English
It mentions the Prilkrit dialects, and represents itself as written after P&nini, but not, as MadhusAdana Sarasvati pretends, by P&nini.^ Yet it is curious to see how great a reputation this small work must have gained, because S&yana, who knows the Prd,ti^khyas and quotes both from the j§&kala and Taittirtya-prfipti6fi,khya, regards this small tract as the real Ved&nga. In a Mimfi,ns& work, which has been mentioned before, Some6vara's Tantra- and again : \46 rLV^ pblX-TisAkhtas. . -kS. it seexns even as if greater *ii^ "'distributed to this short Siksha tra^t t^a^ f^ aeveloped and evidently older works of g '^ . _-AvaTia, and others. ^*^ these works on ^ikshA which have l vSuTt,*.^ the x****^ '"*^^r<3^^f.a*"from"th7 T^Hti^rl^^yaka. aown to envtxrx-^^^^^r Jdfi-nga, we possess another tract on Sak ^-ca-ll-^^ Vf^d<lki-&iksh&.i But this also IB prob. r.alle<3. ***^-i^„ later than the SAtra period, and i a T>ro^*^** only in so far as it bears the naHi impoi-*^^^,,,ra,aaoftheRig-veda,theM&nd<ikayan o firms what was pointed out before, and ^^^^^%^^^ol^ 6Akh&s had originaUy its own Pr&l each O^ *^^ \jk^^ ^^ greater number of them, as live] ^ ^ ^^r-^ o^ Siksha is mentioned by Raja Xtadlial 1 j^xxo^^^^ ^^^ ^^^YxicY^ be has dedicated to the Vedangas ii in tho t:**^^^^'^^ -j^ma, and for which Amara and Sharata are qi as aui:l.oei^ ^ ^ QaJ^^^I: ^NjT <.ctjlf<ch| f T|4r ^^ "^^ -mr:^ **** *^® Sfi,kala-pratisa.khya also seems to p •r''^ -an^T^ -<d*i<jn^ oted in the 6akala-pr&ti6&khya, I. 200. CHHAJn)AS. 147 tbeir Mantra texts, are now lost or preserved only under a more modem form, as may be seen in the case ofthisM&ndiiM-siksha. Ohhandas, OB Metbe. The second Ved^ga doctrine, Chhandas or metre, stands very much in the same position as the i^ikshH. Some names which have been afterwards adopted as the technical designations of metres, occur in some of ihe Mantras of the Rig-veda, and there are frequent allusions to metres in the Brdiimanas. What is said, however, in the Brfi.hmanas with reference to metres, is generally so full of dogmatic and mystical ingredients as to be of scarcely any practical use. In the Aranyakas and Upanishads whole chapters are devoted to this subject. Yet it is again in the SMras only that a real attempt has been made to arrange these archaic metres systematically. We have some chapters on metres at the end of the i§llkala-pr£bti4d,khya, written in l^aunaka's usual style of mixed Slokas. This treatise is anterior to that of K4ty&yana which we find in the introduction to his SarvlLnukraraa, because K&ty&yana is the pupil of Saunaka, as we shall see hereafter. For the metres of the S&ma-veda we have the Ni- d&na-sAtra in ten prap&thakas, which, after ex- f^laiiung the nature and different names of all the Vedic metres, gives a kind of index (anukramani) to the metres as they occur in the hymns em- ployed at the Ek&ha, Ahina, and Sattra sacrifices. As to Pingalan&ga's work on Chhandas, which is most frequently quoted under the title of VedHnga, it does not pretend to be of greater antiquity than L 2 CHHANDAS* > supposing it were admitted that Lthor of this famous commentary le same as Pingala.^ There would aordinary in the fact that Pingala • as well as Sanskrit metres. For ance of K&ty&yana-Vararuchi, who :a8 on Pfi,nini and lived before Pa- l to be the same who wrote a gram- •it dialects. It must be admitted, galan&ga's Metric is one of the last possibly be included in the SMra re is no sufficient ground for exclud- lod altogether, merely because those to metres not yet employed in the to the same Pingala. Besides, Pin- ,n authority on metres in the Pa- • literature which does not seem to he SMra period by a long interval, of Chhandas works to wliich Pin- \gs, and which are not restricted but are intended for the Veda in works are added by the com- cala-pr&.ti6&khya, the one ascribed to Saitava.^ Both these works, lost at present. leouB Essays, ii. 63. jSee Dr. Both's preface to tlie Niruki^ CHHANDAS. 149 The difference between a Chhandas work belonging to one of the S&kh^, and those treatises which are occupied with metre in general, may be seen from the following instance. According to Pingala's SAtras, a metre of seventy- six syllables is called Atidhriti, a metre of sixty- eight syllables Atyashti. Now Rv. i. 127, 6. a verse occurs of sixty-eight syllables which ought therefore to be called an Atyashti. According to Pingala him- self, however, some syllables may be pronounced as two*, and if we follow his rules on this point, the same verse consists of seventy-six instead of sixty-eight syl- lables. In order, therefore, to remove the uncertainty attached to the metre of this verse, the Chhandas chapter in the i§&kala-prfi.ti6fi.khya (towards the end of the 16th Patala) declares that according to the tradition of the !§d,kala or l§ai6ira-6&kh&, this verse is to be pronounced as an Atidhriti, i. e. with seventy-six syllables. The same direction is given in K&ty&yana's index to the l§&kala-sanhit&. p. 10. ; and quaere whether in the Sakala-pratis. xvil. 25. one might read xfrf q ^TT^t instead of xfrf q^TT^J m the com- mentator proposes. Saitava is the pupil of Paradarya and divided by thirteen teachers from Yaska. Cf. Brih. Aranj. Kanva. ii. 6. 2y 3.; Indische Studien, i. p. 166. n. ipingak, 3. 1. xn^ i<iif<y.u!:B T^n^i ^^ 4^Ri<ifi<f?i f^ 1^ ^: ^m r^i^m^iw 1.3 \^ ^^^iUy^ ^^ty as to supersede ^^. ^^t n,eHu ^ .*^** ^^ on granular i^rore C^ !? *^* Ofc!!^ <^e- we have littie i^f* of this hr^Lu'^^ -r ''•"es ^^•fene. the ^-^^'^^Itd ^1'^^^ '^"^' ow by a compari^o of pI^'^!^^ ^n ^*^ ^<^S ^^Z'^'^kh A /*' ^^t; c^^> ^t^ir^ vyAkarana. 151 subjects, which belong te> a period anterior to P&nini : the SAtras on the Un^di affixes, and the Siitras of SAntanAch&rya on accents. The Un4di affixes are those by which nouns are formed from roots, the nouns being used in a conventional sense, and not in strict accordance with their radical meaning. They are called Unftdi, because, in the SAtras as we now pos- sess them, un is the first-mentioned affix. That P^ini was acquainted with the same arrangement of these formative affixes cannot be doubted, because he uses the same technical name (un&di) for them. We do not know by whom these Un&di affixes were first collected, nor by whom the Un&di-sAtras, as we now possess them, were first composed. All we can say is, that, as PiLnini mentions them, and gives several general rules with regard to them, they must have existed before his time. But how many of the SAtras existed before the time of Ktnini, and how many were added afterwards, is a question that can hardly be solved. In their present form the SAtras seem to treat the Vedic words as exceptions, at least they give now and then a hint that a certain derivation applies to the Chhandas only. Neverthe- less it is curious to observe that the greater number of words, explained by the genuine Unfi.di-siitras, are Vedic, some of them exclusively so. If the author of the SAtras had intended his rules for the Bh4shl^ there would have been no reason why he shoald have paid such prominent regard to words of a purely Vedic character. In fact, I believe, that originally the Un^di-sAtras were intended for the Veda only, and that they were afterwards enlarged by adding rules on the formation of non- Vedic words. At last the non- Vedic or laukika words assumed such a prepon- h 4 NIBUKTA. ^l,at some rules, affecting Vedic words on^, & '*^^ , ^lly to be inserted as exceptions. It a ciear i^'^^^X be drawn between words purely Vedic and 5<:^^^2ver used in the Veda, and if the SAtras V& ** to the former were separated from those of ac-i*^^ ^]ass, we might perhaps arrive at the on- ^-<^*^tt; of tVis interesting work. This, howeyer, L *^^er-tki"g which would require a more com- ■^-'^ ^ and more critical knowledge of the history ^^^^^*^^ j^j^ges of India, than any scholar at present ^^^^^^ooxnmand. ^-*-^ ^A^jjt Etna's PhitsAtras, we know with less cer- **^ -vvl*^* period they belong. JL know^ledge V -^ not presupposed by PAnini, and the ^^^'^-^sil terms used by ^^ntana are different tjn^-**^ ^.iriployed by P&nini, — a fact from which *^*^^_^^>Jitlingk has ingeniously concluded, that '^*^^^j^^* have belonged to the eastern school of ■^^ ^ra^-*^ -^^ ^**^ever, these Si^tras treat only ^^^^ ^^ .