The English translation of Katantra is now placed before the selected scholars for their critical review. This work is carried out by Samir Karmakar of the Bengali unit of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics. Dr. Mahidas Bhattacharya, Mrs. Nairrita Bhattacharya and others have helped in shaping this translation.
Katantra is mentioned by Late Prof. Vayupuri Pillai, in dating Tolkaplyam, the earliest Tamil grammar. Similarly, J. S. Kulli has indicated the influence of Katantra, on the early grammar of Kannada. A translation of the text in English is a crying need for those who could not understand Sanskrit.
Bengal was the center of grammatical studies, especially the non-Paninian varieties. The Paninian studies were common there. In an article, on the Tree of Culture, it is mentioned that in the 18th century, according to the statistics, compiled by Adam, which include the districts of Bihar and Bengal, there were 353 centers in which 2524 students studied. Of these, Grammar was studied by 1424 students, Logic by 378, Law by 332, Literature by 120, Purana by 82, Astrology by 78. Nighantu by 48, Religion and Theology by 19, Medicine by 18, Veda by 13, Tantra by 5. Mimamsa by 2 and Kavya by 1.
The two universities, Nalanda in eastern Bihar and Vikramshila now in East Bengal, and a host of Buddhist and Hindu private centers for teaching Sanskrit and other languages, have made this study of grammar very popular there. The commentaries of Katantra written in Sanskrit, but some written in Bengali script indicate the popularity of the work.
The spread of Buddhism in the four corners of India and later in South Asia and in the west up to the Greece made the grammar of Buddhists popular there. Katantra is said to be a Buddhist work.
The chapters on alphabets (eluttu) in Tolkappiyam and the discussion on morphology (col) resemble Katantra. Only, the third chapter, written on the themes of poetry, prosody (porul) etc. are not found in the Sanskrit grammar of Panini and in the non-Paninian varieties.
A translation of Katantra into English was long overdue, due to its significance in the grammatical heritage of ancient India. After the German edition "Das Katantra" by B. Leibich at the end of the nineteenth cent. A.D., this one is a humble attempt at responding to this long awaited demand. In the post Paninian period, it is the first systematic approach to compile a grammar of Sanskrit for teaching purpose.
The lexical meaning of Katantra is 'a short system. In rule 2/5/25' of Katantra, it is clearly stated that "either being followed by aksa (dice) or in the sense of 'slight or small, ku-is substituted by ka-". According to Dr. Mandanamisra, Katantra is named thus, due to the contraction of a pre-Paninian grammatical school, known either as Kartikeyatantra, Kasakrtsnatantra or Kalapakatantra. On the basis of Wassiljew's 'Der Budhimus, Burnell had also mentioned that the original system contained 25000 rules. This was written for the benefit of the learners, those who have little intelligence and those whose primary interest is in learning Sanskrit literature. The approximate date of Katantra is 4 cent. A.D.; whereas Taranatha, a Tibetan lama, dated back from 1600 A.D. approximately, considers Katantra, as the contemporary of Kalidasa and Nagarjuna. Under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty, Sarvavarman wrote this book.
Grammatical studies in ancient India:
In ancient India, the study of language started to maintain the absolute purity of the Vedic texts, since the racial contact and convergence process among the different social sects triggered a considerable amount of language change. The study of language was first started in terms of phonetics. As a result, a highly sophisticated science on speech sound had originated in the work of Pratisakhyas. Beside this, it was also the practice of the ancient seers, to develop the lists of those Vedic words, which directly came under changes either in their semantic interpretations or in their phonological usages. These types of word lists are known as anukramanis (indexes). Some important indexes are-Rsi anukramani, Chandonukramani, Devata anukramani, Sukta anukramani, Anuvakanukramani etc. The writing of the anukramani literature was the first systematic approach to the language. The farnous lexicographical work of Yaska (approx. 500 B.C.), viz. Nirukta, was also written on the basis of Nighantu an index of the obscure vedic words. Even Panini and his predecessors also took full advantages of those anukramanis, to write their grammatical treatises.
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