Bhattoji Diksita on the Gajasutra

The present volume intends to be the first of a series under the general title of Vyākhyānamālā (A Garland of Commentaries). The purpose of this series is to illustrate and explain the genre of commentary as an integral part of Sanskrit intellectual history. The works chosen will belong to different domains: śāstra, that is grammatical, poetic, and other technical literature as well as kāvya, the Sanskrit genre of belles lettres. In the end, this series hopes to include commentaries of different types from different regions and times. These commentaries can be on a single source text-as in the case of the present volume - or can center around the explanation of a specific topic. The criterion for “commentary” is a deep engagement with a problematic text or concept. The prerequisite for inclusion in this series is that the commentaries must be previously untranslated.

The present volume offers a glimpse into early modern commentaries in the field of vyākarana, the discipline of grammar. The selection at hand is comprised of three commentaries of Bhattoji Dīkshita, the 17th century Mahārāshtrian brahmin writing in Benares, on the sūtra 1.3.67 of the Astādhyāyī, often called the Gajasūtra after the elephants that feature so prominently in its examples. The present authors have chosen these specific commentaries on this particular sūtra since they are exemplary in regard to their subject; Bhattoji’s analysis and interpretation of the sūtra both takes into account much previous scholarship on the sūtra and leads later scholars to further discussions that take up the subtleties of Bhattoji’s position — often in critical ways. Furthermore, the method and style of his commentaries here reproduced and translated are in many ways emblematic of the style of early modern Sanskrit intellectuals.