Technical terms and techniques of the Pali and the Sanskrit grammars

The Buddhist literature generally consists of the sayings of the Buddha and the works by subsequent scholars, which are termed as Sutra and Sastra respectively. These works pertaining to various schools are originally available mainly in three languages: Pali, Sanskrit and Apabhramsa. The Pali Canon is the canon of Theravadins for the Tripitaka of Theravadins is available in Pali. Following the terminology and norms of the Sanskrit grammarians, the Theravadins have also composed grammars of the Pali language.
The present work, submitted for the award of the Ph.D. degree in Pali from the University of Pune, is an attempt to study the technical terminology and the technique of the three Pali grammars from the comparative point of view and is an initial step in making a detailed comparison of the Pali grammatical treatises with their Sanskrit counter-parts. The work presents a brief historical sketch of the Pali grammatical tradition and introduces three Pali grammars viz. the Astadhyayi, the Katantra Vyakarana and the Candra Vyakarana. It studies in all 166 technical terms classified into eight sub-sections according to the different linguistic categories such as: the phonetic terminology, the terminology related to the morphophonemic changes, the morphological terminology, etc. Each term is explained according to its definition and usage. It is then compared with its Sanskrit counterpart in the Astadhyayi, the Katantra Vyakarana and the Candra Vyakarana. An attempt is also made to trace its origin and development in the Sanskrit tradition and to compare the overall technique and different technical devices used by the Pali and the Sanskrit grammarians. The study also records some observations drawn from the data collected for this purpose.