Indian Antiquary Vol 14

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 41

FEBRUARY, 1885.]
STUDY OF HINDU GRAMMAR AND SANSKRIT.
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THE STUDY OF HINDU GRAMMAR AND THE STUDY OF SANSKRIT.
BY PROF. W. D. WHITNEY. To the beginning study of Sanskrit it was the Hindu science, after a however long history
1 an immense advantage that there existed of elaboration, became fixed for all fature time & Hindu science of grammar, and one of so high in the system of a single grammarian, named a character. To realize how great the advan- Panini (believed, though on grounds far from tage, one has only to compare the case of convincing, to have lived two or three centuries languages destitute of it--as for instance the before the Christian era). Paņini's work has Zend. It is a science of ancient date, and has been commented without end, corrected in even exercised a shaping influence on the minor points, condensed, re-cast in arrangement, language in which all or nearly all the classical but never rebelled against or superseded, and literature has been produced. It was an out- it is still the authoritative standard of good come of the same general spirit which is seen Sanskrit. Its form of presentation is of the in the so careful textual preservation and strangest : & miracle of ingenuity, but of tradition of the ancient sacred literature of perverse and wasted ingenuity. The only object India, and there is doubtless a historical con- aimed at in it is brevity, at the sacrifice of nection between the one and the other, though everything else-of order, of clearness, of even of just what nature is as yet unclear.
intelligibility except by the aid of keys and The character of the Hindu grammatical commentaries and lists of words, which then science was, as is usual in such cases, determin- are furnished in profusion. To determine a ed by the character of the language which was grammatical point out of it is something like its subject. The Sanskrit is above all things constructing a passage of text out of an inte an analyzable language, one admitting of the verborum. If you are sure that you have easy and distinct separation of ending from gathered up every word that belongs in the stem, and of derivative suffix from primitive passage, and have put them all in the right word, back to the ultimate attainable elements, order, you have got the right reading; but only the so-called roots. Accordingly, in its perfect- then. If you have mastered Panini sufficiently ed form (for all the preparatory stages aro to bring to bear upon the given point every unknown to us), the Hindu grammar offers us rule that relates to it, and in due succession, an established body of roots, with rules for you have settled the case; but that is no easy their conversion into stems and for the inflec- task. For example, it takes nine mutually tion of the latter, and also for the accompany- limitative rules, from all parts of the text-book, ing phonetic changes—this last involving and to determine whether a certain aorist shall be resting upon a phonetic science of extraordinary ajagarisham or ajágarisham: (the case is reported merit, which has called forth the highest in the preface to Müller's grammar). There is admiration of modern scholars. Nothing at all lacking only a tenth rule, to tell us that the approaching it has been produced by any whole word is a false and never-used formation ! ancient people, and it has served as the foundation Since there is nothing to show how far the in no small degree of our own phonetics, even application of a rule reaches, there are provided as our science of grammar and of language has treatises of laws of interpretation to be applied borrowed much from India. The treatment to them ; but there is a residual rule underlying of syntax is markedly inferior-though, after and determining the whole, that both the all, hardly more than in a measure to correspond grammar and the laws of interpretation must with the inferiority of the Sanskrit sentence in be so construed as to yield good and acceptable point of structure, as compared with the Latin forms, and not otherwise, and this implies and the Greek. Into any more detailed descrip- (if that were needed) & condemnation of the tion it is not necessary to our present purpose whole mode of presentation of the system as to enter, and the matter is one pretty well a failare. understood by the students of Indo-European Theoretically, all that is prescribed language. It is generally well known also that allowed by Påņini and his accepted commen.
Reprinted from the American Journal of Philology, Vol. V. No. 3.