Tracing the sources of the Kāśikāvṛtti

A comparative study between the Kāśikāvṛtti and earlier Indian Grammatical texts

Major activities

The project uses digital language resources in order to conduct data mining and analysis of texts which belong to the commentarial tradition on Pāṇini’s grammar and other Sanskrit grammatical traditions. It aims to find out to what extent later commentaries follow the Mahābhāṣya (2nd century BC), the earliest available commentary on Pāṇini’s grammar, and whether they have used other unknown sources.

The research focuses on the text of the Kāśikāvṛtti (7th century AD), the oldest available complete commentary on Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī. One of the major questions concerning the Kāśikāvṛtti in the recent years concerns the sources which were used by the authors, Vāmana and Jayāditya, while composing the Kāśikā. The research aims to answer the following questions. Which are the sources of the Kāśikāvṛtti? Did the authors follow an unknown lost tradition, and does the text contain traces of such a tradition? Moreover, may these traces belong to an authentic lost commentary on Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī? Or, on the other hand, did the authors of the Kāśikāvṛtti follow earlier known texts, and if they did, to what extent?

The project research is conducted by data text analysis. It uses the available digital format of some Sanskrit grammatical texts, particularly the Kāśikāvṛtti, the Mahābhāṣya and the Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti. Each argument given in the Kāśikāvṛtti is assigned different tags, particularly in regard to its relation to discussions in the Mahābhāṣya and the Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti. All the instances which are not found in the earlier texts are marked. In addition, hyperlinks are used for linking the arguments in the Kāśikāvṛtti with the related arguments found in the Mahābhāṣya, the Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti and in other texts. Such a method will provide precise data about the relation of the Kāśikāvṛtti to earlier available texts and its sources. Moreover, it will highlight instances in the text which may be considered traces of unknown commentary or commentaries which were used by the authors of the Kāśikāvṛtti.

The text of Kāśikāvṛtti containing all the data which is gathered by the computer software will be displayed.

Project personnel

  • Sharon Ben-Dor

Grant details

  • period: 2016 -- 2018
  • funding: Kone foundation, Finland
  • location: University of Helsinki and The Sanskrit Library