[INDOLOGY] asti as copula

[Nagaraj Paturi]

asti in theory is discussed in the shaastra texts of Vyaakarana Nyaaya and
Meemaamsaa for different purposes.

In Vyakarana , Vakyapadiyam discusses asti as 'implied' (or present in the
'deep structure' ) at several different occasions.

For example, it mentions it as implied when a single word works as a
sentence.

yac cāpy ekaṃ padaṃ dṛṣṭaṃ caritāstikriyaṃ kva cit /
tad vākyāntaram evāhur na tad anyena yujyate // BVaky_2.270 //

On Sat, May 4, 2024 at 11:17 PM jason.cannon-silber--- via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear members of the Indology listserv,
>
> I have recently been wondering about the nature of the copula in Sanskrit
> grammar (both in theory and in practice), and specifically whether and how
> often the form *asti* is used as a copula in Classical Sanskrit. I am
> sorry if this subject has been raised before on this list, but from my
> search of the archives it seems it has not been addressed directly.
>
> Any user of Sanskrit will know that there need be no word meaning "to be"
> (i.e., no copula) in a sentence expressing that "X is Y" (i.e., a nominal
> sentence). But from the exchange between Profs. Deshpande and Bronkhorst in
> the pages of *Annals BORI*, I gather that at least some *vaiyākaraṇa*s
> understood there to be a "silent," copulative *asti* in such nominal
> sentences as *Devadattaḥ pācaka odanasya* or even *Rāmo gataḥ*. (Whether
> Pāṇini himself was likely to have had such an understanding was there the
> *vivādāspada*.)
>
> On the other hand, I have been told by someone whose knowledge of Sanskrit
> usage I hold in high esteem that authors of classical Sanskrit almost never
> use *asti* in this way, and that such usage might even be considered
> wrong. This same person has suggested to me that (part of) the reason for
> this may lie in the fact that technical terms derived from the form *asti*
> (please bear in mind that I am speaking here only of the form *asti*, not
> of forms of the root *as-* in other tenses, persons, or numbers), such as
> *āstika* or *astitva*, are invariably connected with *asti*'s existential
> (or perhaps "adessive") meaning. I have noted that Speijer seems aware of
> no such avoidance, and gives a couple examples of what he understands to be
> copulative *asti* from the story literature (*Sanskrit Syntax* §§2-3).
>
> I would therefore like to know if there is any literature discussing this
> avoidance (or perhaps even proscription) of using *asti* as copula. A
> pre-modern discussion would be especially interesting, but I would also
> appreciate further secondary resources, or even your own thoughts.
>
> With best wishes,
> Jason Cannon-Silber
>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
Dean, IndicA
BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
BoS Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Ramtek, Maharashtra
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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