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6.1 At this point, I would like to return to the possibility entertained at the beginning (1.3) of this exploration of parvata, the one in which parvata could be taken to refer to a person. Although the specific identifications proposed by Varma and Laddu are unacceptable (2.1-2), I do not consider the possibility itself a weak alternative. According to the Brhacchankara-vijaya of Vidyāraṇya-svāmin, quoted by Rāma-toşaņa Bhattācārya in his Prāna-toșiņī (p. 956), parvata is employed in the sense of a certain type of ascetic. Furthermore, Bhattoji Dīksita, in his Siddhānta-kaumudī on the Pāṇinian (2.2.34) rule alpāctaram and the vārttika abhyarhitam ca, gives as an example the expression tāpasa-parvatau. This example is sensible only if parvata is comparable in some way to tā pasa 'ascetic'. Thus, it is not improbable at all that parvata carried a meaning of the form 'an ascetic who is found in a mountain area, a wild ascetic, an ascetic given to extreme modes of ascetic conduct'.39 If this meaning is assigned to parvata in 486, one can explain at least two things: the occurrence of the brahma-rakşas 'brahmin ogre' element in the sīkā and Patañjali-carita accounts of Candra's achievement (see note 21a), and the use of a very general term like parvata by the author of 486 when we expect him to tell us how or where the vyākaraṇāgama was recovered. If parvata is taken to be expressive of location, then the author has been unexpectedly imprecise; he has not specified anything beyond a mountain in the South. On the other hand, if parvata is viewed as a word used in the rather specific asceticdirected sense, the author cannot be faulted for having used too general or too wide a term. It is not his expression
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| SR No. | 269664 |
| Book Title | Paninian Studies |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Ashok Aklujkar |
| Publisher | Ashok Aklujkar |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 47 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Article |
| File Size | 4 MB |