The Rejection of the Variationist System: How Commentators Interpreted Pāṇini’s General Rule on taddhita-derivations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.28.2026.01.06Keywords:
taddhita, samartha, nityatva, Pāṇini, Kātyāyana, PatañjaliAbstract
On the basis of Bhate 1989 and Pontillo 2013, A 2.1.1 is assumed to create a variationist system between the phrase mentioned or hinted at in the wording of the single formation rule used to teach taddhitas and the output of the rule itself. This variationist system is hierarchically superordinate to other single optionality phenomena taught by vā, vibhāṣā, anyatarasyām.
The present paper aims to understand how this variationist system, which is consequently introduced by A 4.1.82 samarthānām pathamād vā, was rejected by commentators from Patañjali onwards by resorting to a morphologically oriented reading of A 4.1.82.
References
Primary Sources
A [Aṣṭādhyāyī] = Sharma, R. N. (ed., transl.). 1987–2003. The Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. 6 vols. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Candravyākaraṇa = Chandra Chatterji, K. (ed.). 1953. Candravyakarana of Candragomin. Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institut.
KV [Kāśikāvṛtti] = Sharma, A. et al. (ed.). 1969; 1970. Kāśikā, a Commentary on Pāṇini’s Grammar by Vāmana and Jayāditya. 2 vols. Hyderabad: Sanskrit Academy, Osmania University.
M [Mahābhāṣya] = Kielhorn, F. (ed.). 1880–1885. The Vyākarana-Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali. 3 vols. Bombay: Government Central Press. Quoted according to the third edition revised by K.V. Abhyankar. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1970.
Vt [Vārttikas] = Kātyāyana’s Vārttikas quoted according to M. [according to the third edition revised by K.V. Abhyankar]
VLK [Laghusiddhāntakaumudī] = Ballantyne, J. R. (ed.). 1961. The Laghukaumudī: a Sanskrit Grammar of Varadarāja with an English version. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
SK [Siddhāntakaumudī] = Panashikar, V. L. S. 2002. Siddhānta-Kaumudī with the Tattvabodhinī Commentary of Jñānendra Sarasvatī and the Subodhinī Commentary of Jayakṛṣṇa. Delhi: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratishthan.
Secondary Sources
Candotti. M. P. and T. Pontillo. 2004. Substitution as a Descriptive Model in Pāṇini’s Grammar. Towards an Opposition between Phonological and Morphological Level? In: R. Ronzitti and G. Borghi (eds ). Atti del Secondo Incontro Genovese di Studi Vedici e Pāṇiniani (Genova, 23 luglio 2003–15 ottobre 2003). Recco: Le Mani: 1–45.
Candotti. M. P. and T. Pontillo. 2010. The Autonomous Process of Denotation: Kātyāyana and Patañjali on the Limits of Analysis. In: P. Caracchi et al. (eds ). Tīrthayātrā. Essays in Honour of Stefano Piano. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso: 41–61.
Caracchi et al. (eds ). 2015. svabhāva in Grammar: Notes on the Early History of a Philosophical Term. In: R. Torella and G. Milanetti (eds). The Human Person and Nature in Classical and Modern India. Proceedings of the International Conference held at Roma, La Sapienza–Museo Nazionale di Arte Orientale ‘Giuseppe Tucci’ (MNAO) 14–15 marzo 2013, Supplemento 2 alla Rivista di Studi Orientali N. Serie, 88. Pisa –Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore: 85–110.
Caracchi et al. (eds ) 2026. Binary Structure of Pāṇini’s Syntax. In: V. D’Avella et al. Essays in Honour of S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma. Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry: 19–49.
Cardona, G. 1970. Some Principles of Pāṇini’s Grammar. In: Journal of Indian Philosophy 1(1): 40–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02346508.
Cardona, G. 1997. Pāṇini. His Work and Its Tradition. Background and Introduction. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Bhate, S. 1989. Pāṇini's Taddhita Rules. Poona: University of Poona.
Deshpande, M. M. 1980. Evolution of Syntactic Theory in Sanskrit Grammar: Syntax of the Sanskrit Infinitive -tumUN (Linguistica Extranea, Studia 10). Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers.
Deshpande, M. M. 1987. Pāṇinian Syntax and the Changing Notion of Sentence. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 68(1/4): 55–98. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41693313.
Houben, J. 1997. The Sanskrit Tradition. In: W. Van Bekkum et al. (eds ). The Emergence of Semantics in four Linguistic Traditions. Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishers: 51–145.
Joshi, S. D. (ed.). 1968. Patañjali’s Vyākaraṇa-Mahābhāṣya. Samarthāhnika (P. 2.1.1. (Publications of the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit Class C no. 3). Poona: University of Poona.
Joshi, S. D. and J. A. F. Roodbergen. 1994. The Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. Vol. 3. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Joshi, S. D. and J. A. F. Roodbergen. 1996. The Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. Vol. 5. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Katre, S. M. (ed., transl.). 1987. Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Kiparsky, P. 1979. Pāṇini as a Variationist. S. D. Joshi (ed.). Cambridge (Mass.)–Pune: MIT–Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit.
Pontillo, T. 2013. “Where the Sense is Intended although the Corresponding Speech Unit Is Not Employed”: The ekaśeṣa Case. In: G. Cardona (ed.). Vyākaraṇa across Ages. Proceedings of the 15th World Sanskrit Conference, Delhi, 5th–10th January 2012. Vol. 2 (Vyākaraṇa Session). New Delhi: DK Printworld: 97–132.
Pontillo, T. 2018. From the More Iconic to the Less Iconic Linguistic Form: Morphological Syntagms in Pāṇini. In: Atti Del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese 12 n.s.: 123–139. https://doi.org/10.13130/1972-9901/11432.
Scharf, P. M. 2013. Linguistic in India. In: K. Allan (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 227–257.
Scharf, P. M. 2021. Are taddhita Affixes Provided after prātipadikas or after padas? In: P. M. Scharf (ed.). Śabdānugamaḥ. Indian Linguistic Studies in Honor of George Cardona. Vol. 1. Vyākaraṇa and Śabdabodha. Providence: The Sanskrit Library: 125–169.
Scharfe, H. 2009. A New Perspective on Pāṇini. Torino: AIT.
Thieme, P. 1982. Meaning and Form of the Grammar of Pāṇini. In: Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 8–9: 3–34.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
