INTRODUCTION xxxi नामूलं लिख्यते किंचित् नानपेक्षितमुच्यते । Simple but striking are some of the illustrations that Sūrin furnishes to bring out the different genders in which a word may be used when explaining Amara's text. For example, त्रिष्वेवं भेद्यगामि यत्, is explained as कष्टा सेवा, कष्टो भृत्यभावः, कष्टं व्याकरणम् (p. 155). 6 Surely kaştam vyakaraṇam which is given by Patanjali himself in his Mahābhāsya will be better appreciated by students learning grammar, than kaştam visabhakşanam given by Malli. There are some words such as varga, samgha, kula and yutha which appear to have the same general meaning of a group', but which have to be used distinctly according to the objects to be indicated. Sūrin gives apt illustrations, the word varga being employed in such cases as prānivargah, kavargah (group of gutturals), samgha in paksisamghah (flock of birds), sārtha as in vaniksärthaḥ (caravan of merchants), kulam as in brahmana- kulam (assembly or family of Brahmaņa-s) and yutham as in gajayutham (herd of elephants) (pp. 359-60). Sūrin gives the derivations of words, and brings out their full significance unlike some of the principal commentators who lavish attention on the minute details of grammar, leaving the explanations to take care of themselves. Svāmin no doubt derives most of the words, but in many places the explanation is not full and in some places positively meagre. Worse is the position in Bhănuji's comm.; his derivations are full of grammatical lucubrations, but he explains fully only a very few words. The word ayattah (a dependent) in Amara (III. 1. 16) is dealt with thus: आयतते स्म। ‘यती प्रयत्ने' । अकर्मकत्वात् क्तः । (p. 411) 6 whereas Sūrin explains the meaning as a person employed in a particular work':
