The Amarakoṣa (AMK), the most influential Sanskrit thesaurus, established a cornerstone of Indian lexicographic tradition. Its interpretive rules (paribhāṣās) govern gender determination, compound treatment, and synonym ordering. These rules, essential for readers, were elaborated by commentators across India, including Jātarūpa, Subhūticandra, Kṣīrasvāmin, and Sarvānanda. The Pāli Abhidhānappadīpikā (Abh), composed in twelfth-century Sri Lanka by Moggallāna, models the AMK's structure for Buddhist scholastic contexts. Its commentary, the Abhidhānappadīpikāṭīkā (AbhT), written in fourteenth-century Myanmar by the minister-scholar Caturangabala, offers a detailed exposition of the Abh's paribhāṣās (1.6-1.8). The AbhT's explanations use numerous examples from Pāli canonical and commentarial literature, reflecting both reliance on the Sanskrit prototype and adaptation to Burmese pedagogical needs. This paper compares the Abh's paribhāṣā verses and their interpretation in the AbhT with selected early AMK commentaries. The analysis shows direct textual parallels, particularly in the explanation of rūpabheda/rūpantara ('difference in form'), sāhacarya ('proximity'), and viśeṣavidhi/āhaccavidhi ('special designation'). It also highlights divergences: while Sanskrit commentators tend toward grammatical concision, Caturangabala emphasizes clarity, exemplification, and Buddhist canonical authority. By situating the AbhT within the history of Indic lexicography, this study demonstrates how lexicographic rules circulated, were reshaped by Buddhist scholastic communities, and became integral to monastic education in Myanmar. More broadly, it argues that paribhāṣās are interpretive keys that illuminate the methods, aims, and cultural transmission of Pāli and Sanskrit philology.
Paranjape et al. (Fri,) studied this question.