[INDOLOGY] 'catching the ocean in a cow's hoofprint'

[Nagaraj Paturi]

He concludes his article thus :

Patañjali then concludes that this method of individual enumeration,
pratipada-pāṭha, is equal to no method at all; instead, *a set of rules*
formulated with the general (sāmānya) and particular (viśeṣa) in mind would
allow us to understand *the enormity of language* with *little* effort.112
And this is what Pāṇini did: *with a small set of rules, he captured – as
the saying goes – the ocean in a cow’s hoofprint*.

He just says, " as the saying goes "

Antonia-ji is asking for the source of this saying and its Sanskrit
version.

On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 11:32 PM Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I thought it ws a reference to the brevity of AA and its vast coverage.
>
> On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 11:04 PM Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear Antonia,
>>
>>      There is a traditional verse that says that the words used by Vyāsa
>> were from the Ocean of Grammar composed by Mahendra.  Those jewels of words
>> cannot be found in Pāṇini's grammar which is like a Cow's Hoofprint.  This
>> is to say that the so-called ārṣa usages in the Purāṇas are not
>> ungrammatical, though they may not fit the [limited] grammar of Pāṇini.
>>
>> यान्युज्जहार माहेन्द्राद् व्यासो व्याकरणार्णवात् । पदरत्नानि किं तानि
>> सन्ति पाणिनिगोष्पदे ।।
>>
>>     This verse [according to secondary references] is found in
>> Devabodha's commentary on the Mahabharata.
>>
>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>
>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 8:12 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> In the BBC radio series 'Incarnations', the episode on Pāṇini is
>>> entitled 'Catching the Ocean in a Cow's Hoofprint', which it says is a
>>> description of what Pāṇini's work achieved.
>>>
>>> Can anyone tell me what the source of this expression specifically in
>>> reference to Pāṇini is? Textual/online searches for goṣpada- have not led
>>> me very far - but maybe I've been looking for the wrong word?
>>>
>>> (In case anyone doesn't know 'Incarnations' and wants to listen to any
>>> of the episodes:
>>> https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05rptbv/episodes/downloads)
>>>
>>> Many thanks and all the best,
>>>      Antonia
>>>
>>> —
>>> Dr Antonia Ruppel
>>> University of Oxford
>>>
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>
>
> --
> Nagaraj Paturi
>
> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>
>
> Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy
> BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
> BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
> BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.
> Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru
> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies,
> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>
>
>
>


-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.


Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy
BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.
Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru
Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies,
FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.


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