Principle of Suspension (asiddhatva) in Aṣṭādhyāyī: A Critical Study

Abstract

Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī is a rule book that employs many techniques to derive the Sanskrit language. One such technique is the principle of suspension (asiddhatva). This principle is predominantly used in the last three quarters of this text, known as tripādī. This study attempts to deconstruct this technique and investigate critically its role in the entire working of the Aṣṭādhyāyī. In addition to the traditional interpretation of avoidance of rules and application of rules, the tripādī section can be used as a tool to resolve conflicts and to derive particular words. The types of operations covered in this section, its domain and the roles of sthānivadbhāva and vipratiṣedha are analysed. The three main reasons that may determine the ordering of rules in tripādī are: the derivational process of a word, continuation of word or words from the earlier rule and logic. The placement of the rules of the ābhīya section are justified as per traditional interpretation, domain of aṅga and sthānivadbhāva. A comparative analysis of the tripādī and ābhīya sections has been conducted. One conceptual underpinning of the Aṣṭādhyāyī appears to be the inheritance principle. This “latency” of properties of objects or “implicit presence” of objects seems to be working at different levels of the language. At the varṇa level, Pāṇini has created the itsaṃjñā. At the pratyaya level, the characteristics of pratyayalakṣaṇa come into play even when the pratyaya is elided. At the ādeśa level, sthānivadbhāva takes over this principle of inheritance. At the sūtra or vidhi level, asiddhatva applies. An attempt has been made to give an alternative interpretation to the concept of āśrayāt siddhatvam. This study also sets out to establish a link between negation of sthānivadbhāva, the ābhīya section and the tripādī section. Directed Acyclic graphs are used to represent the linear ordering of the tripādī rules and any topological sorting algorithm can be implemented to re-create the linear ordering of the tripādī section. Case study 1 highlights the significance of the anubandhas of the augments. Case study 2 is a study on role of saṃjñās in the application of rules. The significance of usage of specific words in the rules of the Aṣṭādhyāyī is the subject matter of Case study 3. A study of the roots mentioned in tripādī rules comprises Case study 4. Case study 5 considers nipātana as a tool in the application of rules. The vārttikas that were located during the cross-referencing of the tripādī rules in the sapādasaptādhyāyī are discussed in Case study 6. The appendix consists of a table of examples located during cross-referencing of tripādī rules.