Lesser Manuals and School-books Lesser Manuals and School-books/ 98. Lesser Manuals and School-books. The age of the really original grammarians was long over. It was suc- ceeded by that of able commentators and critics which continued as long as there was the necessity of under- standing and correctly interpreting a great author. When even this became a difficult task, there was nothing to be done but the writing of small and smaller manuals adapted to the comprehension of the lay understanding. We have seen how, in most of the schools of gram- marians worthy of the name, the declining age of each witnessed a host of such manuals and manuals of manuais. Even this, it would appear, was not enough. Out of the debris of these schools there grew up a spirit of eclecticism, and now we meet with grammatical hand- books which depend upon no system, and were written merely for a select circle of the uninitiated. These mushroom crops disappeared as fast as they were pro- duced. They were not written for posterity. Before we close this essay we shall take up a few typical works of this class. [-§ 98 115 I. Prabodhachandrika--A work not more than a hundred and fifty years old, being an elementary gram- mar treating in anushṭubh stanzas of the leading topics of grammar, the illustrative examples being connected with the names of Rāma. The author is supposed to be Vijjala-bhupati, the son of one Vikrama and Chandra vati and belonging to the Chauhāṇa race ruling at Patna. He wrote it for the benefit of his son Hirädhara. A com- mentary called Subodhini is written upon it by Gopālagiri doubtless a protege of the prince. 2. Bhoja-vyaharana by Vinayasundara-Written for the benefit of a king Bhoja, son of Bharamalla. This
