Patanjali'a Mahabhasya on P. 1. 3. 1 mentions ,' c sciences l which have something * auspicious in the beginning, in the.

. middle and in the end '* n^aiigaldlni mangalamadhyni mangaljit ni strni ). In my, Three tjcibleins pertaining to the Mahabhasya ( Brpnkhorst, 1987 : esp. p. 12 ) I ha^e^ad occasion to draw attention to the difficulties of interpretation whjch this?}phrase brings $but, Mahabhasya, itself is not stated to have something a^pjcious in the beginning, in thef middle and in the,end. In the case of the^ yj|rttjkas(rj the **,someHthing| auspicious in the beginning "is, according to^ Pataijalt the use of the word sidalie in ^ qne of the first pf them. This vErttilca, does not, however, appear to be the first vrttika in the Mahabhasya, as I have : ThV " something auspicious in the beginning "-in Pnini's F is b e word' vrddHi ib P. 1.1. i ( vrddhir ad aie ). The " something auspicious in tfe middle " in this textes tlie presence ofMM- ( instead ofbhv*} in P. 1.3.1 (bhvdayo dhtavah ) . But P. 1. 3 > 1 is not, of course, anywhere $ear tfce mi&UcfpfUhe Astdhyy. /The " something auspicious in the end " remains unspecified in the ^Majiablisya., Some commentators propose the^ use of udayqfa P. 8.4. 67, which is not the Very, end of the Atdhy2y. { Ij is far from certain that Patanjali had anything specific in mind for the " some- ^ng' au'spibious in \ the end ' \ The question is therefore : whence did P^t njair get "tjjie notion pf "sciences which have something auspicious in1 tHe beginning^ in the middle and in the end " ?