The English translation of Mugdhabodha is now released for the world of scholarship for close reading.
The work conscientiously done by Ms. Nairrita. Bhattacharya consulting the available manuscripts at Calcutta and Trivandrum and the published versions of Mugdhabodha is a piece of labor of love
The undivided Bengal was a center of learning in Logic and Grammar. The Buddhists who wielded considerable influence in the carly centuries of Christian era and later the Christian missionaries started centers for learning. For a few decades, Calcutta was the Capital of India. This opened up the spread of English education. The universities, Nalanda in East Bihar and Vikramshila now in East-Bengal were far-famed universities where literature and grammar were looked at carefully in the early centuries.
In the article, Tree of knowledge, it was mentioned that the number of students in Bengal taking up grammatical studies was more than in other parts of the country.
It is no surprise that, the study of Panini and the non-Paninian grammars were dominant in the curriculum of the students in Bengal. The ancillary works for the study of Panini and other grammars like Katantra were numerous. The texts of these grammars were taken to Tibet and Nepal most probably from West-Bengal.
When the late Profs. S. K. Chatterji and Sukumar Sen mentioned in the house which accommodated all three, including me, for six weeks in the early fifties in connection with the first winter school of Linguistics convened by Dr. S. M. Katre, the well-known Paninian scholar, remarked that Mugdhabodha was an adaptation of Panini without the technical terms. This staid on in my mind for decades. When Nairrita Bhattacharya showed proficiency in Grammar, she was advised to translate Mugdhabodha for a wider circulation of the work.
S. K. Chatterji was partially correct in saying that, Mugdhabodha did not follow the technical terms of Panini. It is a student introduction to Panini. It is a contraction and adaptation of that famous grammar for the benefit of students.
The adoration for Panini until recently in India, quoting Bloomfield and Goldstucker, needs critical examination. The translation of Mugdhabodha will certainly help in this effort.
Mugdhabodham Vyakaranam is a Sanskrit grammatical text by Vopadeva, written in the last days of Hindu independence in the Maratha country ie. in the second half of the 13th century A.D. (Shastri 1931; Vol-VI, p. Ixxx). It was written during the reign of Mahadeva, the last but one king in the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri, the name of which was changed into Daulatabad, by Muhammad Bin Tughlaq who wanted to transfer the capital of India from Delhi to it. The king Mahadeva had a minister, who was an architect, an engineer, a chief justice and a general in one person, named Hemadri who had a friend named Vopadeva. The derivation of the name as given by Durgadasa Vidyavagisa, an annotator of the Mugdhabodha, is rather curious. U means Siva, and A means Vishnu and U and A Va. And a worshipper of these two deities will he called Vopadeva. Vopadeva was the son of Kesava who practised medicine. Perhaps he was an army surgeon, for Vopadeva often says that his books were written in the house of his father in the camp. Vopadeva was the pupil of Dhaneshvara. Though there is a controversy about Vopadeva's origin, as he is regarded as a Maharashtrian by some and as a Bengalee by others, but there is no doubt that till the 17 century, the Mugdhabodha was widely popular outside Bengal also, especially in Maharashtra. After the advent of the Siddhanta Kaumudi school of Bhattoji Diksita, the study of the Mugdhabodha came to be restricted to Bengal only. To put this process in a historical perspective we need to look into the tradition of the study of grammars in Bengal.
The grammatical tradition of Bengal Grammar or Vyakarana in India is probably the science in which several technical schools have developed out of the old Brahmanical schools in the earliest times. In ancient India, grammar is the first and most important of all the sciences. When one has first studied grammar, he can go in for learning any other sciences. The oldest of the grammatical treatises that have come down to us is the famous grammar, Astadhyayi of Panini. The grammar of Panini is really the termination of a long course of development of the grammatical discipline. It is not a Vedanga, but teaches Vedic grammar rather in the form of exceptions to grammatical rules for Classical Sanskrit. But the foundation for the rules of Panini is laid on an idiom that agrees more with the languages of the Brahmanas, Upanisadas and sutras than with Classical Sanskrit [Winternitz: History of Indian Literature, Vol. III, p.461]. Panini himself mentions many of his predecessors who had treated grammar from the same historical viewpoint as he himself. His Astadhyayi presupposes then, a number of works now lost.
Panini's grammar tries to help the student by giving him a chance to form each word correctly. With this objective in view it attempts to formulate in the shortest possible form the rules that he should learn by heart. These rules consequently are in the form of algebraic formula Panini has used a large number of abbreviations and combinations of letters of the alphabet, of which the meaning has to be learnt initially. For example: aC means vowels, hal consonants, kU gutturals, tiN personal terminations, suP case endings etc. For understanding the import of each and every rule it is necessary to keep in mind the foregoing rules. Moreover, it is obligatory to know a number of rules of interpretation, paribhasas that have their application throughout the work. Since all words and word-forms are derived from verbal roots, the rules of grammar presuppose knowledge of the Dhatupatha or index of roots, in which the roots of Sanskrit are collectively arranged. Lastly, for the understanding of the rules, study of the Ganapatha or a list of word groups that behave in a like manner in respect of certain rules and in the sutras themselves are indicated by the first word of the group, is also anticipated. The principle of recurrence (anuvrtti), the use of indicatory letters (anubandhas), standing for the value, form and modality of use of each grammatical term concerned is adopted. It was only through this intelligent and cleverly planned system of abbreviation that it could be possible for Panini to frame such short sutras, that often consist of one or two words or of a few letters of the alphabet, and to produce a complete grammar in the shortest compass. The rules of Panini can on good grounds be considered to form a complete grammar, since they treat not only phonetics and morphology but also formation of words and syntax as well. He had in view also the local deviations, since he often refers to the teachings of the 'Northerners' and 'Easterners', which proves the existence of other two schools of grammarians, and to the distinction between the linguistic usage of East and of the North.
Panini's Astadhyayi was popular all over India and used to be studied extensively and still it is studied in the Universities of India, but there are several indigenous grammars which are studied in particular regions of India. The grammars which were popular in Bengal are Katantra of Sarvavarman, Candravyakarana of Candragomin, grammars by Jinendrabuddhi and Maitreyaraksita, grammars by Purusottamadeva, Sarana and Rupa Gosvamin, Samksiptasara of Kramadiśvara, Sarasvata Vyakarana of Anubhutisvarupacarya, Supadma Vyakarana of Padmanabhadatta, Harinamamrta of Jiva Gosvamin and Mugdhabodha Vyakarana of Vopadeva. These are based on the Paninian system and as most of the technical terms were taken from the Astadhyayi, these are like the recasts of Astadhyayi to cater to contemporary needs.
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