Guest guest Posted October 22, 2002 Report Share Posted October 22, 2002 > I would like to make a suggestion. > Let the postings be written in Roman script, omitting diacritical marks. The > knowledgable can supply them in their own mind. To the rest it would not A fine suggestion for commonly known words like Panini, Mahabharata, sutra, ananda, etc. But when someone is quoting a PASSAGE in Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil, etc. then the representation (by some sort of system) is the only way to ensure that we're all (potentially) "on the same page". A propos Madhav Deshpande's recent remark on sandhi (e.g., "etadavoca") I'd like to suggest that even if ancient grammarians *did* have, in some cases, knowledge of historical phonetic developments, incorporating such details into their grammars was unnecessary. If linguists today can dispense with such things, noting the synchronic nature of their tasks, then perhaps ancient grammarians took a similar attitude. Their commitment to "laghava" is clear and this principle might have forced grammarians to subordinate "unnecessary" phonetic details to the overriding goal of streamlining their sutras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 23, 2002 Report Share Posted October 23, 2002 I agree with Tim that Panini and the Pali grammarians might have discounted historical information, even if they had access to it, in favor of a "synchronic view" of grammar. However, keep in mind that Panini's approach is not really synchronic either. It perhaps panchronic, including all known states and varieties of Sanskrit differing in time as well as geography, in a single description. Though not overtly acknowledging the time dimension, it effectively incorporates it, describing Vedic usages as descriptive deviations from the norm of the colloquial bhaa.saa. This applies to his treatment of Sandhis as well. As for the Pali grammarians, though it is clear that they do know the Sanskrit grammatical tradition very well, they do not wish to acknowledge any derivational relation of Pali to Sanskrit, treating Pali, in stead, as the original language of all beings (sabba-sattaanam muulabhaasaa). Here the Pali grammars differ in their descriptive technique from the Prakrit grammars, which acknowledge not only the existence of Sanskrit, but derive Prakrit as a descriptive transformation of Sanskrit. Madhav Deshpande INDOLOGY, "Timothy C. Cahill" <tccahill@l...> wrote: > > > > I would like to make a suggestion. > > Let the postings be written in Roman script, omitting diacritical marks. The > > knowledgable can supply them in their own mind. To the rest it would not > > A fine suggestion for commonly known words like Panini, Mahabharata, > sutra, ananda, etc. But when someone is quoting a PASSAGE in Sanskrit, > Pali, Tamil, etc. then the representation (by some sort of system) is the > only way to ensure that we're all (potentially) "on the same page". > > A propos Madhav Deshpande's recent remark on sandhi (e.g., "etadavoca") > I'd like to suggest that even if ancient grammarians *did* have, in some > cases, knowledge of historical phonetic developments, incorporating such > details into their grammars was unnecessary. If linguists today can > dispense with such things, noting the synchronic nature of their tasks, > then perhaps ancient grammarians took a similar attitude. Their commitment > to "laghava" is clear and this principle might have forced grammarians to > subordinate "unnecessary" phonetic details to the overriding goal of > streamlining their sutras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 23, 2002 Report Share Posted October 23, 2002 Hi, > treating > Pali, in stead, as the original language of all beings > (sabba-sattaanam muulabhaasaa). Which text does this phrase occur? Rahula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 23, 2002 Report Share Posted October 23, 2002 I have seen this phrase in one of Buddhaghosa's commentaries, and it is cited also by K.R. Norman. I will try to find the exact reference. Madhav Deshpande INDOLOGY, "rahula_80" <rahula_80> wrote: > Hi, > > > > treating > > Pali, in stead, as the original language of all beings > > (sabba-sattaanam muulabhaasaa). > > Which text does this phrase occur? > > Rahula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.