Question on Patanjali

[Madhav Deshpande]

	We hardly know anything authentically about the personal life of
the author of the Mahaabhaa.sya.  There is a 17th century poem from a
south Indian poet Raamabhadra Diik.sita by the title Patanjalicaritam. 
That is probably the only detailed narrative, besides some stories in the
Haracaritacintaama.ni of Jayaratha.  All other info about Patanjali, his
date, place, etc. is extracted from the Mbh, and has been discussed and
debated for a long time.  You may find some of this discussion in the
collected works of R.G. Bhandarkar, Staal's Reader on the Sanskrit
Grammarians, and in the two books: 

	India in the Time of Patanjali, by B.N. Puri

	Patanjalikaaliin Bhaarat (Hindi), by Prabhu Dayal Agnihotri

			Madhav Deshpande

On Sat, 15 Mar 1997 Palaniappa at aol.com wrote:

> I would appreciate if anybody could give any biographical information about
> Patanjali, the author of Mahaabhaashya. The only thing I know is that he
> lived at the time of Pushyamitra Sunga. Do we know anything about his
> parents, lineage, teacher, teacher's lineage, place of birth, etc.? Also, is
> there any etymological explanation for the word Patanjali?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> S. Palaniappan
> 
>