A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit.

• Position: Book review

A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit. By THOMAS OBERLIES. Indian Philosophy and South Asian Studies, vol. 5. Berlin: WALTER DE GRUYTER. 2003. Pp. Ivi + 631.

After the early pioneering work of Holtzmann, and after informative series of articles by Nilmadhab Sen and E. D. Kulkarni, as well as the useful but rather incomplete coverage by K. Meenakshi, we finally have in our hands A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit by Thomas Oberlies that is comprehensive in its coverage of the epic data, as well as a work that provides on every page detailed references to all the previous work on the grammar of Sanskrit that is relevant to the topic at hand. In the estimation of the current reviewer, this work can proudly sit next to works of the likes of Wackernagel and Edgerton. The preface (p. vii) explains how the author collected and examined the data of the epic texts, after reviewing all the previous research work:

In writing the present grammar all these publications have been critically sifted. The first task was that all cited forms and constructions had to be located in the critical editions of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, whereby all references were converted-- where necessary--to these editions. Then it was carefully examined whether these forms and constructions occur in a considerable number of manuscripts, i.e. to rule out the possibility of them having arisen from mere textual corruption. It was further checked whether they really violate Sanskrit grammar and syntax or--this was the second criterion for forms and constructions to be included into this grammar--whether they were attested for the very first time in the epics within Sanskrit literature. The material thus obtained was arranged in terms of well-known topics of traditional Sanskrit grammar. The Epic Grammar that is now submitted certainly does not list every peculiarity in every line of the two epics. But I do hope that each category has been covered. ... Reference has been made throughout to the Sanskrit grammars of Kielhorn, Renou, Stenzler and Whitney and to the Altindische Grammatik of Wackernagel and Debrunner. The book also contains a very useful concordance to Kielhorn's Grammatik der Sanskrit-Sprache, to Edgerton's Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar, and to Oberlies' own Pali Grammar.

Oberlies' work describes in minute detail the peculiarities of the language of the epics, covering sandhi, the nominal system, the pronouns, the verbal system...