Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Panini, Abhinavagupta, etc.

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 1/7/99 11:37:55 AM Central Standard Time, emstern at NNI.COM
writes:

> The term pAtaJjalam, when it refers to a branch of learning in Sanskrit
>  literature, generally refers to the pAtaJjalaM yogaSAstram, rather than the
>  pAtaJjalaM mahAbhASyam. As South Indian Inscriptions Volume 14 is not
>  available to me at home, it is not clear to me if the interpretation of
>  pAtaJjalam as the mahAbhASyam is A.S. Ramanatha Ayyar's, or S.
>  Palaniappan's. What is the justification for the interpretation pAtaJjalam
>  = pAtaJjalaM mahAbhASyam for this inscription?

What I gave was a direct quote of what A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar wrote on page iii
of SII vol. 14. While some of Ayyar's paraphrasing regarding other texts may
be imprecise, I fully agree with him on the identification of pAtaJjalam with
maHAbhASya. This will become clear when we look at the actual Tamil text of
the inscription (p.56).

The inscription begins by describing tamizavEL as "taNTamiZOT(u)Ariya nUL
valla tamizavEL", i.e., tamizavEL who is an expert in cool tamil and Aryan
texts.  Then the relevant portion of the text reads, "maRai poruTTarican2a
mARun tamizkaL mUn2Rum varicaiyilamainta vaTanUl vakaiyu nIti nUlaiyu mEtaku
purANamum pAtaJcala mutaR pan2uvaR payan2kaLum meymaiyuNarn..."

maRai = Vedic texts
poruL = meaning, contents
tarican2am = darzana
ARu = six
tamiz = Tamil
mUn2Ru = three
varicai - order, series
amainta = established
vaTanUl = northern text (Sanskrit/Pali/Prakrit)
vakai = type
nItinUl = dharma zAstra
mEtaku = esteemed
purANam = purANa
pataJcalam = pAtaJjalam
mutal - beginning
pan2uval = text
payan2 = meaning, interpretation
meymai = truth
uNar = realize, understand

Thus tamizavEL is described as well-versed in the six darzanas which should
include the yoga system of pataJjali. (According to Monier Williams, the six
darzanas include [pUrva-] mImAnsASA by Jaim.; uttara-mImAnsA by bAdar.; nyAya
by gotama; vaizESika by kaNada; sAMkya by kap.; yoga by pat.) In that case,
why would pataJjali's yoga system be mentioned again. On the other hand, no
other grammatical text is mentioned other than pAtaJcalam.

Further the use of the term "pan2uval" is reminiscent of its use in the
preface to tolkAppiyam where it occurs as "pulam tokuttOn2E pOkkaRu pan2uval".

So, what the inscription refers to must be mahAbhASya. What is interesting is
that the person mentioned in the inscription was well-versed in not just one
text, mahAbhASya, but many texts beginning with mahAbhASya.

There are, of course, other inscriptions mentioning the teaching of
aSTAdhyAyI/ pANinIya in Tamilnadu. See "The Development of Education During
the Coola Period" by Mrs. Loganayagy Sivasubramaniam, pp. 7d1-11, Proceedings
of the Fifth International Conference-Seminar of Tamil Studies, Madurai, Tamil
Nadu, India, January 1981.

Regards
S. Palaniappan