Panini Sutra Vyakhya Purvarddha

Author(s): T Chandrashekharan
Publisher: T Chandrashekharan

Page 7

INTRODUCTION
The term Samskstam has got the special significance of denoting a language which is well refined. · As such it can be applied to any language that is refined. But since there is no other language which is as pure and as refined as Samskstam, the term has come to be applied only to this particular language.
There has been a criticism levelled against Samskft that it is too difficult to grasp both for the youngsters and the adults on account of its complex system of grammar. To some extent this is true but on that account its greatness is not in any way affected. On the other hand, it redounds to its greatness and superiority among the galaxy of languages in the world. No system of grammar is as precise as that of the Sanskrit language; naturally there must be some difficulty in learning such a grammar.
Of late, there have been attempts and demands from the public to simplily Sanskrit grammar. Any such attempt will not in any way make the learning of the language easier ; on the other hand the divinity of the language will be abused and it will lose its greatncss by falling down to the level of any other language. Instead of simplifying the system of Sanskrit grammar, attempts should be made to make the study of grammar easier and more interesting to keep up the sustained interest of the students. This does not mea a that the rules of grammar should not be studied in the usual proper way. What is necded is to make the students forget the monotanous and dry-as-dust nature of grammar by making them forget that they are merely getting by heart some rules which have no literary value. This has now been done by attempting to give the illustrations to the various Sūtras of Panini not in single words but by quoting from literary works of famous authors passages which contain the particular illustrations.
The present work, " Panini-Sūtra-Vyakhya " is a comparatively very recent .one compiled by one Viraragha väcarya with the main object of making thc study of grammar easy and interesting. He closely follows the order of the Sútras as given by Bhattoji Dikşita in bis Siddhanta Kaumudi. He has completely left out the Samjää, Sandhitraya and the S'abdadhikara and begins from Stripratyayaprakarapa. A few of the Sūtras are omitted probably due to their not requiring any illustrations. Similarly only a few Vārtikas are given under the respective Sūtras. The commentary is practically a reproduction of the Siddhanta Kaumudi,