Paninyavykaranodharanakosah: La grammaire panineenne par ses exemples; Paninian Grammar through Its Examples, vol. III.2: Tinantaprakaranam 2: Le livre des formes conjuguees 2; The Book of Conjugated Forms 2.

Scharf, Peter M.

Pninyavykaranodharanakosah: La grammaire panineenne par ses exemples; Paninian Grammar through Its Examples, vol. III.2: Tinantaprakaranam 2: Le livre des formes conjuguees 2; The Book of Conjugated Forms 2. By F. GRIMAL, V. VENKATARAJA SARMA, and S. LAKSHMINARASIMHAM. Rashtriya Sanskrit University Series, no. 202; Collection indologie 93.3.2. Tirupati: RASHTRIYA SANSKRIT UNIVERSITY; Pondichery: ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT; INSTITUTE FRANCAISE DE PONDICHERY, 2009. Pp. xviii + 971. Rs. 600.

As I pointed out in my review of volumes I-II of Paninian Grammar through Its Examples (JAOS 129.4 [2009]: 715-19), the volumes of this work provide valuable lexical access to the sophisticated linguistic analysis undertaken by the Indian grammatical tradition. These volumes thereby complement both works dealing with P[a.bar]ninian grammar systematically and translations of and commentaries on grammatical texts in the extensive Indian linguistic tradition. Paninian Grammar through Its Examples serves as a lexical resource by providing semantic and cultural information embedded in the derivation of words [i.bar]n the P[a.bar]ninian grammatical system while it serves as a research aid and educational resource by providing examples of how the Minim derivational system works. Resulting from a collaboration of French and Indian scholars, these volumes transmit traditional learning in an accessible form.

The work under review is the second part of the third volume in the series of nine planned volumes of Paninian Grammar through Its Examples. Volume 111.2 deals with the conjugation of verbal forms treated in most of the second half of Bhattojid[i.bar]ksita's Tinanta-prakarana (prakaranas 53-63). These sections concern the formation of the causative (nij-anta), desiderative (san-anta), intensive (yan-ants, ya[n.bar]-luk), denominatives (n[a.bar]madh[a.bar]tu, kandv[a.bar]di), the provision of middle ([a.bar]tmanepada) versus active (parasmaipada) verbal terminations, and the passive (karma-prayoga), stative (bh[a.bar]va-prayoga), and detransitized (karma-kartr) verbs. The first part of volume III will deal with the first half of the Tinanta-prakararta (prakaranas 43-52), concerned with the ten classes of roots classified principally according to the production of their present stems, and with the meaning of tenses and moods (prakarana 64, the Lak[a.bar]r[a.bar]rtha-prakarana). The present volume includes 1449 examples found in Bhattojid[i.bar]ksita's Siddh[a.bar]ntakaumud[i.bar] and 68 additional examples drawn from Patanjali's Mah[a.bar]bh[a.bar]sya, Jay[a.bar]ditya and V[a.bar]mana's K[a.bar]sik[a.bar], and Purusottamadeva's Bh[a.bar]s[a.bar]vrtti.

As in volume II, entries are composed primarily in Sanskrit in Devanagari script, and headwords, consisting in this volume of inflected verb forms, are listed in Sanskrit alphabetic order (pp. 1-921). Each entry provides references to the commentaries where the example is found, an analytic paraphrase in Sanskrit with translations in French and English, a step-by-step derivation of the form, and explanatory notes in Sanskrit.

The volume has six indices. A s[u.bar]tra index (pp. 925-32) lists, under each of the 198 s[u.bar]tras in the sections included in the volume, the examples in the derivation of which the rule provides a step. There is a similar index of v[a.bar]rttikas and ganas[u.bar]tras referenced in the derivations and notes (pp. 933-39). An alphabetical index of roots lists the examples derived from each root (pp. 941-53), and an alphabetical index of technical terms (pp. 955-59) refers under each entry to the s[u.bar]tras that deal with that term. Finally there are two alphabetical indices of examples, one (pp. 961-65) with examples classified by section (prakarana) and one (pp. 967-71) with examples classified by tense/mood sign (lak[a.bar]ra). The volume contains a two-page foreword in English by Harekrishna Satapathy, vice-chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit University in Tirupati, and an introduction paralleled in three languages: Sanskrit (pp. i-vi), French (pp. vii-xii), and English (pp. xiii-xviii).

To show the kind of information easily accessible in this volume that is not available in standard lexical sources one may look no further than the very first example: akavayit '... behaved like a poet'. Paninian Grammar through Its Examples 111.2 explains that the form is the third person singular aorist active of a denominative root formed from the nominal stem kavi in the sense 'to behave like'. Monier Williams (p. 263c) does include a root kav, but gives only the forms k[a.bar]vayati, -te, formed with the causative affix nic, in the meaning 'to compose (as a poet)'. Neither Monier Williams, nor Bohtlingk and Roth, nor any other bilingual Sanskrit dictionary provides any information to account for the example given in the meaning 'imitate a poet'.

A comment is called for regarding translation in the case of the karmakartr-prayoga. The karmakartr-prayoga contains a detransitized verb, that is, a transitive verb used intransitively. It is not reflexive. However, the authors give a reflexive English translation of some of the karmakartr examples: "The mat made itself" (p. 3), "[The verse] composed itself" (p. 9). Yet the Sanskrit sentence ak[a.bar]ri katalz svayam eva (p. 3) does not mean "The mat made itself," implying that the mat as agent performed action on itself as direct object, but rather "The mat got made all by itself." The mat, properly the direct object of action, takes the sole role of agent in the sentence while simultaneously being the locus of the action. Derivational operations occur as if it were the direct object (i.e., as in the passive voice). Such a translation of these cases would be in line with the better translation of the karmakartr forms elsewhere: ap[a.bar]ci "(The rice) cooked of itself" (p. 114) (the verb 'cooked' here is intransitive), "[The cow] gave milk of itself" (p. 85), "[The stick] bent of itself" (p. 98), "[The piece of wood] broke of itself" (p. 142).

Paninian Grammar through Its Examples is the most comprehensive and systematic work yet to provide a thorough explanation of examples in P[a.bar]ninian texts. The second volume (dvit[i.bar]yah samputah) of the third part (trt[i.bar]yah bhagah) of the edition of the K[a.bar]sik[a.bar] edited by P. Sri Ramachandrudu and V. Sundara Sarma (Sanskrit Academy Series, no. 32; Hyderabad: Sanskrit Academy, Osmania University, 1985) contains (pp. 1-241) an index of examples cited in the K[a.bar]sik[a.bar]. The index provides reference to the s[u.bar]tras under which the example is cited without explanation. Ramanath Sharma's The Ast[a.bar]dhy[a.bar]y[i.bar] of P[a.bar]nini (vols. 1-6, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1987-2003) contains extensive appendices called "Derivational History of Examples" (vol. 2, pp. 317-526 with an index pp. 531-38; vol. 3, pp. 673-788 with an index pp. 792-802, etc.), providing a prose description of the derivation and an explanation of what the citation of the example is intended to show. Entries for examples that occur early in the K[a.bar]sik[a.bar] contain step-by-step derivations while subsequent entries abbreviate the derivations while making reference to similar procedures or steps in earlier entries.

Paninian Grammar through Its Examples differs from Sharma's appendices in that each entry stands on its own with a systematic derivation and prose description without reliance on cross reference. Convenient as such an approach is, it naturally entails a great deal of repetition. In volume 3.2 the entries for the first two verbs treated, akavay[i.bar]t and akav[a.bar]y[i.bar]t, are almost identical--including references, analytic paraphrase, derivation (steps 1-10, 13-17), and note. Only steps 11-12 of the derivation differ (guna by 7.3.84 versus vrddhi by 7.2.1 in step 11, and e--> ay versus ai--> [a.bar]y by 6.1.78 in step 12). A great deal of repetition occurs in entries that differ only in the preverbs and augments attached to identical verb forms as in adhikurute, utkurute, ud[a.bar]kurute, upakurute, upaskurute, kurute, prakurute, and vikurute. Steps 1 and 3-8 of eight-or nine-step derivations are identical, as is most of the note.

So much repetition occurs that the required differentiation of similar entries sometimes has escaped the editors themselves. The third and fourth verbs ak[a.bar]mi 1 and ak[a.bar]mi 2 are identical in form; yet the first is a simple aorist passive and the second the passive of a derived root. The derivations differ: the second is derived with the affix niti. However, the entire note on the fourth entry ak[a.bar]mi 2 is identical to that on the third entry ak[a.bar]mi 1. Yet in the fourth entry the second sentence, "The form ak[a.bar]mi occurs ... under the option of the absence of nin," is inapplicable. This derivation does provide the affix nisi. Clearly a copy-and-paste operation was misapplied. It is hoped that the authors continue the monumental plan of their extremely valuable work with some additional care concerning the fine points of editing and translation mentioned above.

PETER M. SCHARF THE SANSKRIT LIBRARY