The Silence of the Commentaries: Pradesah in the Text of the Kasikavrtti

As is well known, the Kasikavrtti is the oldest extant rule-by-rule commentary on the Astadhyayi of Papini. Two major commentaries on it are available, the Nyasa from the eighth century and the Padamanjari, most likely from the eleventh century. In this article we focus on the term pradesa, which is a familiar feature of the printed editions of the Kasikavrtti on the sanjna sutras of the Astadhyayi. closer examination, however, shows that the sentence "Xpradesah-XX... ity evamadayah" (where Xis the sanjna) is not met with in either of the two commentaries. This has consequences for our understanding of the textual transmission of the kasikavrtti.