Re: History of modern Pali and Sanskrit grammars, dictionaries, etc.

Dear all,

There is a very good essay by Urs App about William Jones and the early orientalists. In it the author highlights the inlfuence of theological speculation in the early studies of oriental languages and texts, the quest for the original language of humankind, etc. A very good example of this phenomenon in Pali is the preface of Mason's Pali Grammar. Recently, Eisel Mazard, who was also very much interested in the early Western Pali grammars (see his preface to his Duroiselle "edition"), uploaded his "edition" of Mason with a very funny epilogue ranting on Mason, genuine Eisel style, as usual, an entertaining read.

http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp191_william_jones_orientalism.pdf

https://books.google.co.th/books?id=mdnvBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=es&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Best wishes,

Aleix

2016-02-06 17:43 GMT+07:00 Dhivan Jones dhivanjones@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>:

Dear Jim,

I was recently reading Absolute Constructions in Early Indo-European by Antonia Ruppel, Cambridge University Press, 2012, in which ch.4 concerns Sanskrit absolute constructions. In the course of her argument she reviews the aims and orientation of early Sanskrit grammars, based I think on some original research that may help you with bibliography and leads. Her point is that western grammarians of Sanskrit emphasised parallels with Latin and Greek grammar, because of a pragmatic missionary orientation, that nevertheless has remained current in our western Sanskrit grammars, despite differences (specifically with regard to absolutes) between Sanskrit and classical approaches.

Good luck!
Dhivan