AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF SANSKRIT GRAMMAR AND RHETORICS IN THE MEBON INSCRIPTION

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that Sanskrit had a relatively long prolific lifespan in the epigraphy of Cambodia, particularly in the Angkor Wat epigraphic record and in that of other Southeast Asian regions.

Sanskrit was the court language of the ancient Cambodia for more than thousand years. Cambodian epigraphy used both Sanskrit and old Khmer languages. They considered Sanskrit as a sacred language and so used it to record everything. All the royal orders, royal genealogies, land transactions, temple administration, panegyrics of the founders of monuments and donors were recorded in Sanskrit. therefore, Sanskrit inscriptions played as the important role to the historical record of ancient Cambodia and learn more of how the ancient Cambodian Sanskrit Kāvyas were deployed on the ancient Cambodia to represent events recorded for posterity. The texts of these inscriptions as Kāvyas are composed by the pandits who hoped to add to the dignity of Cambodians by the free use of the terminology and principles of Sanskrit grammar. We have to study and understand the Cambodian Kāvyas used to do in this manner according to the Panini grammar system.

A perusal of the studies on Sanskrit Inscriptions makes clear that many scholars have made valuable contributions to such a study. But there are not many scholars focus on the deep analysis with the technical (e. g, grammatical and rhetorical) way. It requires the Sanskritist who should have good knowledge of the Sanskrit culture that finds expression in these inscriptions, is not just able to understand technical (e.g, grammatical and rhetorical) but also could analysis and provide the evidences for certifying the reading of the transcripts and even the interpretations of the inscriptions in order to correct the errors.

This thesis is an attempt to deal, in some detail, works with the grammatical and rhetorical points of The Mebon Inscription, which based on the works from two Inscription scholars: Sharan, Mahesh Kumar. (1981) the Select Cambodian Inscriptions: the Mebon and Pre Rup Inscriptions of Rajendra Varman II, Delhi : S.N. Publications) and Lours Finot. (1925). INSCRIPTIONS D'AṄKOR, Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient, Vol. 25, No. 3/4 (1925), pp. 289-407. Published by: École française d’Extrême-Orient. These books have inspired me to study original Mebon Sanskrit Inscriptions with a view to evaluating their literary (Kavya) aspects and grammatical value in Sanskrit Inscription.

The aim of the present research is to explore the grammatical and rhetorical aspects of Mebon Inscription. In this thesis, I compared two transcripts of Mebon Inscription (Sharan edition and Finot edition), corrected the errors of the transcripts from text with new edition and offer the new edition with interpretation of the Mebon Inscription referred to grammatical and rhetorical study.

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