Divisions
179-504: Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Samkhyakarika ( Sanskrit : सांख्यकारिका , Sāṁkhyakārikā ) is the earliest surviving text of the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy . The text's original composition date is unknown, but its terminus ad quem (completed before) date has been established through its Chinese translation that became available by 569 CE. It
358-469: A Best-text edition essentially a documentary edition. For an example one may refer to Eugene Vinaver's edition of the Winchester Manuscript of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur . When copy-text editing, the scholar fixes errors in a base text, often with the help of other witnesses. Often, the base text is selected from the oldest manuscript of the text, but in the early days of printing, the copy text
537-468: A branching family tree and uses that assumption to derive relationships between them. This makes it more like an automated approach to stemmatics. However, where there is a difference, the computer does not attempt to decide which reading is closer to the original text, and so does not indicate which branch of the tree is the "root"—which manuscript tradition is closest to the original. Other types of evidence must be used for that purpose. Phylogenetics faces
716-418: A comprehensive exploration of relations among seven early witnesses to Dante's text. The stemmatic method assumes that each witness is derived from one, and only one, predecessor. If a scribe refers to more than one source when creating her or his copy, then the new copy will not clearly fall into a single branch of the family tree. In the stemmatic method, a manuscript that is derived from more than one source
895-420: A computer, which records all the differences between them, or derived from an existing apparatus. The manuscripts are then grouped according to their shared characteristics. The difference between phylogenetics and more traditional forms of statistical analysis is that, rather than simply arranging the manuscripts into rough groupings according to their overall similarity, phylogenetics assumes that they are part of
1074-403: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship , philology , and literary criticism that is concerned with
1253-482: A document's transcription history, depending on the number and quality of the text available. On the other hand, the one original text that a scholar theorizes to exist is referred to as the urtext (in the context of Biblical studies ), archetype or autograph ; however, there is not necessarily a single original text for every group of texts. For example, if a story was spread by oral tradition , and then later written down by different people in different locations,
1432-516: A few witnesses presumably as being favored by "objective" criteria. The citing of sources used, and alternate readings, and the use of original text and images helps readers and other critics determine to an extent the depth of research of the critic, and to independently verify their work. Stemmatics or stemmatology is a rigorous approach to textual criticism. Karl Lachmann (1793–1851) greatly contributed to making this method famous, even though he did not invent it. The method takes its name from
1611-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had
1790-581: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to
1969-643: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit
SECTION 10
#17328490302492148-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This
2327-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be
2506-516: A new spirit of critical enquiry was boosted by the attention to textual states, for example in the work of Lorenzo Valla on the purported Donation of Constantine . Many ancient works, such as the Bible and the Greek tragedies , survive in hundreds of copies, and the relationship of each copy to the original may be unclear. Textual scholars have debated for centuries which sources are most closely derived from
2685-470: A number of errors in common, it may be presumed that they were derived from a common intermediate source, called a hyparchetype . Relations between the lost intermediates are determined by the same process, placing all extant manuscripts in a family tree or stemma codicum descended from a single archetype . The process of constructing the stemma is called recension , or the Latin recensio . Having completed
2864-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given
3043-518: A proof that soul exists, as follows: सङ्घातपरार्थत्वात् त्रिगुणादिविपर्ययादधिष्ठानात् । पुरुषोऽस्ति भोक्तृभावात्कैवल्यार्थं प्रवृत्तेश्च ॥ १७ ॥ Because the assemblage of empirically observed objects is for another's use (I-principle); because the converse of that which has the three qualities with other properties must exist (from regressus ad infinitum principle); because there must be superintendence (supervising conscious agent or chariot principle); because there must be one to enjoy; because there
3222-573: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and
3401-534: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond
3580-512: A restricted set of hypothetical hyparchetypes. The steps of examinatio and emendatio resemble copy-text editing. In fact, the other techniques can be seen as special cases of stemmatics in which a rigorous family history of the text cannot be determined but only approximated. If it seems that one manuscript is by far the best text, then copy text editing is appropriate, and if it seems that a group of manuscripts are good, then eclecticism on that group would be proper. The Hodges–Farstad edition of
3759-504: A scribe is unlikely on his own initiative to have departed from the usual practice. Internal evidence is evidence that comes from the text itself, independent of the physical characteristics of the document. Various considerations can be used to decide which reading is the most likely to be original. Sometimes these considerations can be in conflict. Two common considerations have the Latin names lectio brevior (shorter reading) and lectio difficilior (more difficult reading). The first
SECTION 20
#17328490302493938-453: A selection of readings taken from many sources. An edited text that draws from multiple sources is said to be eclectic . In contrast to this approach, some textual critics prefer to identify the single best surviving text, and not to combine readings from multiple sources. When comparing different documents, or "witnesses", of a single, original text, the observed differences are called variant readings , or simply variants or readings . It
4117-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from
4296-526: A version of Bengel's rule, "The reading is less likely to be original that shows a disposition to smooth away difficulties." They also argued that "Readings are approved or rejected by reason of the quality, and not the number, of their supporting witnesses", and that "The reading is to be preferred that most fitly explains the existence of the others." Many of these rules, although originally developed for biblical textual criticism, have wide applicability to any text susceptible to errors of transmission. Since
4475-734: Is Avyakta (unmanifest). Both have the three Guṇa that, states the text, is in continual tension with one another, and it is their mutual interaction on Prakriti that causes the emergence of the world as we know it. When the Sattva-Rajas-Tamas are in equilibrium, no modification occurs; when one of three innate qualities is more active, the process of evolution is in action, change emerges ( Gunaparinama ). These two verses are significant, states Larson, in aphoristically presenting Samkhya's doctrines of causation, relationship between vyakta and avyakta , and its doctrine of what drives evolution. Samkhya-karika asserts, states Larson, that apart from
4654-692: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in
4833-477: Is a tendency to abstraction; therefore soul exists. Verse 18 of the Karika asserts that many souls must exist because numerous living beings are born, die and exist; because qualities (Gunas) are operating and affect everyone differently; and because everyone is endowed with instruments of cognition and action. Verse 19 states that the soul is the conscious "witness, separate, neutral, seer and inactive". A living being
5012-444: Is a union of Prakriti and Purusha, posits Samkhya-karika in verses 20-21. The Prakriti as the insentient evolute, joins with Purusha which is sentient consciousness. The Karika states that the purpose of this union of Prakriti and Purusha, creating the reality of the observed universe, is to actualize a two-fold symbiosis. One, it empowers the individual to enjoy and contemplate on Prakriti and Purusha through self-awareness; and second,
5191-508: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand
5370-616: Is also referred to as the theory of existent effect. Verse 10 asserts that there are two kinds of principles operating in the universe: discrete, un-discrete. The discrete is inconstant, isolated and unpervading, mutable, supporting, mergent, conjunct and with an agent. The un-discrete is constant, field-like, pervasive, immutable, non-supporting, non-mergent, separable and independent of an agent. Both discrete and un-discrete, describes Karika in verse 11, are simultaneously imbued with three qualities, and these qualities ( Guṇa ) are objective, common, prolific, do not discriminate and are innate. It
5549-435: Is an important pillar of Indian philosophical tradition, called shad-darshana , however, of the standard works of Samkhya only three are available at present. These are: Samkhya Sutras attributed to the founder of Samkhya, Kapila ; Tattva Samasa , which some authors (Max Muller) consider prior to Samkhya Sutras, and Samkhya Karika authored by Ishvara Krishna. Ishvara Krishna follows several earlier teachers of Samkhya and
Samkhyakarika - Misplaced Pages Continue
5728-424: Is attributed to Ishvara Krishna ( Iśvarakṛṣṇa , 350 CE). In the text, the author described himself as a successor of the disciples from the great sage Kapila , through Āsuri and Pañcaśikha . His Sāṁkhya Kārikā consists of 72 śloka s written in the Ārya metre , with the last verse asserting that the original Samkhya Karika had only 70 verses. The earliest important commentary on his Kārikā
5907-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to
6086-499: Is good, enlightening and illuminating, Rajas is urgent, motion and restless, while Tamas is darkness, obscuring and distressing; these work together in observed nature just like oil, wick and fire together in a lamp. Nature merely undergoes modification, transformation, or change in appearance, but this is innate effect that already was in the cause, because asserts Karika , nothing cannot produce something. The Karika defines Prakriti as "that nature which evolves", and asserts to be
6265-581: Is in these respects, asserts Karika , that they are the reverse of the nature of Soul (Self, Atman ) because Soul is devoid of these qualities. The text in verse 12 states that the three Guṇa (qualities), that is sattva , tamas and rajas , respectively correspond to pleasure, pain and dulness, mutually domineer, produce each other, rest on each other, always reciprocally present and work together. This Samkhya theory of qualities have been widely adopted by various schools of Hinduism for categorizing behavior and natural phenomena. Verses 13-14 state that Sattva
6444-423: Is necessary when these basic criteria are in conflict. For instance, there will typically be fewer early copies, and a larger number of later copies. The textual critic will attempt to balance these criteria, to determine the original text. There are many other more sophisticated considerations. For example, readings that depart from the known practice of a scribe or a given period may be deemed more reliable, since
6623-569: Is neither created nor creative nor evolves (and simply exists). Verse 4 introduces the epistemology of Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, and states that there are three pramana , that is reliable paths to reliable knowledge: perception, inference and the testimony of reliable person. All other paths to knowing anything is derived from these three, states the Karika . It then adds that these three paths can enable one to know twenty five Tattvas that exist. Verse 5 of Samkhya-karika defines perception as
6802-402: Is not always apparent which single variant represents the author's original work. The process of textual criticism seeks to explain how each variant may have entered the text, either by accident (duplication or omission) or intention (harmonization or censorship), as scribes or supervisors transmitted the original author's text by copying it. The textual critic's task, therefore, is to sort through
6981-404: Is objective, elemental and external; another which is subjective, formulating in mind and internal. It interfaces these with its epistemic theory of knowledge, that is perception, inference and the testimony of reliable person, then presenting its theory of error, theory of complacency, theory of virtue and necessary conditions for suffering, happiness and release. The verses 60-69 begin by stating
7160-443: Is pre-existent in the cause". That which exists, states Karika , has a cause; that which exists not, lacks a cause; and when there exists a cause, in it is the seed and longing for the effect; that, a potent cause produces that which it is capable of. Hence, it is nature of existence that "perceptible principles exist in nature", and effects are manifestation of the perceptible principles. The Samkhya theory of causation, Satkāryavāda ,
7339-524: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in
Samkhyakarika - Misplaced Pages Continue
7518-399: Is said to be contaminated . The method also assumes that scribes only make new errors—they do not attempt to correct the errors of their predecessors. When a text has been improved by the scribe, it is said to be sophisticated , but "sophistication" impairs the method by obscuring a document's relationship to other witnesses, and making it more difficult to place the manuscript correctly in
7697-629: Is said to come from Kausika family. He taught before Vasubandhu and is placed following Kapila, Asuri , Panchashikha , Vindhyavasa, Varsaganya, Jaigisavia, Vodhu, Devala and Sanaka. The significance Besides the Vedanta school, the Samkhya school is the one which exerted the greatest influence upon the history of Indian thought, and a blending and synthesis of the thought of the two schools can often be found in important works of thought in India. The Samkhyakarika
7876-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,
8055-550: Is the classical text book of the Samkhya school. —Hajime Nakamura Samkhya karika was probably composed sometime in the Gupta Empire period, between 320-540 CE. The translation of Paramartha into Chinese together with a commentary was composed over 557-569 CE, has survived in China, and it constitutes the oldest surviving version of Samkhya karika. Several manuscripts, with slightly variant verses are known, but these do not challenge
8234-405: Is the general observation that scribes tended to add words, for clarification or out of habit, more often than they removed them. The second, lectio difficilior potior (the harder reading is stronger), recognizes the tendency for harmonization—resolving apparent inconsistencies in the text. Applying this principle leads to taking the more difficult (unharmonized) reading as being more likely to be
8413-445: Is the path of knowledge and understanding. More specifically, liberation from suffering comes from discriminative knowledge of Vyakta (evolving, manifest world), Avyakta (unevolving, unmanifest empirical world, Prakrti), and Jna (knower, self, Purusha). Verse 3 adds that primordial nature is uncreated, seven starting with Mahat (intellect) is both created and creative, sixteen are created and evolve (but not creative), while Purusha
8592-580: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of
8771-526: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside
8950-578: The Alexandrian text-type , are the most favored, and the critical text has an Alexandrian disposition. External evidence is evidence of each physical witness, its date, source, and relationship to other known witnesses. Critics will often prefer the readings supported by the oldest witnesses. Since errors tend to accumulate, older manuscripts should have fewer errors. Readings supported by a majority of witnesses are also usually preferred, since these are less likely to reflect accidents or individual biases. For
9129-462: The Comma was known for Tertullian . The stemmatic method's final step is emendatio , also sometimes referred to as "conjectural emendation". But, in fact, the critic employs conjecture at every step of the process. Some of the method's rules that are designed to reduce the exercise of editorial judgment do not necessarily produce the correct result. For example, where there are more than two witnesses at
SECTION 50
#17328490302499308-568: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created
9487-529: The Greek New Testament . In his commentary, he established the rule Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua , ("the harder reading is to be preferred"). Johann Jakob Griesbach (1745–1812) published several editions of the New Testament. In his 1796 edition, he established fifteen critical rules. Among them was a variant of Bengel's rule, Lectio difficilior potior , "the harder reading is better." Another
9666-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c. 350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c. late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in
9845-458: The Karika has seventy three verses. In contrast, verse seventy two of the surviving 6th-century CE Karika declares that its original had just seventy verses, implying that a more ancient version of Samkhya-karika once existed. Scholars have attempted to produce a critical edition , by identifying the most ancient original set of seventy verses, but this effort has not produced a consensus among scholars. In terms of content, importance and meaning,
10024-662: The Karika states that perception alone is not sufficient means to know objects and principles behind observed reality, certain existent things are not perceived and are derived. The text in verse 8 asserts that the existence of Prakriti (empirical nature, substances) is proven by perception but its subtle principles are non-perceptible. Human mind, among others emerge from Prakriti, states the text, but are not directly perceptible, rather inferred and self derived. The reality of mind and such differ and resemble Prakriti in different aspects. Samkhya karika, in verse 9 introduces its theory of Satkaryavada (causation), asserting that "the effect
10203-744: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became
10382-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,
10561-526: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to
10740-650: The Vaikrita form of Ahamkara, while Tamasa influence creates the Bhutadi Ahamkara or the Tanmatras. Verses 29-30 of the text assert that all the organs depend on prana (breath or life), and that it is prana that connects them to the unseen one, the soul. The three internal emergent faculties ( Trayasya ), states Karika in verse 29, are mind, ego and the ability to reason. The sensory and action organs perform their respective function, by cooperating with each other, fueled by
10919-542: The ahamkara (ego), the manas (mind), the five buddhindriyas (sensory organs), the five karmendriyas (action organs), the five tanmantras (subtle elements), the five mahabhutas (gross elements), and thereafter the text proceeds to detailing its theory of knowledge process. The Karika's verse 22 asserts that Mahat (the Great Principle, intellect) is the first evolute of nature (Prakriti, human body), from it emerges ego ( Ahamkara , I-principle), from which interface
SECTION 60
#173284903024911098-432: The beginnings of two lines are similar. The critic may also examine the other writings of the author to decide what words and grammatical constructions match his style. The evaluation of internal evidence also provides the critic with information that helps him evaluate the reliability of individual manuscripts. Thus, the consideration of internal and external evidence is related. After considering all relevant factors,
11277-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of
11456-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined
11635-449: The "set of sixteen" (discussed in later verses). Verses 23-25 describes Sattva, as the quality of seeking goodness, wisdom, virtue, non-attachment. The reverse of Sattva, asserts Karika is Tamasa. Sattva is the characteristic of intellect, states the text. The Karika lists the sensory organs to be the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, while action organs as those of voice, hands, feet, excretory organs and that of procreation. Mind, states
11814-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and
11993-521: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to
12172-459: The Bible, and, for Anglo-American Copy-Text editing, Shakespeare, have been applied to many works, from (near-)contemporary texts to the earliest known written documents. Ranging from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to the twentieth century, textual criticism covers a period of about five millennia. The basic problem, as described by Paul Maas , is as follows: We have no autograph [handwritten by
12351-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on
12530-521: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with
12709-513: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of
12888-481: The Greek New Testament attempts to use stemmatics for some portions. Phylogenetics is a technique borrowed from biology , where it was originally named phylogenetic systematics by Willi Hennig . In biology, the technique is used to determine the evolutionary relationships between different species . In its application in textual criticism, the text of a number of different witnesses may be entered into
13067-469: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that
13246-507: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of
13425-521: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around
13604-489: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support
13783-508: The Prakriti and emergent creation, of equilibrium and evolution, exists the Purusha (or self, soul). The Purusha is pure consciousness, is itself inactive yet whose presence disrupts the equilibrium of the three Guṇas in their unmanifest condition. The disruption triggers the emergence of the manifested condition of empirical reality we experience, states the text. More specifically, verse 17 offers
13962-488: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of
14141-616: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with
14320-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into
14499-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to
14678-407: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound
14857-610: The applicability of the different methods for coping with these problems across both living organisms and textual traditions is a promising area of study. Software developed for use in biology has been applied successfully to textual criticism; for example, it is being used by the Canterbury Tales Project to determine the relationship between the 84 surviving manuscripts and four early printed editions of The Canterbury Tales . Shaw's edition of Dante's Commedia uses phylogenetic and traditional methods alongside each other in
15036-418: The author and scribes, or printers, were likely to have done). The collation of all known variants of a text is referred to as a variorum , namely a work of textual criticism whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual decisions have been made in the preparation of a text for publication. The Bible and the works of William Shakespeare have often been
15215-422: The author must be regarded as equivalent to an autograph manuscript". The lack of autograph manuscripts applies to many cultures other than Greek and Roman. In such a situation, a key objective becomes the identification of the first exemplar before any split in the tradition. That exemplar is known as the archetype . "If we succeed in establishing the text of [the archetype], the constitutio (reconstruction of
15394-458: The basic thesis or the overall meaning of the text. While the Samkhya ideas developed in second half of 1st millennium BCE through the Gupta period, the analysis of evidence shows, states Gerald Larson, that Samkhya is rooted in the speculations of the Vedic era Brahmanas and the oldest Upanishads of Hinduism on the nature of man, and that it is generally agreed that Samkhya's formulation took place at
15573-501: The canons of criticism are highly susceptible to interpretation, and at times even contradict each other, they may be employed to justify a result that fits the textual critic's aesthetic or theological agenda. Starting in the 19th century, scholars sought more rigorous methods to guide editorial judgment. Stemmatics and copy-text editing – while both eclectic, in that they permit the editor to select readings from multiple sources – sought to reduce subjectivity by establishing one or
15752-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era
15931-517: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on
16110-403: The commentary on verse sixty three. In mid 20th-century, the first manuscript of Yuktidipika was discovered in India, which is a review and commentary on the Karika . Yuktidipika , for unknown reasons, skipped commenting on verses sixty through sixty three, verse sixty five and sixty six, but reviews and analyzes the remaining 66 of 72 verses. The medieval era Matharavrtti text states that
16289-400: The conjunction of Prakriti and Purusha empowers the path of Kaivalya and Moksha (liberation, freedom). The verse 21 aphoristically mention the example of "the blind and the lame", referring to the Indian legend of a blind and a lame person left in the forest, who find each other, inspire mutual trust and confidence, agree to share the duties with the blind doing the walking and the lame doing
16468-609: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in
16647-559: The correct reading. After selectio , the text may still contain errors, since there may be passages where no source preserves the correct reading. The step of examination , or examinatio is applied to find corruptions. Where the editor concludes that the text is corrupt, it is corrected by a process called "emendation", or emendatio (also sometimes called divinatio ). Emendations not supported by any known source are sometimes called conjectural emendations . The process of selectio resembles eclectic textual criticism, but applied to
16826-510: The critic forms opinions about individual witnesses, relying on both external and internal evidence. Since the mid-19th century, eclecticism, in which there is no a priori bias to a single manuscript, has been the dominant method of editing the Greek text of the New Testament (currently, the United Bible Society, 5th ed. and Nestle-Åland, 28th ed.). Even so, the oldest manuscripts, being of
17005-591: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting
17184-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and
17363-467: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in
17542-456: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes
17721-527: The duality theory of the Samkhya school, which asserts that Prakriti (nature) and Purusha (soul) are absolutely separate. No soul (Purusha) therefore is bound, no one released, likewise no one transmigrates.; Only nature (Prakriti) in its various forms transmigrates, is bound and is released. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )
17900-531: The earliest after the oldest Upanishads had been composed (~800 BCE). In terms of comparative textual chronology, states Larson, the final redaction of Yogasutra and the writing of Samkhya-karika were probably contemporaneous. The Samkhya literature grew with later developments such as through Bhashya on Samkhya karika in the 9th-century Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi of Vacaspati Mishra. The Karika , wrote ancient Hindu scholars Gaudapada and Vacaspati Misra, contains seventy two verses. However, Gaudapada commented on
18079-483: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in
18258-484: The editor used (names of manuscripts, or abbreviations called sigla ); second, the editor's analysis of that evidence (sometimes a simple likelihood rating), ; and third, a record of rejected variants of the text (often in order of preference). Before inexpensive mechanical printing, literature was copied by hand, and many variations were introduced by copyists. The age of printing made the scribal profession effectively redundant. Printed editions, while less susceptible to
18437-399: The evidence of contrasts between witnesses. Eclectic readings also normally give an impression of the number of witnesses to each available reading. Although a reading supported by the majority of witnesses is frequently preferred, this does not follow automatically. For example, a second edition of a Shakespeare play may include an addition alluding to an event known to have happened between
18616-543: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to
18795-400: The first sixty nine, leading 19th-century colonial era scholars to suggest that the last three may have been added later. With the discovery of 6th-century manuscripts of translations of the Indian text into Chinese language, it became clear that by the 6th-century, the Karika had seventy two verses. The Chinese version includes commentary on the Karika , but for unknown reasons, skips or misses
18974-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as
19153-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in
19332-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with
19511-402: The identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking
19690-584: The immediate knowledge one gains by the interaction of sense organ with anything; inference, it defines as the knowledge one gains based on meditation on one's perception; and testimony as that knowledge one gains from the efforts of those one considers as a reliable source; it then succinctly asserts that there are three types of inferences for the epistemic quest of man, without explaining what these three types of inferences are. Verse 6 asserts that objects can be known either through sensory organs or through super-sense (inner derivation from observations). Verse 7 of
19869-478: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as
20048-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It
20227-503: The life-force, while the soul is the independent observer. The organs manifest the object and the purpose of one's soul, not the purpose of anything outside of oneself, states verse 31 of the text. Verses 32 through 35 of Karika present its theory how the various sensory organs operate and cooperate to gain information, how action organs apprehend and manifest driven by mind, ego and three innate qualities (Gunas). Verses 36 and 37 assert that all sensory organs cooperate to present information to
20406-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and
20585-503: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,
20764-423: The manner of many ancient Sanskrit compositions. The stanza is divided into feet, each feet has four instants, with its short syllable counting as one instant ( matra ), while the long syllable prosodically counts are two instants. Each verse of Karika are presented in four quarters (two quarters making one half), the first quarter has exactly three feet (12 beats), the second quarter four and half feet (18 beats),
20943-399: The material cause of the empirically observed world. Prakriti, according to the text, both physical and psychical, is that which is manifested as the matrix of all modifications. Prakriti is not primal matter, nor the metaphysical universal, rather it is the basis of all objective existence, matter, life and mind. Prakriti has two dimensions, that which is Vyakta (manifest), and that which
21122-1193: The means of counteracting it. If it is said that such inquiry is useless because perceptible means of removal exist, we say no because these means are neither lasting nor effective. (1) The three causes of unhappiness (or the problem of suffering, evil in life) are adhyatmika that is caused by self; adhibhautika that is caused by others and external influences; and, adhidaivika that is caused by nature and supernatural agencies. The suffering are two types, of body and of mind. The perceptible means of treatment include physicians, remedies, magic, incantations, expert knowledge of moral and political science, while avoidance through residence in safe places are also perceptible means available. These obvious means, state scholars, are considered by Samkhya karika, as temporary as they do not provide absolute or final removal of suffering. Verse 2 asserts that scriptures too are visible means available, yet they too are ultimately ineffective in relieving sorrow and giving spiritual contentment, because scriptures deal with impurity, decay and inequality. The verse then posits its thesis, states Larson, that "a superior method different from both" exists, and this
21301-461: The method was not as rigorous or as scientific as its proponents had claimed. Bédier's doubts about the stemmatic method led him to consider whether it could be dropped altogether. As an alternative to stemmatics, Bédier proposed a Best-text editing method, in which a single textual witness, judged to be of a 'good' textual state by the editor, is emended as lightly as possible for manifest transmission mistakes, but left otherwise unchanged. This makes
21480-429: The mind, and it is the mind that presents knowledge and feelings to one's soul (Purusha within). The Samkhya-karika in these verses, states Larson, discusses its theory of reality and how one experiences it. The text includes the discussion of impulses and bhavas (dispositions, desires) that produce human experience and determine subjective reality. The Karika asserts that there is twofold emergence of reality, one which
21659-501: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of
21838-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India
22017-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created
22196-593: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around
22375-583: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,
22554-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as
22733-464: The original author] manuscripts of the Greek and Roman classical writers and no copies which have been collated with the originals; the manuscripts we possess derive from the originals through an unknown number of intermediate copies, and are consequently of questionable trustworthiness. The business of textual criticism is to produce a text as close as possible to the original ( constitutio textus ). Maas comments further that "A dictation revised by
22912-408: The original) is considerably advanced." The textual critic's ultimate objective is the production of a "critical edition". This contains the text that the author has determined most closely approximates the original, and is accompanied by an apparatus criticus or critical apparatus . The critical apparatus presents the author's work in three parts: first, a list or description of the evidence that
23091-543: The original, hence which readings in those sources are correct. Although texts such as Greek plays presumably had one original, the question of whether some biblical books, like the Gospels , ever had just one original has been discussed. Interest in applying textual criticism to the Quran has also developed after the discovery of the Sana'a manuscripts in 1972, which possibly date back to
23270-422: The original. Such cases also include scribes simplifying and smoothing texts they did not fully understand. Another scribal tendency is called homoioteleuton , meaning "similar endings". Homoioteleuton occurs when two words/phrases/lines end with the similar sequence of letters. The scribe, having finished copying the first, skips to the second, omitting all intervening words. Homoioarche refers to eye-skip when
23449-404: The other. This contrasts with dualism presented in other schools of Hindu philosophy where dualism focuses on the nature of individual soul and Brahman (universal reality). These verses, states Larson, provide a detailed discussion of the theory of emergence, that is what emerges, how and the functioning of the different emergents. The discussion includes the emergence of buddhi (intelligence),
23628-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for
23807-423: The phrase "lower criticism" refers to textual criticism and " higher criticism " to the endeavor to establish the authorship, date, and place of composition of the original text . Textual criticism has been practiced for over two thousand years, as one of the philological arts. Early textual critics, especially the librarians of Hellenistic Alexandria in the last two centuries BC, were concerned with preserving
23986-520: The possibility that the original author may have revised her or his work, and that the text could have existed at different times in more than one authoritative version. The critic Joseph Bédier (1864–1938), who had worked with stemmatics, launched an attack on that method in 1928. He surveyed editions of medieval French texts that were produced with the stemmatic method, and found that textual critics tended overwhelmingly to produce bifid trees, divided into just two branches. He concluded that this outcome
24165-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and
24344-406: The practice of consulting a wide diversity of witnesses to a particular original. The practice is based on the principle that the more independent transmission histories there are, the less likely they will be to reproduce the same errors. What one omits, the others may retain; what one adds, the others are unlikely to add. Eclecticism allows inferences to be drawn regarding the original text, based on
24523-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes
24702-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view
24881-410: The proliferation of variations likely to arise during manual transmission, are nonetheless not immune to introducing variations from an author's autograph. Instead of a scribe miscopying his source, a compositor or a printing shop may read or typeset a work in a way that differs from the autograph. Since each scribe or printer commits different errors, reconstruction of the lost original is often aided by
25060-596: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly
25239-490: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,
25418-558: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with
25597-483: The same difficulty as textual criticism: the appearance of characteristics in descendants of an ancestor other than by direct copying (or miscopying) of the ancestor, for example where a scribe combines readings from two or more different manuscripts ("contamination"). The same phenomenon is widely present among living organisms, as instances of horizontal gene transfer (or lateral gene transfer) and genetic recombination , particularly among bacteria. Further exploration of
25776-417: The same level of the tree, normally the critic will select the dominant reading. However, it may be no more than fortuitous that more witnesses have survived that present a particular reading. A plausible reading that occurs less often may, nevertheless, be the correct one. Lastly, the stemmatic method assumes that every extant witness is derived, however remotely, from a single source. It does not account for
25955-413: The same reasons, the most geographically diverse witnesses are preferred. Some manuscripts show evidence that particular care was taken in their composition, for example, by including alternative readings in their margins, demonstrating that more than one prior copy (exemplar) was consulted in producing the current one. Other factors being equal, these are the best witnesses. The role of the textual critic
26134-491: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had
26313-492: The seeing, the lame sits on blind's shoulder, and thus explore and travel through the forest. Soul (Purusha), in this allegory, is similarly symbiotically joined with body and nature (Prakriti) in the journey of life. Soul desires freedom, meaning and liberation, and this it can achieve through contemplation and abstraction. These verses present a peculiar form of dualism, states Gerald Larson , because they assert unconscious primordial "stuff" on one hand, and pure consciousness on
26492-551: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes
26671-523: The seventh to eighth centuries. In the English language, the works of William Shakespeare have been a particularly fertile ground for textual criticism—both because the texts, as transmitted, contain a considerable amount of variation, and because the effort and expense of producing superior editions of his works have always been widely viewed as worthwhile. The principles of textual criticism, although originally developed and refined for works of antiquity and
26850-432: The shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant. This means that unintentional alterations were common when copying manuscripts by hand. Intentional alterations may have been made as well, for example, the censoring of printed work for political, religious or cultural reasons. The objective of the textual critic's work is to provide a better understanding of the creation and historical transmission of
27029-594: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it
27208-431: The stemma, the critic proceeds to the next step, called selection or selectio , where the text of the archetype is determined by examining variants from the closest hyparchetypes to the archetype and selecting the best ones. If one reading occurs more often than another at the same level of the tree, then the dominant reading is selected. If two competing readings occur equally often, then the editor uses judgment to select
27387-424: The stemma. The stemmatic method requires the textual critic to group manuscripts by commonality of error. It is required, therefore, that the critic can distinguish erroneous readings from correct ones. This assumption has often come under attack. W. W. Greg noted: "That if a scribe makes a mistake he will inevitably produce nonsense is the tacit and wholly unwarranted assumption." Franz Anton Knittel defended
27566-732: The subjects of variorum editions, although the same techniques have been applied with less frequency to many other works, such as Walt Whitman 's Leaves of Grass , and the prose writings of Edward Fitzgerald . In practice, citation of manuscript evidence implies any of several methodologies. The ideal, but most costly, method is physical inspection of the manuscript itself; alternatively, published photographs or facsimile editions may be inspected. This method involves paleographical analysis—interpretation of handwriting, incomplete letters and even reconstruction of lacunae . More typically, editions of manuscripts are consulted, which have done this paleographical work already. Eclecticism refers to
27745-416: The text and its variants. This understanding may lead to the production of a critical edition containing a scholarly curated text. If a scholar has several versions of a manuscript but no known original, then established methods of textual criticism can be used to seek to reconstruct the original text as closely as possible. The same methods can be used to reconstruct intermediate versions, or recensions , of
27924-480: The text is essentially the same regardless of which version of the manuscript is referred to. Each verse of the philosophical Samkhya-karika text is composed in a precise mathematical meter, that repeats in a musical rhythm of an Arya meter (also called the Gatha, or song, meter). Every verse is set in two half stanza with the following rule: both halves have exactly repeating total instants and repeating sub-total pattern in
28103-404: The text, is both a sensory organ in some aspects, and an organ of action in other aspects. Mind ponders, it is cognate, it integrates information and then interacts with the organs of action, it is also modified by the three innate qualities and diverse manifestations of it, asserts the text. Ego (Ahamkara), states the text, is self-assertion. Sattva influenced sensory organs and action organs create
28282-430: The textual critic seeks the reading that best explains how the other readings would arise. That reading is then the most likely candidate to have been original. Various scholars have developed guidelines, or canons of textual criticism, to guide the exercise of the critic's judgment in determining the best readings of a text. One of the earliest was Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752), who in 1734 produced an edition of
28461-402: The third quarter of every verse has three feet (12 beats again), while the fourth quarter has three and a half plus an extra short syllable at its end (15 beats). Thus, metrically, the first half stanza of every verse of this philosophical text has thirty instants, the second has twenty seven. Samkhya emerged in the Vedic tradition, states Gerald Larson, and the Karika is an important text that
28640-490: The traditional point of view in theology and was against the modern textual criticism. He defended an authenticity of the Pericopa Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11), Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7), and Testimonium Flavianum . According to him, Erasmus in his Novum Instrumentum omne did not incorporate the Comma from Codex Montfortianus , because of grammar differences, but used Complutensian Polyglotta . According to him,
28819-641: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but
28998-429: The two editions. Although nearly all subsequent manuscripts may have included the addition, textual critics may reconstruct the original without the addition. The result of the process is a text with readings drawn from many witnesses. It is not a copy of any particular manuscript, and may deviate from the majority of existing manuscripts. In a purely eclectic approach, no single witness is theoretically favored. Instead,
29177-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines
29356-553: The variants, eliminating those most likely to be un -original, hence establishing a critical text , or critical edition, that is intended to best approximate the original. At the same time, the critical text should document variant readings, so the relation of extant witnesses to the reconstructed original is apparent to a reader of the critical edition. In establishing the critical text, the textual critic considers both "external" evidence (the age, provenance, and affiliation of each witness) and "internal" or "physical" considerations (what
29535-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit
29714-470: The versions can vary greatly. There are many approaches or methods to the practice of textual criticism, notably eclecticism , stemmatics , and copy-text editing . Quantitative techniques are also used to determine the relationships between witnesses to a text, called textual witnesses , with methods from evolutionary biology ( phylogenetics ) appearing to be effective on a range of traditions. In some domains, such as religious and classical text editing,
29893-483: The word stemma . The Ancient Greek word στέμματα and its loanword in classical Latin stemmata may refer to " family trees ". This specific meaning shows the relationships of the surviving witnesses (the first known example of such a stemma, albeit without the name, dates from 1827). The family tree is also referred to as a cladogram . The method works from the principle that "community of error implies community of origin". That is, if two witnesses have
30072-636: The works of antiquity , and this continued through the Middle Ages into the early modern period and the invention of the printing press . Textual criticism was an important aspect of the work of many Renaissance humanists , such as Desiderius Erasmus , who edited the Greek New Testament , creating what developed as the Textus Receptus . In Italy, scholars such as Petrarch and Poggio Bracciolini collected and edited many Latin manuscripts, while
30251-497: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times
30430-454: Was Lectio brevior praeferenda , "the shorter reading is better", based on the idea that scribes were more likely to add than to delete. This rule cannot be applied uncritically, as scribes may omit material inadvertently. Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton Hort (1828–1892) published an edition of the New Testament in Greek in 1881 . They proposed nine critical rules, including
30609-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit
30788-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in
30967-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have
31146-674: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in
31325-409: Was often a manuscript that was at hand. Using the copy-text method, the critic examines the base text and makes corrections (called emendations) in places where the base text appears wrong to the critic. This can be done by looking for places in the base text that do not make sense or by looking at the text of other witnesses for a superior reading. Close-call decisions are usually resolved in favor of
31504-446: Was the fruit of those efforts. The Samkhya karika opens by stating that the pursuit of happiness is a basic need of all human beings. Yet, one is afflicted by three forms of suffering, a truth that motivates this text to study means of counteracting suffering: दुःखत्रयाभिघाताज्जिज्ञासा तदभिघातके हेतौ । दृष्टे सापार्था चेन्नैकान्तात्यन्ततोऽभावात् ॥ १ ॥ Because of the torment of the three-fold suffering, arises this inquiry to know
31683-488: Was unlikely to have occurred by chance, and that therefore, the method was tending to produce bipartite stemmas regardless of the actual history of the witnesses. He suspected that editors tended to favor trees with two branches, as this would maximize the opportunities for editorial judgment (as there would be no third branch to "break the tie" whenever the witnesses disagreed). He also noted that, for many works, more than one reasonable stemma could be postulated, suggesting that
31862-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as
32041-523: Was written by Gaudapada . Yuktidipika, whose medieval era manuscript editions were discovered and published about mid 20th-century, is among the most significant extant review and commentary on Samkhyakarika. The Sāṁkhya Kārikā was translated into Chinese in the 6th-century CE. In 1832, Christian Lassen translated the text in Latin. H.T. Colebrooke first translated this text into English. Windischmann and Lorinser translated it into German, and Pautier and St. Hilaire translated it into French. Samkhya
#248751