Jain Journal 1992 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 49

OCTOBER, 1992
hopeless text it is well-nigh impossible to decipher sizable parts of the codex or extort any connected meaning from it. It is thus a frustrating exercise to subject the Sarasvatamaṇḍana to a sustained appraisal. Nevertheless, a patient study and analysis of the text, as it exists throw up certain features which seem to settle down as the distinguishing characteristics of the vṛtti.
Mandana's gloss is a exhaustive and useful to unravel the mysteries of the Sarasvata Vyakaraṇa as a vṛtti on a grammatical text can be. The author has indeed made a commendable attempt to elucidate the Sarasvata text with his lucid gloss. His simple language and downto-earth style combine to prompt the reader to negotiate the jungle of the corrupt text with a modicum of grit taken together, the vṛtti reflects, in no small measure, the author's equipment in grammar which his biographer Maheśvara has underscored with warmth and frequency.2
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What strikes one most is Mandana's technique of resolving the text. While, in keeping with the norm, he has sought to deal with the Sarasvata Vyakaraṇa sequentially reproducing the sutras followed by his gloss thereon; not infrequently he chooses to be casual in merely paraphrasing the aphorisms in his language, without quoting them bodily. No serious offence may be taken against the method in so far as it serves to unfold the import of the relevant sutras, but it can hardly be claimed to be scientific or adequate enough to grapple with a tough discipline like grammar.
Mandana was actuated by the desire to make Anubhutisvarupa's text, the clearest possible. In order to realise his objective he has resorted to a variety of devices. The most fruitful has been the method to explain the more important/intricate sutras by dissolving the various compounds and/or paraphrasing the various units they are made of, much in the manner of a commentator on drama or poetry. His vṛtti is therefore brimming with expressions like vigṛhya vyacaṣṭe, spaṣṭattväd vyācaṣṭe, viseṣamāha. An idea of his anxiety to ensure transparence to his elucidation can be had from the gloss on so well-known a sūtra as janikartuḥ prakṛtiḥ. Says he janirjanidhātvartho jananamiti yāvat] janeḥ kartā janjkartā tasya prakṛtiḥ mūlakāraṇaṁ/etadeva spaṣṭatvad vyācaṣṭe/jāyamānasya karyasya mulakāraṇamapādānasamgam bhavati.3 He has not refrained from dissolving such simple compounds as stoḥ and
2 jāgradvyākaraṇaśca nāṭakaśubhālaṁkāravijñastathā, Kavyamanohara, I. 12 3 Sarasvatamaṇḍana (Ms), pp. 48b, 49a.