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The three groups of particles in the Nirukta1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Harry Falk
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Extract

Yska, in his Nirukta, divides words into four classes: nman (noun), khyta (verb), upasarga (preposition) and nipta (particle). He is the only one of all the ancient writers on grammar who deals at some length with the last mentioned category of particles. The introduction to this class runs as follows:

atha nipt uccvaceṣv artheṣu nipatanti. apy upamrthe. api karmopasaṃgrahrthe. api padapraṇḥ

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , June 1982 , pp. 260 - 270
Copyright
Copyright School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1982

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References

2 A synopsis of all previous views of the topic is given by Mehendale, 50

3 Durga and Skanda-Mahevara had already separated the rest starting with hi from the karmopasaṃgraha-gcoVLf) just as Bronkhorst does. Mehendale, 56, refutes these earlier attempts to bisect the group with a similar argument

4 Dyen, 73, explains nipta by accidental, word of little or no meaning-content

5 The same statement can be found in the atapathabrhmaṇ 5.2.3, 6

6 atha can be regarded as standing outside the sentence

7 Panini probably had something similar in mind when he laid stress on asatlve in 1.4, 57 cdayo sattve' ca etc. are particles when not denoting substances. Gaṇa 85 (cdi) contains t, tve and sm

8 Even Scharfe (p. 121) misunderstands the text when he regards the vkyapraṇas as asecondary expansion of padapraṇas

9 An identical case where sandhi has to be dissolved and a stop made is given by Mehendale, 7

10 Scharfe (p. 121) was on the right track: It is surprising that the Indian grammarians with their astute observation have accepted so many meaningless fillers

11 According to RPrt. 12.6 702 upasarga, nouns and verbal roots have meaning. The niptas are regarded as meaningless

12 Exactly the opposite view is held by Dyen, who understands (p. 13) pdapraṇa as the oldest definition of nipta. He calls the Niruleta's threefold division an expansion of the application of the term nipta