Ebook: Tradition and Argument in Classical Indian Linguistics: the Bahiraṅga-Paribhāṣā in the Paribhāṣenduśekhara

This book was written as a doctoral thesis. It was submitted to and accepted by the University of Poona in 1979. Several people contributed to the creation of this book, in various ways. Prof. S.D. Joshi, my supervisor, introduced me to the study of the Sanskrit grammatical tradition. His unfailing skepticism towards and disagreement with the ideas worked out in this book contributed more to their development than he may have been aware. Prof. Paul Kiparsky gave encouragement when this was badly needed. In the years following 1979 Dr. Dominik Wujastyk was kind enough to read the manuscript and suggest improvements in language and style. To all of these lowe a debt of gratitude, but most of all lowe such a debt to Pandit Shivarama Krishna Shastri. In the course of several years he read with me many portions of Nagesa's grammatical and other works, and much besides. His ability to understand difficult grammatical and philosophical texts in Sanskrit was unequalled, and without his help it would have taken far longer to write this book and indeed might very well have proved impossible. Shivarama Krishna Shastri never saw the result of our reading; he died before this book could appear in print. I dedicate it to his memory. J. BRONKHORST Xl INTRODUCTION In the following pages an attempt will be made to establish that the part of Nagesa's Paribha$endusekhara (PS) which deals with Par.;I: N?ge?a's Interpretation of the BP -- 1. The Structure of N?ge?a's discussion -- 2. The Meanings of A?ga -- 3. The Justifications of the Paribh??? -- 4. Restrictions on the Use of the BP -- 5. The Two-Word Principle -- 6. Summary and Illustrations -- II: More from the P? on PAR. L -- 7. Some Difficult Passages in the Discussion of Par. L (I) -- 8. Some Difficult Passages in the Discussion of Par. L (II) -- 9. Vaidyan?tha P?yagu??a and?e??drisudh? -- 10. An Apparent Contradiction Resolved -- 11. Excursus: On the Development of Certain of N?ge?a's Ideas Regarding the Philosophy of Grammar -- 12. A Use of BP2 in the Context of BP1 -- III: The Remainder of the P? -- 13. Par. LI -- 14. Further Passages from the P? -- IV: What Went Wrong? -- 15. Vaidyan?tha P?yagu??a on Par. L -- 16. Concluding Remarks -- Appendices -- I. The Original Text of the Paribh??endu?ekhara on Par. L -- III. On the Relative Chronology of N?ge?a's Grammatical Works -- IV. Changes in N?ge?a's Opinions Regarding the BP and the NP -- Notes.