Page:Systems-of-Sanskrit-Grammar-SK Belvalkar.pdf/70

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Systems of Sanskrit Grammar § 46 -] ing already incorporated in the Paniniya school through the Kasika. Mainly however we must look to the cause of its disappearance in its non-secular character. Being the work of a Buddhist for the Buddhistic community, it shared the fate of Buddhism, and having obtained vogue for a few centuries it gradually ceased to be cared for, its aid being invoked in later times only for the sake of justifying an otherwise unjustifiable word, or for point- ing out and rejecting such of its rules as went counter to the established system of grammar. The Graminar, we are told, is still extensively studied in Tibet. 62 In Ceylon its fate was different. Being a Buddhistic country we expect the Chandra system to be diligently studied there. As a matter of fact, the current Sanskrit grammar in Ceylon belongs to the Chandra school, but we shall look in vain for any original Mss. either of the Chandra-sūtras or of commentaries thereon. The reason is that about 1200 A. D. a Ceylonese Buddhistic priest, Kaśyapa by nanie, wrote a popular recast of the Chandra grammar called Balavabodha. It corresponds to Varadaraja's Laghu-kaumudi in treatment and subject-matter. The work was so popular in Ceylon that it quite superseded the original Chandra text, with the résult that all other Chandra works have disappeared in course of time, just as the works of the pre-Pāṇiniya grammarians did after the advent of Panini. Under these circumstances, it is quite impossible to pursue any further the history of the Chandra school of grammarians in India. The Jainendra School 47. The Jalnendra School.--The traditional author of the aphorisms of grammar which go under this name is Jina or Mahavira, the last of the Tirthankaras. The tradition