Vārttikakāra

"Varttikakara" (IAST: IAST|Vārttikakāra, Devanāgarī: _sa. वार्त्तिककार) is a Sanskrit word literally meaning a "Commentator". In Indian linguistics and philosophy, it is used as a title to refer to a person who wrote a critical commentary or a gloss on a given grammatical or philosophical work.

Monier Williams Dictionary defines Vārttikakāra as a composer of vārttikas. A vārttika is defined as a single remark or a whole work attempting to present a detailed commentary. The word vārttik- derives from IAST|vṛtti, either in the sense of 'the turning (IAST|vṛt) of sūtra-formulation into a fully worded paraphrase' or, in the sense of 'procedure (of the teaching)' [Review: The Sanskrit Language, Paul Thieme, Language, Vol. 31, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep., 1955), p. 429.] . According to the Indian tradition, the purpose of a vārttika is to enquire into what has been said ("ukta"), what has not been said ("anukta"), and what has not been said clearly ("durukta") [Suresvara’s Vartika on Jyotis Brahmana -edited, translated and annotated by K.P. Jog and Shoun Hino. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 2001, ISBN 81-208-1756-7] .

Famous Vārttikakāras

* Sureśvara is the commentator of the Advaita Vedanta school. His famous commentaries include the Bŗhadāraņyakopanişad-bhāşya-vārttika and the Taittirīya-vārttika.
* Katyayana is identified as the Vārttikakāra of Indian linguistics ["On the identity of the Varttikakara", Paul Thieme, Indian culture 4 (1938), pp. 189-209] , who wrote commentaries on IAST|Pāṇini's IAST|Aṣṭādhyāyi.

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