ABSTRACT
In two recent studies, Bronkhorst (1990, 1991) has shown that pre-classical authors like Bhartrhari had conceptions of the basic categories of scientific texts which were not quite as we would have expected. Bronkhorst concentrated on two types of commentaries, the Bh~yas and the Varttikas, and distinguished between what he called the Bh~ya-style (1991) and the Varttika-style (1990 and 1991). The Bh~ya-style, according to Bronkhorst, consists of a 'tendency ... to swallow up the sutras, or verses, on which they comment, so that together they come to look like one single work' (Bronkhorst, 1991, p. 218). The Varttika-style is the 'style in which ordinary prose and short nominal phrases alternate' (idem). Both the Bh~ya and the Varttika comment on or deal with a segmented 'basic text' (milia); the segments commented upon are usually called sutras, propositions which may or may not be in verse form (idem).
