Puruṣottamadeva’s Commentary on the Mahābhāṣya

Summary

Puruṣottamadeva’s Commentary on the Mahābhāṣya is a short but important article that reports on the discovery of fragments of a long‑lost commentary on Pāṇini’s Mahābhāṣya attributed to the Bengal grammarian Puruṣottamadeva. The author explains that the fragments, preserved only in a private library, reveal that a commentator named Śaṅkara wrote a gloss on the Mahābhāṣya and that Puruṣottamadeva composed a further commentary on it. The text, called the Prāṇapāṇa, adapts verses from earlier works and includes introductory stanzas praising the gods and gurus. Puruṣottamadeva refers to earlier scholars such as Kājjata, Śrutapāla and Sthirapila and his commentary shows familiarity with the scholarly debates current in eastern India. The article situates Puruṣottamadeva chronologically between the commentators Śrutapāla and Śaṅkara and notes that the fragments throw light on the transmission of grammatical tradition in Bengal. It reproduces two passages from the commentary and compares them with the corresponding portions of the Bhāṣavṛtti, showing Puruṣottamadeva’s method of paraphrasing and expanding Pāṇini’s aphorisms. The author also discusses the etymology of the title Prāṇapāṇa, which may imply that the commentator was prepared to stake his life on the correctness of his interpretations. Overall, the article underscores the value of these fragments for understanding the history of Indian grammatical exegesis and urges scholars to search for other pieces of this lost work.