﻿AND PRACRIT LANGUAGES. 207 



a very celebrated work, is, I believe, a coinment;iry 

 of this sort* It is mentioned by MAiTitE'vA 

 Racshita, the author of the D^hdta pradipa, as 

 the work chiefly consulted by him in conipilino- his 

 brief annotations on the Dliatupdi a. A very vo- 

 luminous comincntary on the catalogue of verbs was 

 compiled under the patronage of Sayan'a, minister 

 of a chieftain named Sangama, and is entitled 

 MdiThaviyd vj'itti. It thoroughly explains the sig- 

 nification and inflection of each verb ; bat at the 

 same time eiiters largely into scholastick refinements 

 on general grammar. 



Such vast works as the Mahdbhdshya and its 

 scholia, with the voluminous annotations on the 

 catalogue of verbs, are not adapted for general in- 

 struction. A conciser commentary must have been 

 always requisite. The best that is now extant is 

 entitled the Cds'icd vrttti, or commentary composed 

 at Fardiiafii. The anonymous author of it, in a 

 short preface, explains his design : ' to gather the 

 essence of a science dispersed in the early comm.en- 

 taries, in the Bli/ishija, in copious dictionaries of 

 verbs and of nouns, and in other works.' He has well 

 fulfilled the task which he undertook. His gloss 

 explains in perspicuous language the meaning and 

 application of each rule : he adds examples, and 

 quotes, in tlicir proper places, the necessary emen- 

 dations from the Vdrticas and Bhdshija. Though 

 lie never deviates into frivolous disquisitions, nor 

 into tedious reasoning, but expounds the text as 



succinctly 



sand. From each of these are deduced many compound verbs by pre- 

 fixing one or more prepositions to the verbal root. Such compounds 

 often deviate very widely in their signification, and some even in their 

 inflt^ctions, from the radical verb. The derivative verbs again are 

 numerous ; such as causals, frequentatives, &c. Hence it may be 

 readily perceived how copious this branch of grammar must l)e. 



* I have not yet had an opportunity of inspecting either this or its 

 gloss. It has been described to me as a commentary on the Casfca 



