Sarvanāmaprakaraṇam. Tracing the relevance of pronouns by reading navya vyākaraṇa commentaries

The present dissertation focuses on a comparison of the grammatical kaumudīs, as far as the sarvanāmans are concerned, in order to study their historical evolution and the specific role they play in teaching Pāṇini’s grammar. From the analysis of the syllabi of the vyākaraṇa programme offered in the Indian universities that I have managed to examine, it results that Sanskrit professors use the Siddhāntakaumudī by Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita (and the Laghusiddhāntakaumudī by Varadarāja) to introduce their students to this śāstra. It is evident from the title that the Laghusiddhāntakaumudī is a short version of the Siddhāntakaumudī, but this shortness is not entirely determined by the reduction in the number of aphorisms; in fact, in the Laghusiddhāntakaumudī, there is complete absence of all the philosophical discussions which are often presented by the Siddhāntakaumudī in order to show the final position of the author with respect to the grammatical discussions begun by Patañjali in the Mahābhāṣya. As a consequence, the reduced commentary resulting from this absence has a much simpler content. In order to tackle this research on the kaumudīs that can be used to better understand the Aṣṭādhyāyī, all the commentaries of the navya vyākāraṇa have been analysed and compared, i.e., the Siddhāntakaumudī by Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, the Madhyasiddhāntakaumudī, the Laghusiddhāntakaumudī and the Sārasiddhāntakaumudī by Varadarāja. In particular, a Hindī modern commentary (1969 – 1st edition) entitled Bālasiddhāntakaumudī, published by Jyoti Svarūpa Miśra, has been added to the list of the previous kaumudīs, since this is characterised and even called kaumudī ‘an elucidation’, and is entirely based on the the Siddhāntakaumudī. However, the work of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, and consequently also the Bālasiddhāntakaumudī, often refer to the Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali (endowed with the vārttikas of Kātyāyana), and the Kāśikāvṛtti by Jayāditya and Vāmana, so these texts have also been analysed and are very often mentioned in the analysis of every single aphorism. For the same reason, the Rūpāvātara by Dharmakīrti and the Prakriyākaumudī by Rāmacandra are also quoted by this dissertation when there seems to be a huge difference in the paraphrase of a rule between the Kāśikāvṛṛtti and the Siddhāntakaumudī, to understand what happened in these commentaries that are in-between the running and the reordered commentaries. The aim is to demonstrate that the Bālasiddhāntakaumudī – even if the language used is Hindī and not Sanskrit – is essentially based on the Siddhāntakaumudī, and thus, it is without doubt a reliable commentary. On the contrary, the change in the language is one of the main reasons behind the easiness of this book. This thesis has been written first of all to present the commentary of Jyoti Svarūpa Miśra as a new simplified tool to better understand the grammar of Pāṇini. However, it is important to remember that this dissertation analyses only the aphorisms on the sarvanāmans, and, therefore, these aphorisms are taken out of their context. A general plan for the future is to continue this work by also comparing all the other sūtras, and not only those devoted to pronouns, to finally present a complete analysis of this commentary.