Indian Semantic Analysis: The nirvacana Tradition.

AuthorSCHARF, PETER M.
PositionReview

Indian Semantic Analysis: The nirvacana Tradition. By EIVIND KAHRS. University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, vol. 55. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998. Pp. xv + 302. $69.95.

Kahrs presents the first major contribution to the study of the Nirukta tradition since the publication in 1982 of Vijayapala's edition of the Niruktaslokavarttika. He undertakes a thorough analysis of the syntax of the explanations of words in Yaska's

Nirukta in order to determine precisely what information they were meant to convey and how they conveyed it.

After announcing (p. 9) in chapter one, "An outline of strategies" (pp. 1-12), that he intends to "let the texts speak for themselves" to reveal the nature of "one consistent means of interpretation" called nirvacana, he determines in chapter two, "Nirvacanasastra" (pp. 13-54), that the nirvacana technique explains the reason a nominal word means what it does by referring to the action in which the thing referred to participates (or to which it is somehow related) and frequently also to the specific mode of its participation in that action. He (p. 27) distinguishes nirvacana from the etymology of historical and comparative linguistics, because it is synchronic while the latter is diachronic; from the vyurpatti of Vyakarana, because it is primarily concerned with explanation of meaning while the latter is primarily concerned with the derivation of speech forms (see also pp. 167-68); and from the explanation of the aitihasikas, because it prefers allegorical explanation while the latter traces the reason a wor d means what it does to specific events in past time. In chapter 3, "Praxis: Saiva Kashmir" (pp. 55-97), Kahrs examines the use of non-technical nirvacana analysis of the name bhairava by Abhinavagupta, Ksemaraja, and Jayaratha in Tantric Saiva scriptures from the tenth to thirteenth centuries in Kasmir. They use it as a mode of argumentation against dualists to instill in shared texts and traditions their non-dualist interpretation of Bhairava as the absolute deity, simultaneously both transcendent and immanent (pp. 72-73).

Chapters four and five form the main bulk of the book. In chapter 4, "The Universe of Yaska" (pp. 98-174), Kahrs explores the relation sustained between a stem and its corresponding explanatory expression in the more technical formulations of Yaska, by careful examination of the contents of expressions of various types. He (p. 168) concludes that an explanation in -anat, using the ablative of an action noun, gives the reason that the nominal word means what it does rather than directly stating the root from which the word derives. While such an analysis usually establishes a phonetic link as well, the semantic content is primary (p. 101). Similarly, the expression etas-mad eva, using the ablative of the demonstrative pronoun, refers back to such a reason. An explanation in the form of an analytic sentence followed by iii, he argues, likewise states a reason. In contrast, he determines that explanatory forms in -eh and teh are not ablatives but genitives of the verbal root citation forms in -i and -ti, thereb y correcting the errors of Skold, Sarup, and S. Varma. In an explanation in the form of an analytic sentence followed by iti satah (or satyah, satam), the genitive of the present active participle of the verb as 'be' refers to the denoted object characterized by the expression followed by iti (pp. 161, 167). Kahrs concludes (pp. 158, 171) that the pronoun in the expression iti apy asya bhavati, following the synonym of a previously analyzed word, refers either to the object denoted or to the verbal root from which the form is derived.

Kahrs closes chapter four with the claim that the genitives in the Nirukta are substitutional genitives comparable to what Sanskrit grammarians call a sthanasasthi (p. 173). In chapter 5, "Substitution" (pp. 175-267), he undertakes a thorough explication of Patanjali's Mahabhasya, together with its commentaries, on the sutra introducing the sthanasasthi, Panini 1.1.49, sasthi sthaneyoga. The book ends with a short sixth chapter, "Epilogue" (pp.. 268-79), in which Kahrs summarizes his conclusion that the explanatory expressions used to elucidate words in the Nirukta provide paradigmatic expressions of meaning of which the explained words are substitutes. He attaches a bibliography (pp. 280-94) and an index (pp. 295-302).

The analysis of the syntax of the Nirukta undertaken by Kahrs furthers the understanding of Nirukta syntax. His explication of the Mahabhasya on 1.1.49 is thorough and helpful. He accurately portrays the section's conclusions that such a substi-tutional genitive in Paninian grammar indicates that a speech form occurs in place of another speech form and that this "place" has been...

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