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Payogasiddhi

The Establishment of Usage

GRAMMATICAL TRADITION · volume 7 of 13

The Payogasiddhi of Medhaṃkara, one of Moggallāna's followers — 1200s CE. It does for Moggallāna's grammar what the Rūpasiddhi does for Kaccāyana's: takes the system and rearranges it for use.

Moggallāna founded the second school of Pali grammar, and the date of his work is fixed by a political event: his colophon says it was written in the reign of Parakkamabāhu, after the king had purged the Saṅgha of heretical monks — about 1165 CE. He lived at the Thūpārāma at Anurādhapura.

What made his school worth founding is that he took Pali more seriously as a language than his predecessors had. He treats it more exhaustively and with a better sense of its character, differs considerably in arrangement and terminology, and notices things the others had walked past — the existence of short e and o, for one. He was nonetheless a borrower: the earlier Pali grammars stand behind him, and so do the Kātantra, Pāṇini and above all Candragomin.

How it ends

Payogasiddhisiddhaṃ.

SourcesNorman 1983, p. 165.

Layer
Treatise — treatise
Collection
GRAMMATICAL TRADITION · volume 7 of 13
On
The Establishment of Usage
Written by
MedhaṃkaraNorman 1983, p. 165; and the text itself, which names *saṅgharakkhitamahāsāmitherapādaviracitā*
When
1200s CEHinüber 1996, p. 187, §406 (on Medhaṃkara)
Pali text
Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (CST4)
English
Complete in draft, not yet reviewed · 2,493 paragraphs over 63 pages
  1. 1. The Chapter on Technical Terms and the Rest (Saññādikaṇḍa)1. Saññādikaṇḍa
  2. 2. The Chapter on Nouns (Nāmakaṇḍa)2. Nāmakaṇḍa
  3. The Section on NumeralsSaṅkhyākaṇḍa
  4. 3. The Chapter on Kārakas (Kārakakaṇḍa)3. Kārakakaṇḍa
  5. 4. The Chapter on Compounds (Samāsakaṇḍa)4. Samāsakaṇḍa
  6. 5. The Chapter on ṇa and the Rest (Ṇādikaṇḍa)5. Ṇādikaṇḍa
  7. 6. The Chapter on ti and the Rest (Tyādikaṇḍa)6. Tyādikaṇḍa
  8. 7. The Chapter on kha and the Rest (Khādikaṇḍa)7. Khādikaṇḍa
  9. The Conclusion of the PayogasiddhiPayogasiddhi nigamanaṃ