p.17

            The   Jatakas   and  Sanskrit   Grammarians.   By
        Professor F. KIELHORN, M.R.A.S. Gottingen.

            THE  charming   volumes   which  we  owe  to  the
        distinguished  "guild  of  Jataka  translators"  have
        allured  me to peruse  the  stories  of the  Buddha's
        former births in the original.  In the course of this
        reading, the Pali  text  has  reminded  me of certain
        passages and phrases in the Mahabhasya. Occasionally,
        too,   Panini's   own   rules   have   suggested   an
        interpretation  which  differs  from that of the Pali
        commentary. Not being a Pali scholar, I should hardly
        venture to submit the following observations  of mine
        to the Society, were I not encouraged  to do so by my
        friend Professor Cowell.

            I begin with some verses of the Mahabhasya.

            According  to a  Varttika  on Pan., i, 3, 25, the
        verb  upa  stha, in the sense  of "to worship," takes
        the terminations of the Atmanepada.  In commenting on
        this  Varttika, Patanjali, to bring  out more clearly
        the   diffrence   between   the   Parasmaipada    and
        Atmanepada, quotes the following dialogue:--
            Bahunnam apy acittanam eko bhavati cittavan
            pasya vanara-sainye 'smin yad arkam upatisthate
            Maivam  mamsthah  sacitto  'yam  eso 'pi hi yatha
            vayam
            etad  apy  asya  kapeyam  yad  arkam  upatistbati

            "Among the senseless  creatures all, endowed with
        sense is one:
            Amidst    this   monkey   troop,   behold!   he's
        worshipping (upatisthate) the sun! "
            "Don't think he is endowed with sense;  he's like
        us, that is clear:
            To warm  himself  is apish, so the sun he draweth
        near (upatisthati)."
         J.B.A.S. 1898.


                           p.18

            These verses apparently  presuppose  a story like
        the one in the Adiccupatthana-Jataka  (No.  175), and
        the wording  of the  second  line, in my opinion, can
        hardly  leave  it doubtful  that the grammarian  knew
        some such verse as we read in that Jataka  (vol.  ii,
        p. 73, v. 47)--
            Sabbesu kira bhutesu santi silasamahita,
            passa sakhamigam jammam, adiccam upatitthati.(1)
            " There  is  no tribe  of  animals  but  has  its
        virtuous one:
            See  how  this  wretched   monkey   here   stands
        worshipping the sun! "(2)

            Again, a  Varttika  on  Pan., ii, 3,  36, teaches
        that the locative  case may be used to denote that to
        obtain  which  an action  is performed, provided  the
        thing  sought  after is joined  with, or is found in,
        the object of the action.  And Patanjali  illustrates
        this rule by four examples, grouped  together  in the
        verse--
            Carmani dvipinam hanti dantayor hanti kunjaram
            kesesu camarim hanti simni puskalako hatah
            " The tiger  for his skin  he slays, the elephant
        for his tusk; The camari  for  her tail is slain, the
        musk-deer for its musk." (3)

            Now, in the Mahajanaka-Jataka (vol, vi, P.  61 v.
        269) we read--
            Ajinamhi hannate dipi, nago dantehi hannati,
            dhanamhi dhanino hanti aniketam asanthavam,
            phali ambo aphalo ca te satttharo ubho mama;

            and again, in the Sama-Jataka  (ibid., P.  78, v.
        300)--
            Ajinamhi bannate dipi, nago dantehi hannati,
            atha kena nu vannena viddheyam mam amannatha?

            ---------------------
        1 In  the  Ramayana, Bo.  Ed., vi, 27,  44,  we  have
           ddityam  upatisthati  in the sense of "he worships
           the sun." In the so-called epic Sanskrit there are
           not a few forms and constructions which seem to me
           to be Pali rather than Sanskrit.
        2 From Mr.Rouse's translation.
        3  Haradatta  would take the last Pada to mean: " The
           post is driven into  the  ground in order that the
           boundary may be known thereby."


                           p.19

            Here, then, the first  line  of either  verse  is
        identical in meaning with the first line of the verse
        of the Mahabhasya, and in ajinamhi  hannate  dipi  we
        have  the  very  construction   that  is  taught   by
        Katyayana--a  construction  which in Sanskrit, to say
        the  least, is most  unusual.  Moreover, as the  text
        stands,(l) the words  dhanamhi  dhanino  hanti of the
        first verse are the exact counterpart  of Patanjali's
        carmani dripinam hanti, etc.  This, surely, cannot be
        a mere accidental circumstance: either the authors of
        the Jatakas knew  the verse of the  Mahasya,  or--and
        this seems to me rather more probable--Katyayana  and
        Patanjali   knew,  and  based  their  rule  with  its
        examples on, just such verses as we find the Jatakas.

            Turning  to  the  prose, I should  like  to  draw
        attention   to  somewhat   peculiar   phrase  of  the
        Mahabhasya, which has been misunderstood.

            In the first  Ahnika, after  telling  us what the
        course ofstudy was in former days, Patanjali proceeds
        thus: Tad adyatce  na tatha;  vedam  adhitya  tvarita
        vaktaro  bhavanti  vedan  no vaidikah  sabdah  siddha
        lokac  ca laukika  anarthakam  vydka-raman  iti.  The
        phrase  vaktaro  bhavanti  in this  passage  has been
        variously  translated  by " they become teachers, " "
        they  become  speakers  (of Sanskrit)," etc.  But  it
        really  means  people  are in the  habit  of saying,"
        "they will (or would) my," or simply  "they say," and
        the sense of the whole  passage  is: "This  is not so
        nowadays. After learning their Veda, being in a hurry
        (to marry, etc.), people  will say: 'We have  got the
        Vedic  words from the Veda, and the common  ones from
        common usage;  grammar is of no use to us.' " Vaktaro
        bhavanti occurs in the same sense in vol. i, p.  250,
        and vol. ii, pp. 272 and 417 of the Mahabhasya and we
        have  sthataro  bhavanti, "they  are in the habit  of
        staging." " they will stay," in vol. i, p. 391, lines
        6 and 16.

        ----------------------
        1 The  learned  editor  of the  Jataka  suggests  the
          alteration of dhanino dhrui ko ko.


                           p.20

            Now,that among  Sanskrit  writers  Kumarila  also
        should   have  used  vaktaro   bhavnti   and  similar
        periphrastic   expressions,  cannot   seem   strange,
        considering  that, deeply  versed  as he  was  in the
        Mahabhasya, this is not the only phrase  which he has
        adopted  from  it.  But I was not a little  surprised
        when I came across the identical vattaro honti in the
        Jataka,  vol.  i,  p.  134,  1.  21: Tassa  adhavitva
        parridhavitva  vicarana  kale kelimandale  kilantassa
        evam vattaro  honti nippitiken  amha pahata ti--" And
        when he could run about  and tiken was plaing  in the
        playground,  (his  playmates)  would  say,  (1)  This
        fatherless fellow has hit us.' " Here any doubt as to
        the meaning of vattaro honti would at once be removed
        by the fact  that  in vol.  vi, p.  33, 1.  l6, in an
        analogous case, the writer, instead of vattaro honti,
        uses vadanti, just as in Sanskrit we might substitute
        vadanti  for vaktaro  bhavnti, wherever  that  phrase
        occurs.

            I must leave  it to Pali scholars  to say whether
        phrases  like vattaro  honti  are common  in Pali.(2)
        They seem foreign  to ordinary  correct Sanskrit, and
        the  question   is  whether  Patanjali   himself  has
        followed  here  that  common  usage, to restriet  and
        correct which is the object of grammar.

            A priori  we  may  well  suppose  that  Pali  has
        preserved certain idioms, lost in Sanskrit;  and Pali
        has  been  proved  to yield  instances  for  some  of
        Panini's  rules which have not been verified yet from
        Sanskrit  texts.  On the other  hand, an example  may
        show that the interpretation of the more ancient Pali
        texts may sometimes be benefited  by the teachings of
        Sanskrit grammarians. In the Jataka, vol.  v, p.  90,
        we have the verse-Ahan  ca vanam unchaya madhu mamsam
        migabilam  yadaharami  tam bhakkho, tassa  nun'  ajja
        nadhati.

            So far as I can make out, the commentator assigns
        to this verse the following  meaning: " The honey and
        meat, left by

        ---------------------
        1  Mr.  Chalmers  translates, more  frrely.  "  a cry
           would arise."
        2 [ Often  in  the  Vinaya, and  in  such  suttas  as
           Majjhima, i, 469-472.--RH.D.]


                           p.21

            wild  animals, which, gleaning  in the  forest, I
        bring, is (my husband's) food;  surely  now (when  he
        does not obtain  it) his (body) withers  (upatappati,
        milayati, like a lotus burnt by the sun's rays)."

            Now  upatapa   is  indeed  one  of  the  meanings
        assigned  to the root nath or nadh in the Dhatupatha,
        but I feel sure that a Sanskrit grammarian, on seeing
        the last Pada of this verse, would  at once be put in
        mind of Panini's  rule, ii, 3, 55, asisi nathah(which
        teaches  the  employment  of  the  genitive  case  in
        construction  with nath, "to long for"), and that, in
        accordance  with  that rule, he would  unhesitatingly
        translate  the words tassa nun' ajja nadhati  by "for
       that (food) he surely is now longing."

            I have  other  verses  for the interpretation  of
        which, in my opinion, some assistance may be got from
        Panini, though, perhaps, not  always  in so direct  a
        manner.  But for the present  I must  content  myself
        with recording  my belief that close study especially
        of the metrical  portions  of the Jatakas  will amply
        repay  the  student  of Sanskrit  and  expressing  my
        regret  at being unable  myself to enter upon a field
        of labour which seems so full of promise.