Sanskrit Manuscripts : Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti

Dharmadāsa, Dharmadāsa

Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript of the <i>Cāndravyākaraṇa</i> of the Buddhist grammarian Candragomin (probably 5th c. CE) with its most widespread and best known commentary, the <i>Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti</i>, for a long time believed to be the work of Candragomin himself, but now generally attributed (Dash 1986; Oberlies 1989) to an author called Dharmadāsa who probably flourished in the 6th c. CE, but of whom nothing else is known. The manuscript contains the whole fourth section (<i>pāda</i>, literally “quarter”) of the fifth chapter (<i>adhyāya</i>), which comprises 176 rules. However, due to the very poor condition of <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(36);return false;'>f. 18v</a>, only one of the final four rules, namely 5.4.175, <i>āne mug ataḥ</i>, is still legible, though barely, on <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(36);return false;'>line 4</a>. A few words from the commentary on the final <i>sūtra</i>, 5.4.176, <i>āsīnaḥ</i>, can also be identified, followed by a sequence of much faded <i>akṣara</i>s that might be the final rubric either of the section or of the whole chapter five. The manuscript is not very accurate and even the text of the <i>sūtra</i>s shows numerous spelling mistakes. </p>