Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 632

ALBERT THUMB/RICHARD HAUSCHILD: Handbuch des Sanskrit. Mit Texten u. Glossar.
Eine Einführung in das sprachwissenschaftliche Studium des Altindischen V. A'T'. I. Teil : Grammatik. 1. Einleitung u. Lautlehre. II. Teil : Formenlehre. Dritte, stark umgearbeitete Aufl. v. R' H' (Indogermanische Bibliothek, I. Reihe : Lehr- u. Handbücher). 8o XVI + 347 / XII + 492 p. Carl Winter Universitätsvig., Heidelberg (1958/59). DM 32,-- / 44,--
T's Handbuch des Sanskrit first appeared in 1905 in 2 parts : 1. Grammatik, and 2. Texte und Glossar. When the 1spl was out of print, HERMANN Hirt brought out a 2nd ed. in 1930. This was mostly a reprint of T's work with some corrections in the text, but all additions were given in the Nachtrag. The 2 vol.s under review are the 3rd ed. thoroughly revised by H'. (A 2nd ed. of the 2nd pt also enlarged and thoroughly revised by H' appeared earlier in 1953; cf. the review by C. REGAMEY in Erasmys, X <1957> 214-6.) T' intended to give an introduction to the historical study of Sanskrit since no such book was available for the use of the beginners. There were of course available good descriptive grammars of Sanskrit. But since Sanskrit was studied in the wider circle of comparative philologists, a good and convenient manual giving the position of Sanskrit as a language belonging to the IE. family was called for. The ground for this was already prepared by BRUGMANN'S Grundriss and WACKERNAGEL'S Altindische Grammatik, I. As regards the usefulness of the further publication of the vol.s (esp. III) of the Alt. Gr. in revising T's Handbuch, Hirt observed that "... ich habe nirgends einen Fall gesehen, wo mich Wackernagel veranlasst haötte, von meiner Auffassung abzugehen ..."H'. however, rightly does not agree with Hirt's view and has fully utilised for the 3rd ed. all the available vol.s of the Alt. Gr., DEBRUNNER'S additions to Vol. I, and RENOU'S Introduction gednedrale. Not only this. While trying to include in the body of the text of the 3rd ed. whatever was good and useful in Hirt's Nachtrag, H' found, "... dass die Ausbeute aus diesem 'Nachtrag' nicht allzu erfolgreich war, dass ich vieles als zu weit abgelegen ausscheiden musste und mancherlei mir auch gaönzlich unhaltbar dünkte".
Although H'has preserved the inner arrangement of the material presented in T's book, his revisions and additions give a new appearance and value to it. How meaningful the words 'stark umgearbeitete Auflage' are can be realised even by a look at the 2 vol.s. The matter which originally comprised a single vol. of 505 pages has now extended to 2 vol.s of 347 and 492 p. H' has wisely discarded in the new edition the superfluous use of the Nāgari script and the Brugmann's method of transliteration which is now no more in use. So far as the text of the Handbuch is concemed, whereas H' has thoroughly revised the Einleitung (e.g. in describing the position of Sanskrit among the Indo-European languages H' has widened the scope in both directions by bringing in Das Mittani-Indische on the one hand and by taking
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