Overview for Bhartrhari: The Grammarian
Bhartrhari, the celebrated grammarian philosopher, is believed to have lived in the 5th century.This monograph presents the linguistic and philosophical theories connecting the analysis of the sentence with the ultimate reality-Sabdabrahman. The linguistic principles dealt with here are applicable not only to Sanskrit but to any language.His magnum opus the Vakyapadiya, even though partly incomplete, is the only extant work comprehensively dealing with the linguistic features of the Sanskrit language and the philosophy of grammar. It contains three kandas-Brahma-kanda or Agama-kanda, Vakya-Kanda and Prakirna-Kanda. The first two kandas together consist of 635 slokas, and deal with the Sabdabrahman, the creation of the world, jiva, world and language. The Prakirna-kanda running into 1300 slokas, divided into 14 sections called samuddesas, deals with the linguistic categories and semantic speculations prevalent in the Indian grammatical tradition. The other extant works of Bhartrhari are his fragmentary commentary of the Mahabhasya of Patanjali and auto-commentary on the kandas I and II of the Vakyapadiya.
M Srimannarayan Murti (Author)
Professor Mulakaluri Srimannarayana Murti (b. 1941) is a profound Sanskrit scholar, who established himself as a grammarian and philologist besides a serious researcher in Indian cultural history. He has authored several books and presented papers in national and international seminars. At present, he is working as Professor of Sanskrit and Director of Oriental Research Institute of Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.
Bagchee
