The history of Sanskrit grammar has largely been dominated by the work of Panini and his followers, while the history and contributions of other Sanskrit grammatical schools remain under their shadow and are little known. The present work, a first critical edition of two extracts from the Sumatipanjika (1.1 and 1.4), a commentary by the Buddhist author Sumati (10 cent.) on the grammatical work of Candragomin, founder of the eponymous Candra school of grammar, goes some way to filling in this gap. The text, presented in a critical edition followed by a diplomatic one, is based on three manuscripts (two from Nepal and one from Bengal) dating from between the 15" and 16" centuries and written in Newari script. The edition is prefaced by an introduction that discusses the history of the Candra school of Sanskrit grammar and considers how Candra grammar was kept alive in the regions of Nepal and Tibet, in dialogue with the Paninian school.
Sumatipanjika: A Commentary on Candravyakaranavrtti 1.1 and 1.4, Ramhari Timalsina (editor), Institut Francais de Pondicherry, Paperback, 444 pp, $35.00
Ramhari Timalsina has taught linguistics at Tribhuvan University (2004-2008) and Sanskrit grammar at Mahendra Sanskrit University (2009- 2014). In 2014, after working as a researcher in the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP) for a dozen years, he enrolled at Gottingen University for doctoral studies. Since 2018, he has been working at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities as a research associate.
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