M: Overview of Kaccāyana

The material in this appendix is mostly drawn from a class called A Short Introduction to the Kaccāyana Pali Grammar: Its Background, Techniques and Terminology taught by Aleix Ruiz-Falqués, Shan State Buddhist University, Taunggyi, Myanmar in 2020.

Genesis of Kaccāyana

There are actually two components of Kaccāyana:

• Kaccāyana-byājkarana (circa 6th century CE) and the author is not known (but ascribed to Mahā Kaccāyana Thera) - this contains the concisely stated rules (called sutta) that form the basis of Pali grammar; and
• Kaccāyana-vutti (circa 8th centure CE) by Saṅghanandin, which represents a commentary and explanation of the rules together with examples.

Kaccāyana itself draws from multiple earlier sources such as:

• Prātiśākya treatises, Vedic phonetics (various authors)
• Pānini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (“Eight Lessons”)
• Kātantravyākarana by Šarvavarman

So, Kaccāyana draws and inherits from a long tradition of Sanskrit grammar and technical terms. According to Pind (2012) approximately 215 sutta from Kaccāyana are based on Kātantravyākarana, and approximately 300 sutta are modifications from Panini. However, more than half the sutta in Kaccāyana are not derived from Sanskrit, so the grammar as a whole does not reflect Sanskrit usage and vocabulary.

Kaccāyana structure

Types of rules in Kaccāyana

Several saññā “technical terms”, within an adhikāra “domain”, following paribhāsā “metarules”, will be subject to vidhi “operations” in order to derive words or sentences.

How does a vidhi (operation) work

Most vidhi “operational” rules teach paccaya “affixation” or ādesa “replacement” using previous definitions (saññā-s). It is all about adding particles to a base, and then replacing them if/when needed.

To understand vidhi-s, we should keep in mind the following code of case endings:

• ABL. = “after X”
• GEN. = “instead of X”
• NOM., ACC. = “X”, ādesa (“replacement”)
• LOCATIVE1: “before X”
• LOCATIVE2: “in the sense of X”

Affixation (paccaya)

timeline
  Left : Ablative
    : After X
  A : Nominative
    : Affix A is inserted

Replacement (ādesa)

timeline
  Left : Ablative
    : Ablative
    : Ablative
    : After X
  A : Genitive
    : Nominative
    : Nominative
    : Replace A
  B : Nominative
    : Nominative
    : Accusative
    : With B
  Right : Locative
    : Locative
    : Locative
    : Before Y
  Marker : ca (and)
    : api (also)
    : vā (or)
    : kvaci (sometimes)
    : na (not)
    : niccam (required)
  Semantic : Locative
    : "in the sense of ..."

Elision (lopaṃ)

timeline
  Left : Ablative
    : After X
  A : Nominative
    : Instead of A
  lopaṃ: Accusative
    : elision
  Right : Locative
    : Before Y

Structure of a rule (sutta)

stateDiagram-v2
  direction LR
  [*] --> upasagga
  [*] --> dhātu
  upasagga --> upasagga
  upasagga --> dhātu
  dhātu --> paccaya