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An investigation of the earlier subject matter of ...
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questions partly asked and partly not-asked', but this conception seems to be fabricated only. On the nomenclature of the text, no cogent evidence is available supporting the contention that the earliest subject matter of Praśnavyākaraṇa existed in the form of questions and their explanations or even related to occult sciences as maintained by Samavāyānga and Nandīsūtra. No doubt, a tradition of dividing the texts into Praśnas was very much in vogue in ancient times. Its most outstanding example is Dharmasūtra of Apasthamba where the subject matter of text has been divided in two praśnas. Thus the parts of the book were called praśnas. There are 11 patalas in the first Praśna and 11 patalas in the second Praśna. Though the entire text has no question-answer form. The subject matter of Dharmasūtra of Baudhayana is also divided into praśnas. Hence it would not be appropriate to hold that due to being related to the occult sciences the text was given the name as Pras'navyākaraṇa. Earlier it was named as Vāgaraṇa-gantha (vyākaraṇa-grantha). It has been mentioned by the same name in Rṣibhasita.2
The subject matter of Praśnavyākaraṇa
The subject matter of Praśnavyakaraṇa is undoubtedly different as mentioned in other texts. It is worth consideration as to how this transformation took place. If we go through the available references related to the subject matter of Praśnavyākarana keeping the chronological order in mind, the reason behind the changes in the subject matter comes clearer.
(A) Sthānānga
The earliest reference regarding the subject matter of Praśnavyākaraṇa is found in the Sthānānga-sūtra3. Here Praśnavyākarana is enumerated in ten Daśās with following ten chapters:
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(1) Upamā (2) Samkhya (3) Ṛṣibhäṣita (4) Acāryabhāṣita (5) Mahavirabhāṣita (6) Kṣobhikapraśna (7) Komalapraśna (8) Adarśapraśna (9) Anguṣṭharpraśna and (10) Bahupraśna.
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