Page:Systems-of-Sanskrit-Grammar-SK Belvalkar.pdf/52

 44 Systems of Sanskrit Grammar § 29 - 1 The earliest and on that ground the simplest of these recasts of the Ashtadhyayi that has come down to us is the Rüpamālā of Vimalasarasvati, a writer who, if the date given in a Ms. of the work be true,' must be placed not later than A. D. 1350. The arrangement of the work is in the style of later Kaumudis. After treating of art, ar, and far the author deals with af in four sections:, , s, and fuffe; then follows declension in six parts: i tat, i. canter, iii. Tr, iv. HTT, V. irre- gular words like a &c., and vi. Vedic irregularities. After these come faras, their meanings and grammatical peculiarities, ts, and relations. The longest section deals with the areas, the peculiarities of each being arranged under separate headings; and as an appendix we have and as, the last giving the circumstances under which verbs change their s. The and the area occupy the next two sections, the work concluding with a chapter on war. It has been thought worth while giving the above details as they help us to show in what respects the later Kaumudīs are an improvement on this their prototype. Vimalasarasvati's manner of presenting his whole subject is quite simple and attractive, if it cannot also claim to be exhaustive. The merit of later works consists mainly in a more systematic arrangement and a somewhat more detailed treatment. All the same, the credit for having conceived the idea of such a recast and carried it into exe- 1 India office Ms. No. 612, which is stated to have been written in Samvat 1437=1379A.D. The same Ma. gives Saib. 1467 as another date. A Ms. de- posited at the Deccan College (No. 209 of 1879-80) is dated Samvat 1607. Vimalasarasvali is quoted by Amritabharati, a writer of the Sirasvata school, a manuscript of whose work bears the date A. D. 1496.