Bhasakautaliyam, otherwise known as Kautaliyambhasa is a Malayalam commentary of Kautaliya's 'Arthasastram'. It is the earliest commentary for 'Arthasastram' in any of the regional languages of India. If we exempt a good number of inscriptions, Bhasakautaliyam stands as the earliest prose text in Malayalam. The period of this text is tentatively calculated as the second half of 12th century C.E. Author of this commentary remains anonymous.
The original text 'Arthasastram' is in the 'sutra' and 'bhasya' form written in Sanskrit. This text deals with almost all aspects of topics such as political, administrative and revenue connected with the state and society. This text in modern sense, gives elaborate discussions on law, sociology and economics. The original text contains 15 adhikaranams with 180 prakaranams. On the whole, there are 6000 slokas in it. But Malayalam have the commentary of the first 7 adhikaranams only. The first 3 adhikaranams of the commentary were first published by erstwhile oriental Manuscript Library, Thiruvananthapuram in 1930, 1938 and 1945 respectively. The first two were edited by K. Sambasiva Sastri and the third by V.A. Ramaswamy Sastri. The adhikaranams from 4th to 7th were published from Madras by Dr. K.N. Ezhuthachan in 1960. Whether the author of this commentary has prepared commentary for the remaining 8 adhikaranams is not known. Ulloor S. Parameswara lyer, the great poet and historian of for the students of Malayalam language. Dr. K.N. Ezhuthachan is the first who undertook linguistic study on this text and opined that "it exhibits the genius of ancient Malayalam language, known only to a Keralite".
Index of Bhasäkautaliyam is the second part of S. Sarojini Amma's Ph.D. dissertation. (Grammar of Bhasakautaliyam. 1978). It consists of a scholarly prepared word index of Bhasakautaliyam choosing corpus from editions of K. Sambasiva Sastri (1930 part 1 & 1938 part II) V.A. Ramaswami Sastri (1945 III'd part) and K.N. Ezhuthachan (1960 IVth part). The verborum is arranged in the traditional order of Malayalam orthography. The author followed the method of morphological word i.e., as stem with grammatical suffixes. Each entry contains the leading word in Malayalam script and its phonemic roman transcription followed by meaning and grammatical tag in abbreviation and reference to the text.
The language of Bhasakautaliyam represent the early medieval period of Malayalam. The index of this work reveals the exorbitant influence of Sanskrit on Malayalam. Almost all Sanskrit syllables are found used in the diction. For the narration of a highly technical subject, the use of Sanskrit was inevitable. In the language planning the author of Bhasakautaliyam set forth a model in using Sanskrit words and phrases by keeping the genuineness of Malayalam language along with its Dravidian identity.
Bhasakautaliyam is not only a commentary of Arthasastram but also an elaborate interpretation by incorporating the contemporary information on the points envisaged in the original text from the background of Kerala context. For instance terms like ayiravar (thousand-they), ilankuru (an hair apparent), annurruvar (five hundred they), kalakattar (superintendent of tax), talinanňa (damsels), nurruvar (hundred they), patavaram (tenancy in which half of the produce is to be given to the owner), muraci (an ancient port town in west coast), curnni (river Periyar in Kerala), kalam (ship) etc., found in Bhasakautaliyam and early Malayalam inscriptions CC. 800-1200 CE) threw fresh light on the history of Kerala. References like antilan (fisher community), ayakar (washer men), atavaniyar (cloth merchants weavers), apupikal (bakers), ilavar (toddy tappers), karu (artist), panar (singers), vaniyar (traders), velampar (pole dancers) on trade and communities are also important for identifying the social hierarchy of Kerala society.
I have great pleasure to state that the Index of Bhasakautaliyam by S. Sarojini Amma is a welcome contribution to Malayalam studies.
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