Laksanacandrika

The tradition of the Taittiriya Pratisakhya is very much important in the field of ancient Indian phonetics. The Taittiriya Pratisakhya is survived today with nine commentaries, out of which only three are published. The Laksanacandrika is one of such unpublished commentaries on the Taittiriya Pratisakhya written by Mahadeva Ramacandra Gadre in the beginning of the 19th century. The present volume brings a critical edition of it based on four complete manuscripts. We may call Laksanacandrika as an abridged edition of another famous commentary Tribhasyaratna. Yet it shows it own peculiarities in many places. It does not accept the usual adhyaya-sutra arrangement of the text accepted by the other commentators. It follows adhyaya-anuvaka-sutra division. It is peculiar to Laksanacandrika that it quotes many verses from various siksa texts. Today many siksas are not available even in manuscript form. Texts like the Laksanacandrika provide us much material for the restoration of at least fragments of some lost siksas, particularly of the Atreya Siksa and that of the Mahesvara Siksa. Besides it also quotes from the known Sanskrit texts on phonetics, uses widely the terminology of Panini, explains the sutra in brief and gives its own examples. Texts like Laksanacandrika are helpful to trace out the wide extent of ancient Indian phonetics.