Sambodhi 2002 Vol 25

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 98

Vol. XXV, 2002
SARASVATĪKANTHABHARAŅ... was covered in ch. VII and the accent rules in ch. VIII - this is evident from its commentary.46 But at present only the first six chapters have come down to us. Many other systems of grammar came up in the first millenium of the Christian era but only the laukika portion was given a place in them.
3.2 Sarasvatīkanthābharana — the second great revised edition of Pāņini7
In 11th century A. D. Bhojadeva wrote a monumental grammatical work called Sarasvatīkanthābharana48 in eight chapters, each chapter in turn containing four quarters or pādas like the Astādhyāyī of Pāņini. The Sarasvatikanthābharana (SKĀ) is the biggest grammar of the sūtra style containing 6432 sūtras (see TABLE-I in section 5) in all. It is the only extant complete revised edition of Pāṇini in which the rules of accent and the Vedic morphology are also taken into account. It embodies all the suggestions and corrections of Vyādi, Kātyāyana, Patañjali, Jayāditya, Vāmana and the post-Paninian grammarians such as Śarvavarman, the author of Kātantra grammar, Candragomin and (Jain) sākatāyana. The vārttikas, istis, uņādi-sūtras, gana-patha, gana-sūtras, paribhāsas and phit-sātras have been incorporated by Bhoja in the body of the sūtra-pātha itself. Thus, the SKĀ can safely be placed next to the Astādhyāyī of Panini.49 The work itself was not known, except through citations, till about the first quarter of the 20th centuryso (S. K. Belvalkar does not make any mention of this work in his 1915 edition of Systems of Sanskrit. Grammar), when manuscripts of the work were discovered, all in Malabar. 51
In the SKĀ, unlike Astādhyāyī, all the samjñā sūtras are kept in the first pada of the first chapter, while the second pada contains all the paribhāsā sūtras. The unādi-sūtras are placed in the proper order in the krt-prakarana itself and form the first three pādas of ch. II. The first two pādas of ch. VIII contain the sūtras related to the Vedic morphology, while the accent rules of both laukika and Vedic Sanskrit are placed in the last two padas. The phit-sūtras are incorporated in the grammar of Bhoja in the svara-prakarana itself under the sutras VIII. 3.109-196. All the words of gana-patha are enumerated in the form of sūtras only in the respective places.
The strategy behind the preparation by Bhojadeva of the complete revised edition of Pāṇini is expressed in a very brief and compact form in one sentence by the Prastāvana writer, K. S. Mahādeva Šāstrī, thus :
"...lokavedobhayānugrāhakatvād-årsatvād bahubhir-adrtatvad vyākhyāśatairupavımhitatvācca sarvatomukhīm pratisthāmāsthāya prāvartamāne'smin