Patanjali Sanskrit Grammar & Linguistics
Patanjali Sanskrit Grammar & Linguistics
Patañjali (Sanskrit: पतञ्जलि) was a sage in ancient India,
thought to be the author of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these are
the Yoga Sutras, a classical yoga text. There is doubt as to
whether the sage Patañjali is the author of all the works attributed to him as
there are a number of known historical authors of the same name. A great deal
of scholarship has been devoted over the last century to the issue of the
historicity or identity of this author or these authors.
Amongst the more important authors called Patañjali are:
·
The
author of the Mahābhāṣya, an ancient treatise on Sanskrit
grammar and
linguistics, based on the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. This Patañjali's life is dated
to mid 2nd century BCE by both Western and Indian scholars. This text was
titled as a bhasya or "commentary" on Kātyāyana-Pāṇini's work by Patanjali, but
is so revered in the Indian traditions that it is widely known simply as Mahā-bhasya or
"Great commentary". As per Ganesh Sripad Huparikar, actually,
Patanjali (2nd century B.C.), the forerunner among ancient grammatical
commentators, “adopted an etymological and dialectical method of explaining in
the whole of his 'Mahābhāshya' (Great Commentary), and this has assumed, in the
later commentary literature the definite form of 'Khanda-anvaya'.” So vigorous,
well reasoned and vast is his text, that this Patanjali has been the authority
as the last grammarian of classical Sanskrit for 2,000 years, with Pāṇini and
Kātyāyana preceding him. Their ideas on structure, grammar and philosophy of
language have also influenced scholars of other Indian religions such as Buddhism and Jainism.
·
The compiler
of the Yoga sūtras, a text on Yoga theory and
practice, and a notable scholar of Samkhya school of Hindu
philosophy. He
is variously estimated to have lived between 2nd century B.C. to 4th century
A.D, with more scholars accepting dates between 2nd and 4th century
CE. The Yogasutras is one of the most important texts in
the Indian tradition and the foundation of classical Yoga. It is the
Indian Yoga text that was most translated in its medieval era into forty Indian
languages.
·
The
author of a medical text called Patanjalatantra. He is cited and
this text is quoted in many medieval health sciences-related texts, and
Patanjali is called a medical authority in a number of Sanskrit texts such
as Yogaratnakara, Yogaratnasamuccaya and Padarthavijnana. There
is a fourth Hindu scholar also named Patanjali, who likely lived in 8th-century
CE and wrote a commentary on Charaka Samhita and this text is
called Carakavarttika. According to some modern era Indian
scholars such as P.V. Sharma, the two medical scholars named Patanjali may be
the same person, but completely different person from the Patanjali who wrote
the Sanskrit grammar classic Mahābhasya.
·
Patanjali
is one of the 18 siddhars in the Tamil siddha (Shaiva) tradition.
Patanjali continues to be
honoured with invocations and shrines in some forms of modern
postural yoga, such
as Iyengar Yoga and Ashtānga Vinyāsa Yoga.
Name
According to Monier Monier-Williams, the
word "Patañjali" is a compound name from
"patta" (Sanskrit: पत, "falling,
flying") and "añj" (अञ्ज्, "honor,
celebrate, beautiful") or "añjali" (अञ्जलि,
"reverence, joining palms of the hand").
Life
Many scholars including Louis Renou have
suggested that the Patañjali who wrote on Yoga was a different person than the
Patanjali who wrote a commentary on Panini's grammar. In 1914, James Wood
proposed that they were the same person. In 1922, Surendranath Dasgupta presented
a series of arguments to tentatively propose that the famed Grammar text and
the Yoga text author may be identical.
The view that these were likely
two different authors is generally accepted, but some Western scholars
consider them as a single entity.
Some in the Indian tradition
have held that one Patañjali wrote treatises on grammar, medicine and yoga.
This has been memorialised in a verse by Bhoja at the start of his
commentary on the Yogasutras called Rājamārttanda (11th
century), and the following verse found in Shivarama's 18th-century text:
योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन। योऽपाकरोत्तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि॥
Yōgēna
cittasya padēna vācāṁ malaṁ śarīrasya ca vaidyakēna. Yōpākarōttaṁ pravaraṁ
munīnāṁ patañjaliṁ prāñjalirānatōsmi
English
translation: I bow with my hands together to the eminent sage Patañjali, who
removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and
of the body through medicine.
This tradition is discussed by
Meulenbeld who traces this "relatively late" idea back to Bhoja (11th
century), who was perhaps influenced by a verse by Bhartṛhari (ca.
5th century) that speaks of an expert in yoga, medicine and grammar who,
however, is not named. No known Sanskrit text prior to the 10th century states
that the one and the same Patanjali was behind all the three treatises.
The sage Patañjali is said to
have attained Samadhi through
yogic meditation at the Brahmapureeswarar Temple located at Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu, India. Jeeva
Samadhi of sage Patanjali, which is now an enclosed meditation hall, can be
seen near the Brahma's
shrine within Brahmapureeswarar
Temple complex.
Grammatical tradition
In the grammatical tradition,
Patañjali is believed to have lived in the second century BCE. He wrote a Mahabhasya on
Panini's sutras, in a form that quoted the commentary of Kātyāyana's vārttikas.
This is a major influential work on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics. The
dating of Patanjali and his Mahabhasya is established by a
combination of evidence, those from the Maurya Empire period, the historical
events mentioned in the examples he used to explain his ideas, the chronology
of ancient classical Sanskrit texts that respect his teachings, and the mention
of his text or his name in ancient Indian literature. Of the three ancient
grammarians, the chronological dating of Patanjali to mid 2nd century B.C. is
considered as "reasonably accurate" by mainstream scholarship.
The text influenced Buddhist
grammatical literature, as well as memoirs of travellers to India. For
example, the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing mentions that
the Mahabhasya is studied in India and advanced scholars learn
it in three years.
Yoga tradition
In the Yoga tradition,
Patañjali is a revered name. This Patañjali's oeuvre comprises the sutras about
Yoga (Yogasūtra) and the commentary integral to the sutras, called
the Bhāṣya. Some consider the sutras and the Bhaṣya to have had
different authors, the commentary being ascribed to "an editor" (Skt.
"vyāsa"). According to Phillipp Maas, the same person named Patanjali
composed the sutras and the Bhāṣya commentary.
Radhakrishnan and Moore
attribute the text to the grammarian Patañjali, dating it as 2nd century BCE, during the Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE). Maas estimates Patañjali's
Yogasutra's date to be about 400 CE, based on tracing the commentaries on it
published in the first millennium CE. Edwin Bryant, on the other hand,
surveys the major commentators in his translation of the Yoga Sūtras. He
states that "most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the
Common Era (circa first to second century), but that it has been placed as
early as several centuries before that." Bryant concludes that
"A number of scholars have dated the Yoga Sūtras as late
as the fourth or fifth century C.E., but these arguments have all been
challenged", and late chronology for this Patanjali and his text are
problematic.
Tamil Saivite legend
Regarding his early years,
a Tamil Saiva Siddhanta tradition
from around 10th century AD holds that Patañjali learned Yoga along with seven
other disciples from the great Yogic Guru Nandhi
Deva, as stated in Tirumular's Tirumandiram (Tantra 1).
Nandhi arulPetra Nadharai
Naadinom
Nandhigal Nalvar Siva Yoga MaaMuni
Mandru thozhuda Patañjali Vyakramar
Endrivar Ennodu (Thirumoolar) Enmarumaame
Translation
We sought the feet of the God who graced Nandikesvara
The Four Nandhis,
Sivayoga Muni, Patañjali, Vyaghrapada and I (Thirumoolar)
We were these eight.
Works
Whether the two works, the Yoga
Sutras and the Mahābhāṣya, are by the same author has been the subject of
considerable debate. The authorship of the two is first attributed to the same
person in Bhojadeva's Rajamartanda, a relatively late (10th
century) commentary on the Yoga Sutras, as well as several subsequent
texts. As for the texts themselves, the Yoga Sutra iii.44 cites a sutra as that
from Patanjali by name, but this line itself is not from the Mahābhāṣya. This
10th-century legend of single-authorship is doubtful. The literary styles and
contents of the Yogasūtras and the Mahābhāṣya are entirely different, and the
only work on medicine attributed to Patañjali is lost. Sources of doubt include
the lack of cross-references between the texts, and no mutual awareness of each
other, unlike other cases of multiple works by (later) Sanskrit authors. Also,
some elements in the Yoga Sutras may date from as late as the 4th century AD, but
such changes may be due to divergent authorship, or due to later additions
which are not atypical in the oral tradition. Most scholars refer to both works
as "by Patanjali", without meaning that they are by the same author.
In addition to the Mahābhāṣya
and Yoga Sūtras, the 11th-century commentary on Charaka by the Bengali scholar Chakrapani Datta, and the 16th-century text Patanjalicarita ascribes
to Patañjali a medical text called the Carakapratisaṃskṛtaḥ (now
lost) which is apparently a revision (pratisaṃskṛtaḥ) of the medical
treatise by Caraka. While there is a short treatise on yoga in the medical work
called the Carakasaṃhitā (by Caraka), towards the end of the chapter called
śārīrasthāna, it is notable for not bearing much resemblance to the Yoga
Sūtras, and in fact presents a form of eightfold yoga that is completely
different from that laid out by Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtras and the commentary
Yogasūtrabhāṣya.
Yoga Sūtra
The Yoga Sūtras of
Patañjali are 196 Indian sutras (aphorisms)
on Yoga. It was the most translated
ancient Indian text in the medieval era, having been translated into about
forty Indian languages and two non-Indian languages: Old Javanese and Arabic. The
text fell into obscurity for nearly 700 years from the 12th to 19th century,
and made a comeback in late 19th century due to the efforts of Swami
Vivekananda and others. It gained prominence
again as a comeback classic in the 20th century.
Before the 20th century,
history indicates the Indian yoga scene was dominated by other Yoga texts such
as the Bhagavad
Gita, Yoga
Vasistha and Yoga Yajnavalkya. Scholars
consider the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali formulations as one of
the foundations of classical Yoga philosophy of
Hinduism.
Mahābhāṣya
The Mahābhāṣya ("great
commentary") of Patañjali on the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini is
a major early exposition on Pāṇini, along with the somewhat earlier Varttika by Katyayana. Patanjali relates to how words and meanings are
associated – Patanjali claims shabdapramâNaH – that the
evidentiary value of words is inherent in them, and not derived
externally – the word-meaning association is natural. These issues in the
word-meaning relation (symbol) would be
elaborated in the Sanskrit linguistic
tradition, in debates between the Mimamsa, Nyaya and Buddhist schools
over the next fifteen centuries.
Sphota
Patanjali also defines an early
notion of sphota, which would be elaborated considerably by later
Sanskrit linguists like Bhartrihari. In
Patanjali, a sphoTa (from sphuT, spurt/burst) is
the invariant quality of speech. The noisy element (dhvani, audible
part) can be long or short, but the sphoTa remains unaffected by individual
speaker differences. Thus, a single letter or 'sound' (varNa) such
as k, p or a is an abstraction,
distinct from variants produced in actual enunciation. This concept has
been linked to the modern notion of phoneme,
the minimum distinction that defines semantically distinct sounds. Thus a
phoneme is an abstraction for a range of sounds. However, in later writings,
especially in Bhartrihari (6th century CE), the notion of sphoTa changes
to become more of a mental state, preceding the actual utterance, akin to
the lemma.
Patañjali's writings also
elaborate some principles of morphology (prakriyā).
In the context of elaborating on Pāṇini's aphorisms, he also discusses Kātyāyana's commentary, which are also aphoristic and sūtra-like;
in the later tradition, these were transmitted as embedded in Patañjali's
discussion. In general, he defends many positions of Pāṇini which were
interpreted somewhat differently in Katyayana.
Metaphysics
as grammatical motivation
Unlike Pāṇini's objectives in
the Ashtyadhyayi, which is to distinguish correct forms and meanings from
incorrect ones (shabdaunushasana), Patanjali's objectives are more
metaphysical. These include the correct recitations of the scriptures (Agama),
maintaining the purity of texts (raksha), clarifying ambiguity (asamdeha),
and also the pedagogic goal of providing an easier learning mechanism (laghu). This
stronger metaphysical bent has also been indicated by some as one of the
unifying themes between the Yoga Sutras and the Mahābhāṣya, although a close
examination of actual Sanskrit usage by Woods showed no similarities in
language or terminology.
The text of the Mahābhāṣya was
first critically edited by the 19th-century orientalist Franz Kielhorn, who
also developed philological criteria for distinguishing Kātyāyana's
"voice" from Patañjali's. Subsequently, a number of other editions
have come out, the 1968 text and translation by S.D. Joshi and J.H.F.
Roodbergen often being considered definitive. Regrettably, the latter work is
incomplete.
Patanjali also writes with a
light touch. For example, his comment on the conflicts between the orthodox
Brahminic (Astika) groups, versus the heterodox, nAstika groups
(Buddhism, Jainism, and
atheists) seems relevant for religious conflict even today: the hostility
between these groups was like that between a mongoose and a snake. He also sheds light on
contemporary events, commenting on the recent Greek incursion, and also on several tribes that lived in
the Northwest regions of the subcontinent.
Patanjalatantra
Patanjali is also the reputed
author of a medical text called Patanjalah, also called Patanjala or Patanjalatantra. This
text is quoted in many yoga and health-related Indian texts. Patanjali is
called a medical authority in a number of Sanskrit texts such as Yogaratnakara, Yogaratnasamuccaya, Padarthavijnana, Cakradatta
bhasya. Some of these quotes are unique to Patanjala, but
others are also found in major Hindu medical treatises such as Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita.
There is a fourth scholar also
named Patanjali, who likely lived in 8th-century and wrote a commentary
on Charaka
Samhita and this text is called Carakavarttika. The
two medical scholars named Patanjali may be the same person, but generally accepted
to be completely different person than the Patanjali who wrote the Sanskrit
grammar classic Mahabhasya.
Legacy
Patanjali is honoured with
invocations and shrines in some modern schools of yoga, including Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. The yoga scholar David Gordon White writes that yoga teacher training often includes "mandatory
instruction" in the Yoga Sutra. White calls this
"curious to say the least", since the text is in his view
essentially irrelevant to "yoga as it is taught and practiced today", commenting that the Yoga Sutra is
"nearly devoid of discussion of postures, stretching, and breathing".
PATAÑJALI THE GRAMMARIAN
PATAÑJALI THE GRAMMARIAN (fl. c. 140 bce) was a
Sanskrit grammarian and author of the Mahābhāṣya, the major commentary
on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī. Patañjali's bhāṣya ("commentary")
focuses on Pāṇini's work both directly and indirectly, for it evaluates both
Pāṇini's verses and those of Kātyāyana's Vārttika, the first
notable commentary on the Aṣṭādhyāyī. Pāṇini, Kātyāyana, and
Patañjali have often been grouped together in a kind of grammatical lineage;
Pāṇini and Patañjali, however, remain by far the foremost authorities on the
Sanskrit language.
Scholars vary in opinion as to
Patañjali's purpose in composing his Mahābhāṣya. Most agree,
however, that the very fact that Patañjali chose to fashion his observations
not in an independent grammar but in a commentary on Pāṇini's work indicates
great deference to the original grammarian; it was not Patañjali's purpose to
attempt to surpass him or disprove his authority. In his work Patañjali
mentions directly his indebtedness to the mahācārya ("great
teacher").
Many social changes were occurring in India
during Patañjali's time. There was an influx of different peoples from bordering
lands; intellectual, commercial, and political contact with regions as far as
Greece was common; and class structure was undergoing substantial
transitions. Social change was reflected in language: The use of
classical Sanskrit (i.e., the saṃskṛta or
"perfected" language of Pāṇini) became restricted more and more to
the social and literary elite, while the rest of the population spoke one of
the many Prakrits (i.e., the prakṛta, or "natural,
unpolished" languages and dialects) that were rapidly developing.
Even spoken Sanskrit was beginning to
include apaśabda, "vulgar, imperfect speech." For
example, social stratification had reduced women to a much lower status than
that which they had enjoyed during the Vedic and early Upaniṣadic periods; this
was reflected in speech by a growing irregularity of feminine forms and endings
that all but eliminated the feminine honorific. Patañjali observed that the
grammar of Pāṇini was by now being retained almost artificially; when he
observed that even some of the most respected pandits, while meticulous in
religious recitation, would resort to an occasional apaśabda term
in their ordinary speech, he realized that certain modifications were in order.
Patañjali thus became the first Indian grammarian to address the difference
between laukikabhāṣya ("empirical language")
and śāstrīyabhāṣya ("sacred language").
Patañjali's intent was not to reflect in
grammar every form of imperfect speech, but rather to incorporate some of the
changes that were occurring in spoken Sanskrit so that the language could
thereby be preserved in a viable form. He chose to revalidate Pāṇini's dictums
and expand them where necessary. If, for example, Pāṇini allowed that three
classes of nouns conformed to a certain rule, Patañjali might revise the rule
to incorporate an additional class. In Pāṇini's time the Vedic ṛ and ḷ were
still commonly used vocalically. Within a few centuries the two letters had
shifted, with very few exceptions, to the status of consonants; this was
another type of change that Patañjali accommodated.
Patañjali believed that the grammarian should
stay in touch with the contemporary language and provide for reasonable
changes, adhering as closely as possible to the classical rules. In this way
the populace would continue to turn to the grammarians for guidance in all
matters of speech.
When Pāṇini composed his grammar he was more
concerned with the forms of words (pada s) than with syntax and
sentence meaning. By Patañjali's time, Mimāṃsā and other philosophical
schools had introduced a shift in emphasis whereby speech (vākya )
and the complete thought expressed in a sentence represented the true basis of
language. Patañjali's contact with these other views influenced his expansion
of Pāṇini's grammar, and he thus introduced the concept of vākyasphota,
that is, the concept that the eternal element of sounds and words, and the true
vehicle of an idea, flash on the mind when a sound is uttered. This indicates
an inherent nityatva ("infinitude") in śabda ("correct
grammatical speech"); even apaśabda ("incorrect
speech") can partake of this in varying degrees.
By incorporating the
notion of nityatva into vyākaraṇa ("grammar"),
Patañjali helped to elevate the status of the science of grammar.
Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī, revered as it was for its insurmountable
contributions to the preservation of the sacred Vedic speech and classical
Sanskrit, did not belong to any particular category of Sanskrit literature
before Patañjali's time. It was variously considered Dharmaśāstra, smṛti, Ᾱgama,
or, occasionally, Vedāṅga ("limb of the Veda"). Patañjali's
observations and syntheses, in addition to his frequent reiteration that the
study of vyākaraṇa is a religious duty, served to elevate
Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī permanently to the sacred status of
Vedāṅga.
Bibliography
Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya is
available in English translation in Patañjali's Vyākaraṇa-mahābhāṣya,
8 vols., translated and edited by S. D. Joshi and J. A. F. Roodbergen (Poona,
1968–1980); the edition also offers a valuable introductory section. Useful
secondary works include K. Madhava Krishna Sarma's Pāṇini, Kātyāyana,
and Patañjali (Delhi, 1968) and Franz Kielhorn's Kātyāyana and
Patañjali: Their Relation to Each Other and to Pāṇini (1876; 2d ed.,
Varanasi, 1963).
New Sources
Benson, James W. Patañjali's
Remarks on Anga. Oxford University South Asian studies series. Delhi
and New
York,
1990.
Coward, Harold G.,
and K. Kunjunni Raja, eds. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies,
vol. 5: The Philosophy of the Grammarians. Princeton, N.J., 1990.
Filliozat,
Pierre-Sylvain. An Introduction to Commentaries on Patañjali's
Mahabhasya. Poona, 1991.
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