Consider the following statements about Patanjali's Mahabhashya: 1. It makes a mention of Kautilya. 2. It is a book on grammar and refers to historical personalities only incidentally. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — B, 2 only. Patanjali's Mahabhashya, composed in about the mid-second century BCE, is a commentary on selected rules of Panini's Ashtadhyayi together with Katyayana's varttikas on them. It is a work of vyakarana from beginning to end, and everything historical in it arrives sideways — as illustrative sentences chosen to demonstrate a form, a tense or a case. That is exactly what statement 2 claims, and it is the reason historians prize the text: an incidental remark about a recent Greek incursion is one of the fixed points used to date the work itself. Statement 1 is the one the key rejects. The Mahabhashya is not among the texts that carry the name Kautilya; that name reaches us from the Arthashastra itself and from later literature such as the Puranas and Vishakhadatta's play Mudrarakshasa. So the second statement stands alone.
- (a)1 only — Keeps the rejected statement and drops the sound one. It is the pick of a candidate who half-remembers that the Mahabhashya is useful for Mauryan and post-Mauryan history and slides from that into a specific attribution.
- (c)Both 1 and 2 — Accepts both. The grammatical description in statement 2 is not in doubt, so this option can only be right if the Kautilya reference is real, which the key treats as false.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, which cannot be right — the description of the Mahabhashya as a grammar that touches history only in passing is the least controversial thing in the item.
The Sanskrit grammatical tradition runs Panini, then Katyayana's varttikas correcting and supplementing him, then Patanjali's Mahabhashya commenting on both. Because Patanjali illustrates rules with sentences about the world he lived in, the text has become a historical source by accident — which is a general point about early Indian evidence, where literature written for other purposes carries most of the datable detail.
Statements items of this shape usually have one soft claim and one hard one, and the soft one here is the description of the text's character. A candidate who is sure only of statement 2 can already narrow to options that include it, and the whole question then turns on the Kautilya reference. Note what can and cannot be checked: that the Mahabhashya is a grammatical commentary is settled and verifiable, whereas a claim that a long text never mentions a particular name is a negative that no summary can prove. This card follows the official key on that half and rests its own reasoning on the positive one.
- The Mahabhashya is attributed to Patanjali and dated to about the mid-second century BCE.
- It comments on selected rules of Panini's Ashtadhyayi and on Katyayana's varttikas.
- Its historical value is incidental — remarks on contemporary events, including a recent Greek incursion, appear inside grammatical examples.
- That incidental material is part of what fixes Patanjali's date.
- The name Kautilya is carried by the Arthashastra itself and by later works such as the Puranas and the Mudrarakshasa.
- Assuming a text useful to historians was written as history.
- Confusing Patanjali the grammarian with the Patanjali to whom the Yoga Sutras are attributed.
- Placing Katyayana after Patanjali; the sequence is Panini, Katyayana, Patanjali.
As statements on the character and content of an ancient text, or as a chronology of the three great Sanskrit grammarians.
With reference to the scholars/litterateurs of ancient India, consider the following statements: 1. Panini is associated with Pushyamitra Shunga. 2. Amarasimha is associated with Harshavardhana. 3. Kalidasa is associated with Chandra Gupta II. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 3 only
The same habit tested on the same shelf of authors — pairing a scholar with the wrong ruler. Panini belongs centuries before the Shungas, and it is Patanjali, not Panini, whose text sits in that later world.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Mahabhashya of Patanjali is a commentary on
- (a)the Arthashastra of Kautilya
- (b)the Ashtadhyayi of Panini and Katyayana's varttikas
- (c)the Rigveda
- (d)the Natyashastra of Bharata
Answer(b) the Ashtadhyayi of Panini and Katyayana's varttikas — the three together form the core of the Sanskrit grammatical tradition.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The correct chronological order of the three great Sanskrit grammarians is
- (a)Patanjali, Panini, Katyayana
- (b)Katyayana, Panini, Patanjali
- (c)Panini, Katyayana, Patanjali
- (d)Panini, Patanjali, Katyayana
Answer(c) Panini, Katyayana, Patanjali — Katyayana wrote varttikas on Panini, and Patanjali commented on both.