OF LANGUAGES. 



77 



As Yaska enters deeply in his Nirukta into the subject of the 

 respective origin and derivation of nonns and verbs 119 so 

 also have Indian Grammarians inquired into the nature of 

 gender. 



The constitution of nouns is differently viewed by various 

 scholars, and Bhartrihari mentions that there exist five differ- 

 ent opinions about the condition of nouns. 120 Nouns are 

 declared to denote either species ; or species and individual ; 

 or species, individual and gender; or species, individual 

 gender and number ; or species, individual, gender, number 

 and verbal connection. 



(render itself — and this subject interests us here mainly — 

 is then specified, as a quality inherent in the constituents 

 of nature. 121 Though Sanskrit grammarians view the 

 question of gender merely from its relation to the language 

 they have studied and endeavoured to explain, and did not 

 refer in their researches to foreign languages, as comparative 

 philologists do nowadays, yet their decision on this point 

 is very important, as it is a proof of their sound reasoning 

 and high intellectual attainments. 



If M. Renan would have confined the sentence " that 

 the older are the languages, the more distinctly do they 



(119) See : Jaska's Nirukta sammt den Nighanttavas herausgegeben 

 von Rudolph Roth, G-ottingen, 1852 pages 35 and 36, also in the "Erlauterun- 

 gen zum Nirukta," pages 9 and 10 ; and Professor Max Miiller's History 

 of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pages 164 — 168. 



(120) In the Vakyapadlya is the following Sloka : 



Ekam dvikam trikahcaiva catushkam pancakam tatha 

 Namartha iti sarve-mi pakshah sastre vyavasthitah. 

 Species, individual, gender, number and verbal connection are in Sanskrit : 

 Jati, vyakti, lihgam, sankhya and karakam. 



According to a sixth opinion the word is its own meaning, as the object 

 implied by it is not affected, e.g., Vishnum uccaraya ; gajadadabam ucca- 

 raya, pronounce Vishnu, pronounce ga, ja, da, da, ba ; there Vishnu, and 

 ga, ja, da, da, ba, mean merely the words " Vishnu" and " gajadadaba." 



(121) Compare the sentence " Tattacchabdanishtham vacyam" in Kaunda- 

 bhatta's Vaiyakaranabushanasara, Kar. 25, Calcutta, 1872, page 44, and 



Lingatvahca prakritaguna gatavasthatmako dharrna eva " in Taranatha 

 Tarkavachaspati's Sabdartharatnam, Calcutta, 1872, page 118. 



