Shiva sutras

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 10 Jul 2002, ken knight wrote:

> Namaste Jaldhar,
>
> Glad to to see Shailaja is blooming.
>

Actually her babbling sound a lot like vyakarana right now :-)

> I spent a week, many years ago, chanting this each
> morning with some people and could never get my tongue
> or memory to cope with  'khaphaChaThathachaTatav' but
> was able to end with a triumphant 'shaShasar'.  The
> trouble was that the people leading the group had no
> idea what it was all about

Chanting these sutras sounds a bit pointless.  Like chanting the Oxford
English dictionary.

> Do you know of the source text for Panini...or anybody
> else

Paninis' work is called the ashtadhyayi which describes all of Sanskrit
plus Vedic usages in about 8000 sutras plus 5 appendices.  Later Katyayana
made some corrections and emendations called Vartikas.  Patanjali (who
tradition says is the same as the author of the Yogasutras) wrote a
commentary on all of this called the Mahabhashya.  These three form the
authoritative standard on Sanskrit grammar.  However there were competing
systems of grammar too and over time they became more popular.  In the
14th century a Marathi Pandit living in Kashi, Bhattoji Dikshita
rearranged the sutrapatha in light of the innovations in a work called
Vaiyakarana Siddhanta Kaumudi.  This is what people study nowadays not
Panini per se.  Varadaraja Bhatta made three abridgements of the Siddhanta
Kaumudi for those who only wanted a "practical" knowledge of grammar
instead of an in-depth one.  They are: madhyama (approx. 4000 sutras),
laghu (approx. 1100 sutras) and sara (approx. 700.)  I personally have
only studied the laghu siddhanta kaumudi.  It was translated into English
by James Ballantyne in the 1800's and that translation has been reprinted
by Motilal Banarsidass.

>.....hearing these from the sounds of the damaru.
> Laksmana Jee(joo) does talk about hearing via the
> string as the highest, through the drum next and the
> spoken word beneath that. I find that interesting and
> would like to get at some authoritative texts.
>

As far as I know, Tantric speculation about language really doesn't have a
lot to do with vyakarana.  Though Nagoji or Nagesh Bhatta, the grandson of
Bhattoji and himself an important commentator in the Vyakarana school also
wrote on subjects such as the Chandi Path so perhaps he thought there was
a connection.  I couldn't tell you for sure.


--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/