Panini : His Place in Sanskrit Literature: An Investigation of Some Literary and Chronological Questions Which may be Settled by A Study of His Work

About The Book : A Discovery of this ritual work, which had thus remained latent under a wrong designation, would at all times have been welcome to those engaged in the study of Vaidik literature ; it gained in interest from the facts that a doubt had been raised, I do not know on what grounds, whether a copy of it had survived, and that a commentary of Kumarila on these Sutras, had, so far as my knowledge goes, never yet been spoken of in any European or Sanskrit book. It was but natural, under these circumstances, that I should think of making the knowledge I had obtained generally available, by editing this manuscript ; but, to my utter disappointment, I soon perceived, after having examined it in detail, that it belonged to that class of written books, the contents of which may be partially made out and partially guessed, but which are so hopelessly incorrect that a seeming restoration of their text around require a greater amount of conjecture than could be permitted to an editor, or might be consistent with the respect due to the author of the work itself. This resolution was strengthened by the consideration that even a correct text of these Sutras would be serviceable only to the few scholars who are familiar with this branch of the oldest Sanskrit literature, and that they would be able, by the aid they might get from other existing Sutras on the Vaidik ritual, and the Mimansa works, to turn to account even this incorrect manuscript, in spite of the many doubts it leaves.