Candragomin's grammar

Dear Members,

Dan Lusthaus wrote me a few off-list emails stemming from a Buddha-L
discussion on prapa~nca in which I had contributed a few quotes from Sp-.t
and Mahaaniddessa explaining what the term meant in the early Pali texts.
I'm just quoting below an excerpt from a recent email. I found it
interesting and thought it might be of interest to some of our members here.
I have never heard of Ka"syapa's Baalaavabodha. Does anyone know if this is
a Pali or a Sanskrit grammar (based on the Candravyaakara.na) ?

I'm planning to head back to my cottage next week for about a month stay.
The phone line there is disconnected until Mar. 28 and so I will be without
Internet access until then.

Best wishes,
Jim

An excerpt from an email sent to me by Dan Lusthaus on Feb. 26/08:

<< Returning to samjna, the early Buddhist Sanskrit grammar (used by
Buddhists
in lieu of Panini-Patanjali) was the _Candra_, named after its author
Candra-gomin (not to be confused with the poet). Candra's nickname was
Asa.mj~naka - one theory being that wherever Panini uses the word samjna,
Candra instead used naaman. Another theory:

G. Cardona explains this: "Candragomin avoids using technical terms such as
v?ddhi, so that his grammar is characterized as asamj~nakam vyaakara.nam
'grammar lacking technical terms'." Cardona refers this to Kielhorn, 1886,
p. 246. George Cardona, Paa.nini: A Survey of Research, Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass

I think our reading and understanding of Buddhist materials -- especially
the early Pali texts which have many paninian echoes (largely unnoticed or
unrecognized) -- would be quite different if we paid more attention to the
Skt grammatical tradition. The Theravadins, in particular, slacked off on
this AFTER Buddhaghosa (one of whose major qualifications for being
commissioned to write/compile the Pali commentaries was that he was
thoroughly trained in and had mastered the SANSKRIT vyakarana tradition --
that, in fact, may have been his most important qualification). That
indicates (1) his contemporaries, while still holding vyakarana in the
highest respect and recognizing its importance, had themselves become
deficient in its practice; (2) they recognized that such knowledge was
indispensible for proper understanding of the tipitaka (which, since their
command was insufficient, implies they also knew they already had serious
problems understanding their own scriptures, especially the stickier points
and terminology/phraseology), and (3) once Buddhaghosa (or the complex of
activities, people, etc. that have come to be grouped metonymically under
his name) provided a more or less definitive version of how to read the
tipitaka, the efforts to raise the level of grammatical proficiency probably
slided further, since it was no longer as necessary. However

The Candra grammar disappeared from India after great circulation for many
centuries, but still the core of the Sanskrit grammar system taught in Srii
Lanka [Belvalkar, p51] since around 1200 CE a Srii Lankan monk named Kasyapa
did a popular recasting of the Candra grammar, called Baalaavabodha.
Eclipsed
Candra in Srii Lanka.

Cf. Belvalkar, Shripad Krishna. _An Account of the Different Existing
Systems of Sanskrit Grammar_, Delhi: Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, 1976 (2nd
revised ed.) >>

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