Reviews Of Different Books

Page 12

218 REVIEWS "Two explanations are possible for these two locatives: yusmady upapade and asmady [upapade) might be taken as imitations of the locativus absolutus of the object language ('when yusmad resp. asmad is an upapada), or the locatives denoting an upapada are extended incorrectly from that special metalanguage of the upapada section (3.1.92-3.4.117), where the locative has this special meaning ... - but then the word upapada would look rather superfluous." The whole of a later section (VIII, 46-47) is devoted to nontechnical formulations. I choose one example from this section, concerning which Scharfe says (46a), "It is more difficult to find the reason for the formulation of...." The rule in question is 5.3.71: avyaya-sarvanamnam akac prak teh "(The element) akac (, classed as affix, is added to) indeclinables and pronominals (, and it occurs) before the ti (of these units, not after them)' see notes 26, 29. Scharfe's comment on this rule is (46a): "Would *avyayasarvanamnam akac tau"/ak/ is added before the last vowel of indeclinables and pronouns' be materially different? To me it appears more as a question of style, which stresses Jak/ as an exception to /ka/ taught in a previous rule, occurring only in a limited field. The statement that this /ak/ is not suffixed but infixed before the last vowel, comes only as a corrective, an afterthought." These then are Scharfe's conclusions regarding Panini's use of the metalinguistic syntax he is supposed to have invented. According to Scharfe, Panini sometimes violates the style and spirit of this metalinguistic syntax and makes statements which include mere afterthoughts, statements which could as well be expressed otherwise in terms of his own metalanguage. At the same time Scharfe accepts (47b) L. Bloomfield's opinion that Panini's grammar is one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence. I find these two views hard to reconcile. I submit that Bloomfield was correct and that Panini did not commit the blunders Scharfe finds it necessary to attribute to him. Let us begin the evaluation of Scharfe's claims with a brief outline of some of the Sanskrit case uses for which Panini accounts.32 One use of the genitive is relevant in the present context. A genitive ending is introduced after a nominal base when there is to be denoted a relation which holds between what that base denotes and something else other than an action (2.3.50: sasthi sese); e.g., putrasya pita 'father of the son', vrksasya sakha branch of a tree'. For the locative two uses are to be noted. A locative ending is introduced after a nominal base if a locus is to be denoted (2.3.36: saptamy adhikarane ca); e.g., grame vasati 'is staying in the village'. Such an ending also occurs after a base if what is denoted by the latter is involved in an action which characterizes another action (2.3.37: yasya ca bhavena bhava-laksanam); e.g., brahmanesv adhiyanesv agatah 'He arrived while the Brahmanas were studying'. For the use of the ablative only one rule need be considered. An ablative ending is introduced after a nominal base construed with certain items, among them words which denote directions (2.3.29: ... dik-sabda ... yukte (pancami 28]); e.g., purvo gramat parvatah 'The mountain is east of the village'. Sanskrit is the language used by Panini in his grammar. The student of this grammar is assumed to know Sanskrit, to have a full knowledge of the uses accounted for by the rules noted. Panini does not have to describe to a student of his treatise the syntactic patterns the student knows. Now consider the following sentence types and examples. (a) tasya, tasya, ... tat (b) tasmin tat (C) tasmat ... tat where, however, kumbha + acc. should of course be kumbha+gen. and *kumbhan karah should be *kumbhanam karah. The reader is asked to correct these inadvertent errors. 32 The following is a brief exposition of what is dealt with fairly thoroughly in the paper alluded to in note 27. Full textual evidence is given in this paper, so that I do not think it necessary to give citations here.