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01-05-2025, 07:30 PM
Texts
Pāṇini's text Aṣṭādhyāyī is in sutras format, has eight chapters, and cumulative total of 4,000 sutras. These rules are preceded by a list of fourteen groups of sounds, in three sections called the Shiva-sutra, Pratyahara-sutra and Maheshvara-sutra. The Aṣṭādhyāyī groups the rules of language, for clear expression and understanding, into two, the verbal (Dhatupatha) and the nominal bases (Ganapatha). The text consists of an analytical part covered in the first five chapters, and a synthetic part found in the last three chapters.
The Aṣṭādhyāyī manuscript has survived with sets of ancillary texts (appendices) whose dates of composition and authors are contested. The main text is notable for its details and systematic nature, syntactic functions and arranging the sutras in an algorithmic fashion where the grammar rules typically apply in the order of sutras.
The Aṣṭādhyāyī sutras were widely studied and a subject of the bhāṣya (review and commentary) tradition of Hinduism. The oldest emendation and commentary on the Aṣṭādhyāyī is attributed to Kātyāyana (~3rd century BCE), followed by the famous Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali (~2nd century BCE) which has survived into the modern age. Other commentaries on the Aṣṭādhyāyī likely existed, because they are cited by other Indian scholars, but these texts are believed to be lost to history.
Pāṇini's text Aṣṭādhyāyī is in sutras format, has eight chapters, and cumulative total of 4,000 sutras. These rules are preceded by a list of fourteen groups of sounds, in three sections called the Shiva-sutra, Pratyahara-sutra and Maheshvara-sutra. The Aṣṭādhyāyī groups the rules of language, for clear expression and understanding, into two, the verbal (Dhatupatha) and the nominal bases (Ganapatha). The text consists of an analytical part covered in the first five chapters, and a synthetic part found in the last three chapters.
The Aṣṭādhyāyī manuscript has survived with sets of ancillary texts (appendices) whose dates of composition and authors are contested. The main text is notable for its details and systematic nature, syntactic functions and arranging the sutras in an algorithmic fashion where the grammar rules typically apply in the order of sutras.
The Aṣṭādhyāyī sutras were widely studied and a subject of the bhāṣya (review and commentary) tradition of Hinduism. The oldest emendation and commentary on the Aṣṭādhyāyī is attributed to Kātyāyana (~3rd century BCE), followed by the famous Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali (~2nd century BCE) which has survived into the modern age. Other commentaries on the Aṣṭādhyāyī likely existed, because they are cited by other Indian scholars, but these texts are believed to be lost to history.