On the 15th of October 1964 the Deccan College celebrates the centenary of its main Building, and curiously enough this period coincides with the Silver Jubilee of the Postgraduate and Research Institute which, as successor to the Deccan College, started functioning from 17th August 1939 when members of the teaching faculty reported on duty. When I suggested to members of our faculty the novel idea that the centenary should be celebrated by the publication of a hundred monographs representing the research carried on under the auspices of the Deccan College in its several departments they readily accepted the suggestion. These contributions are from present and past faculty members and research scholars of the Deccan College, giving a cross-section of the manifold research that it has sponsored during the past twentyfive years. From small beginnings in 1939 the Deccan College has now grown into a well developed and developing Research Institute and become a national centre in so far as Linguistics, Archaeology and Ancient Indian History, and Anthropology and Sociology are concerned. Its international status is attested by the location of the Indian Institute of German Studies (jointly sponsored by Deccan College and the Goethe Institute of Munich), the American Institute of Indian Studies and a branch of the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient in the campus of the Deccan College. The century of monographs not only symbolises the centenary of the original building and the silver jubilee of the Research Institute, but also the new spirit of critical enquiry and the promise of more to come.
The present work initiates a series of publications in connection with the study of Panini’s Astadhyayi and forms the first section of a supplementary volume giving the alphabetical index of Panini’s Sutras, followed by the text of the Dhatupatha and the Roots of the Dhatupatha in their alphabetical order along with their definitions. The second section which will follow in another volume will deal similarly with the Ganapatha, as ancillary to the main body of the text which will consist of (a) a modern rendering in English of the Astadhyayi intended primarily for the general linguist and secondarily for a scholar of Sanskrit language and (b) a Dictionary of Panini. Although several translations of the Astadhyayi are available to scholars beginning with BOHT-LINGK’s in German, RENOU’s in French and S.C. BASU’s in English, none of these have the general linguist in view, nor developments in modern linguistics which have evidently been inspired by the pioneering spirit of Panini who has been hailed as the most distinguished among linguists of all time and clime. The present work gives the text of the Astadhyayi and its ancillaries in roman transliteration, and records the different accents where they are intended by Panini or by the regular application of his Accent Rules, and utilizes the resources of the roman script (such as italics, small capitals, etc). to distinguish some of the metalinguistic features of Panini’s language. It is expected that the availability of Panini’s original text in roman transliteration with a modern English rendering will assist the general linguist in acquiring a basic knowledge of the techniques utilized by him in describing the Sanskrit Language of his time in all its aspects.
The Dictionary of Panini which will form the concluding volume of this series will illustrate the principles which underlie the great work undertaken by the Deccan College in the compilation of a Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles and serve as a sample of its methodology, but limited by restricting it to a single author and a single work composed in a very recondite form of the Sutra ‘string-apnorism’ where the saving the even half a mora is considered equivalent to the joy arising from the birth of a ‘son and heir’! It is the Editor’s intention that the whole of this collection of studies covering Panini’s Astadhyayi should be available to the general scholar at a very reasonable price which should not serve as a barrier to students of Panini.
Since for the understanding of a difficult text it is desirable to have the ancillary texts for ready reference these supplementary volumes are being issued first, followed by the English translation of the text of Astadhyayi with just sufficient notes to explain the application of the rule (s) and the Dictionary wherein all the words in the Sutras will appear in their alphabetical order with full references and definitions. Problems which arise from a study of the Astadhyayi will be dealt with in a subsequent series which will form an independent group, but under the same generic title of Paninian Studies.
With the resurgent interest in linguistic studies which are manifesting themselves all over the world and the recent development of linguistic studies in India in the growth of which the Deccan College has been playing a significant major role during the past twenty-five years it is appropriate that Paninian Studies should form part of the Building Centenary and Silver Jubilee Series which Deccan College has inaugurated since 1964. When Panini is once again installed in the central position in linguistic studies there is hope that a new era will have dawned in India, and we may expect significant original contributions to this science, particularly in the applications of its insights to the development of our great national languages which are now in the process of taking their legitimate place as media of education from the primary to the highest reaches of knowledge in the universities.
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