ABSTRACT
One of Aœoka’s inscriptions-that of B4, or the Viœvâmitra cave-mentions the ancient name of Barâbâr Hill: khalatika-pavvata, or ‘Khalatika Mountain’, which must have been the historical name under which the w h o l e area472 was known to Aœoka and his contemporaries. This name is mentioned by Kâtyâyana (c. 250 BCE), whose life coincides with the rule of Aœoka, in one of his vârttikas to Pâòini’s Ašþâdhyâyî (vârttika 4 ad 1.2.52): khalatikâdišu vacanam. In the course of the elucidation of the Pâòinian technical rule (A 1.2.51), which allows the retention of the original number and gender (with a semantic change to the singular) in the case of designations of, primarily (as the examples show), localities-e.g. pañcâlâÿ used in the plural masculine to name a singular geographical region, i.e. ‘the place of the Pañcâla warriors’ (pañcâlâÿ kšatriyâÿ)— another rule is introduced (A 1.2.52) which extends the same rule to adjectives. According to these rules, even though one would expect final terms to be used, say, in the masculine singular, they would still be used in the number and gender
of their derivative base, however with the newly acquired meaning of the masculine singular (for instance, pañcâlâÿ janapadaÿ, or ‘the country of the Pañcâla warriors’ in the sense of *pâñcâlaÿ janapadaÿ). In his explanatory note, Kâtyâyana adds that the same rule with respect to the retention of the original number only (but not gender, which will be accordingly adjusted) should also be applied to adjectives such as ‘Khalatika-Mountain’ (or, ‘of Khalatika Mountain’) etc. (khalatikâdišu vacanam), derived from the noun ‘Khalatika Mountain’. This is commented on by Patañjali in his Mahâ-bhâšya: ‘[Only] the number is retained in the case of [the adjective] Khalatika-Mountain (singular) etc. due to the similarity with that with which [the term] is connected: [to refer to] forests which are in the vicinity of Khalatika Mountain [we say] Khalatika-Mountain (singular) forests (plural).’473 But for this rule, we would expect the agreement of the adjective with the noun which it qualifies, for instance: *‘Khalatika-Mountains forests’ (*khalatikâni vanâni), however the rule stipulates that the expression ‘KhalatikaMountain’ used as an adjective retains its original number (in this case, singular) which is not adjusted to the number of the noun (in this case, plural) qualified by it, but at the same time its gender is changed to conform to the gender of the qualificand, hence we have the correct expression: ‘Khalatika-Mountain (neuter singular) forests (neuter plural)’ (khalatikam vanâni), not *‘KhalatikaMountain (masculine singular) forests (neuter plural)’ (*khalatiko vanâni).474
