--a booklet of only 38 + 86 pages entitled Girvanapadamasjari and Girvanavārmañjari. According to the information given on the reverse of the title page it is "reprinted from the Journal of the Oriental Institute." The editor of these two short Sanskrit texts, and author of the "Introduction which is in fact only appended to the texts themselves.is Umakant Pre. manand Shah. In publishing them, however, he but took up, and carried out, a suggestion of P. K. (=Parashuram Krishna) Gode's, as is quite frankly stated by Shah himself. It is hence Gode to whom the credit goes for having first drawn attention to these texts and for having rec. ognized their importance, though mainly in terms of their cultural and historical significance only.
Of the two texts the first one, the Girvanapadamarlari (GPM), was composed by Varadaraja, the well-known author of the Madhya-, Laghu- and Sara-Siddhantakaumudi, i.e. "a medium, short and supershort version"-to use Cardona's (1976:287) apt rendering-of the Siddhantakaumudi of the famous grammarian Bhattoji Diksita, who was also his guru. Varadaraja "may be assigned to ca. 1600-1650
Viz. the Text" as "Supplement to Jol Baroda VII (1957-1958) and the Introduc tion" as "Supplement to Jol Baroda VIII (1958-1959) and IX (1959-1960), respectively Note that these supplements are not (normally) bound together with the journal in one vol ume
Shah 1960:4; cf. also Gode 1956:170. C. Gode 1941 [1954, in particular 195F (3241