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(; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in
ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...
during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life are unknown, except only what can be inferred from his works, and legends recorded long after. His most notable work, the ''
Aṣṭādhyāyī The (; ) is a grammar text that describes a form of the Sanskrit language. Authored by the ancient Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 6th c. bce, 6-5th c.BCE and 4th c.BCE, it describes the language as current in his time, specifica ...
,'' is conventionally taken to mark the start of
Classical Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...
. His work formally codified Classical Sanskrit as a refined and standardized language, making use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology, and lexicon, organised according to a series of meta-rules. Since the exposure of European scholars to his ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' in the nineteenth century, Pāṇini has been considered the "first descriptive linguist", François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184). and even labelled as "the father of
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
". His approach to
grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
influenced such foundational linguists as
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
and
Leonard Bloomfield Leonard Bloomfield (April 1, 1887 – April 18, 1949) was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. He is considered to be the father of American distributionalis ...
.


Biography

The name Pāṇini is a
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...
meaning descendant of Paṇina. His full name was Dakṣiputra Pāṇini according to verses 1.75.13 and 3.251.12 of
Patanjali Patanjali (, , ; also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra) was the name of one or more author(s), mystic(s) and philosopher(s) in ancient India. His name is recorded as an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these a ...
's ''
Mahābhāṣya ''Mahabhashya'' (, IAST: '','' , "Great Commentary"), attributed to Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of Sanskrit grammar from Pāṇini's treatise, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', as well as Kātyāyana's ''Vārttika-sūtra'', an ela ...
'', with the first part suggesting his mother's name was Dakṣi.


Dating

Nothing definite is known about when Pāṇini lived, not even in which century he lived. Pāṇini has been dated between the seventh or sixth and fourth century BCE. George Cardona (1997) in his authoritative survey and review of Pāṇini-related studies, states that the available evidence strongly supports a dating not before 400 BCE, while earlier dating depends on interpretations and is not probative. Based on
numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
findings, von Hinüber (1989) and Falk (1993) place Pāṇini in the mid-4th century BCE. Pāṇini's ''rupya'' (A 5.2.119, A 5.2.120, A. 5.4.43, A 4.3.153,) mentions a specific gold coin, the ''niṣka'', in several sutras, which originated in India in the 4th-century BCE. According to Houben, "the date of " for Pāṇini is thus based on concrete evidence which till now has not been refuted." According to Bronkhorst (2016), there is no reason to doubt the validity of Von Hinüber's and Falk's argument, setting the '' terminus post quem'' for the date of Pāṇini at 350 BCE or the decades thereafter. According to Bronkhorst, It is not certain whether Pāṇini used writing for the composition of his work, though it is generally agreed that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as '' lipi'' ("script") and ''lipikara'' ("scribe") in section 3.2 of the''
Aṣṭādhyāyī The (; ) is a grammar text that describes a form of the Sanskrit language. Authored by the ancient Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 6th c. bce, 6-5th c.BCE and 4th c.BCE, it describes the language as current in his time, specifica ...
''. The dating of the introduction of writing to present day North West Pakistan may therefore give further information on the historical dating of Pāṇini. Pāṇini cites at least ten grammarians and linguists before him: Āpiśali, Kāśyapa, Gārgya, Gālava, Cākravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja, Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka, Sphoṭāyana and Yaska. According to Kamal K. Misra, Pāṇini references Yaska's
Nirukta ''Nirukta'' (, , "explained, interpreted") is one of the six ancient Vedangas, or ancillary science connected with the Vedas – the scriptures of Hinduism.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Nirukta" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: ...
, "whose writings date back to the middle of the 4th century B.C". The Sanskrit epic Brihatkatha and the Buddhist scripture
Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa The ''Āryamañjuśrī­mūlakalpa'' (''The Noble Root Manual of the Rites of Mañjuśrī'') is a Mahayana sutras, Mahāyāna sūtra and a Mantrayana, Mantrayāna ritual manual (kalpa) affiliated with the bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjusri, Mañjuśr ...
both mention Pāṇini to have been a contemporary with the king Dhana Nanda (reigned 329-321 BCE), the last monarch of the Nanda Empire before
Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (Sanskrit: elp:IPA/Sanskrit, t̪͡ɕɐn̪d̪ɾɐgupt̪ɐ mɐʊɾjɐ (reigned 320 BCE – c. 298 BCE) was the founder and the first emperor of the Maurya Empire, based in Magadha (present-day Bihar) in the Indian ...
came to power. Cardona offers an earlier date for Pāṇini, by arguing the compound word '' , discussed'' in sutra 4.1.49, instead of referring to a writing ( ''lipi'') c.q. cuneiform of the
Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...
, or the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
of
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
, refers to ''Greek women''; and that Indus valley residents possibly had contacts with Greek women before Darius's 535 BCE, or Alexander's 326 BCE conquests. K. B. Pathak (1930) argues that the ''kumāraśramaṇa'', of sutra 2.1.70, derived from ''
śramaṇa A ''śramaṇa''; ; ; ; ) is a person "who labours, toils, or exerts themselves for some higher or religious purpose" or "seeker, or ascetic, one who performs acts of austerity".Monier Monier-Williams, श्रमण śramaṇa, Sanskrit-Eng ...
'', which refers to female renunciates, c.q. "
Buddhist nuns Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...
", could also refer to Jain Aryika, of unknown origin, possibly permitting Pāṇini to be placed before the, 5th century BCE,
Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...
. Others, based on Panini's linguistic style, date his works to the sixth or fifth century BCE, as: * According to Bod, Pāṇini's grammar defines Classical Sanskrit, so Pāṇini is chronologically placed in the later part of the
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
, corresponding to the seventh to fifth century BCE. * According to A. B. Keith, the Sanskrit text that most matches the language described by Pāṇini is the '' Aitareya Brāhmaṇa'' (). * According to Scharfe, "his proximity to the Vedic language as found in the
Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
and Vedic sūtras suggests the 5th or maybe 6th c. B.C."


Location

Nothing certain is known about Pāṇini's personal life. In an inscription of Siladitya VII of Valabhi, he is called Śalāturiya, which means "a man from Salatura". This means Pāṇini lived in Salatura in ancient
Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...
(present day north-west
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
), which likely was near
Lahor Lāhor (), also known as Little Lahore (Pashto: , Urdu: ), previously known as Salatura (), is a town within the Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The town serves as the headquarters of the Lahor Tehsil and is administratively ...
, a town at the junction of the
Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...
and
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
rivers. According to the memoirs of the 7th-century Chinese scholar
Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...
, there was a town called ''Suoluoduluo'' on the Indus where Pāṇini was born, and where he composed the ''Qingming-lun'' (Sanskrit: '' Vyākaraṇa''). According to Hartmut Scharfe, Pāṇini lived in
Gandāra Gandāra, or Gadāra in Achaemenid inscriptions (Old Persian cuneiform: :Wikt:𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼, 𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼, , also transliterated as since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as or somet ...
, while a
satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...
y of the
Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...
, post the, c. 535 BCE, Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, but before the, 327 BCE, conquest of Alexander the Great. He must, therefore, have been technically a Persian subject but his work shows no awareness of the
Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...
. According to
Patrick Olivelle Patrick Olivelle is an Indologist. A philologist and scholar of Sanskrit Literature whose work has focused on asceticism, renunciation and the dharma, Olivelle has been Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Stu ...
, Pāṇini's text and references to him elsewhere suggest that "he was clearly a northerner, probably from the northwestern region".


Legends and later reception

According to Kathāsaritsāgara legends Pāṇini studied under his guru Varsha in
Pataliputra Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, Bihar, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE, as a small fort () near the Ganges river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliput ...
. Not the brightest of his disciples, on the advice of Varsha's wife, Pāṇini went to the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
to do penance and gain knowledge from
Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...
. Sutras were granted by Shiva, who danced and played his
damaru A damaru (, ; Tibetan languages, Tibetan ཌ་མ་རུ་ or རྔ་ཆུང) is a small two-headed drum, used in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. In Hinduism, the damaru is known as the instrument of the Hindu deity Shiva, associated wi ...
before Pāṇini and produced the basic sounds of these sutras, Panini accepted them and they are now known as the '' Shiva Sutras''. Armed with this new grammar Pāṇini came back from the Himalayas to Pataliputra. But at the same time, Vararuchi, another disciple of Varsha had learned of a grammar from
Indra Indra (; ) is the Hindu god of weather, considered the king of the Deva (Hinduism), Devas and Svarga in Hinduism. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war.  volumes Indra is the m ...
. They engaged in a debate which lasted eight days and on the last day, with Vararuchi emerging dominant, Pāṇini was able to defeat him with the help of Shiva who destroyed Vararuchi's grammar book. Pāṇini then defeated the rest of Varsha's disciples and emerged as the greatest grammarian.Vettam Mani.
Puranic Encyclopedia: a comprehensive dictionary with special reference to the epic and Puranic literature
'.
Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, East ...
. 1975.
Pāṇini is believed to have spent the major portion of his life in Pataliputra and according to some
pandit A pandit (; ; also spelled pundit, pronounced ; abbreviated Pt. or Pdt.) is an individual with specialised knowledge or a teacher of any field of knowledge in Hinduism, particularly the Vedic scriptures, dharma, or Hindu philosophy; in colonial-e ...
s, he was born and brought up there, the ancestors of Pāṇini having already moved there from Salatura. Pāṇini, has also been associated with the University of Taxila. Pāṇini is also mentioned in Indian fables and other ancient texts. The ''
Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' ( IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, , "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.
'', for example, mentions that Pāṇini was killed by a lion. According to some historians Pingala was the brother of Pāṇini.'' François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184).'' Pāṇini was depicted on a five-rupee Indian postage stamp in August 2004.


''Aṣṭādhyāyī''

The most important of Pāṇini's works, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', is a grammatical treatise on the Sanskrit language. It is descriptive and generative with algebraic-like rules governing every aspect of the language. It is supplemented by three ancillary texts: the ''akṣarasamāmnāya'', ''dhātupāṭha'' and ''gaṇapāṭha''. Modeled on the dialect and register of elite speakers in his time, the text also accounts for some features of the older
Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...
language. Growing out of a centuries-long effort to preserve the language of the Vedic hymns from "corruption", the ''Aṣtādhyāyī'' is the high point of a vigorous, sophisticated grammatical tradition devised to arrest language change. The ''Aṣtādhyāyī'''s preeminence is underlined by the fact that it eclipsed all similar works that came before: while not the first, it is the oldest such text surviving in its entirety. The ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' consists of 3,959 ''sūtras'' in eight chapters, which are each subdivided into four sections or ''pādas''. The text takes material from lexical lists (''dhātupāṭha'', ''gaṇapātha'') as input and describes the algorithms to be applied to them for the generation of well-formed words. Such is its intricacy that the correct application of its rules and metarules is still being worked out centuries later. The ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', composed in an era when oral composition and transmission was the norm, is staunchly embedded in that oral tradition. In order to ensure wide dissemination, Pāṇini is said to have preferred brevity over clarity—it can be recited end-to-end in two hours. This has led to the emergence of a great number of commentaries of his work over the centuries, which for the most part adhere to the foundations laid by Pāṇini's work.Burrow, §2.1.


''Bhaṭṭikāvya''

Indian curriculums in the late classical era had at their core a system of grammatical study and linguistic analysis. The core text for this study was the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, the ''
sine qua non A ''sine qua non'' (, ) or ''condicio sine qua non'' (plural: ''condiciones sine quibus non'') is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for " conditionwithout which it could not b ...
'' of learning. This grammar of Pāṇini had been the object of intense study for the ten centuries prior to the composition of the ''Bhaṭṭikāvya''. It was Bhaṭṭi's purpose to provide a study aid to Pāṇini's text by using the examples already provided in the existing grammatical commentaries in the context of the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. The intention of the author was to teach this advanced science through a relatively easy and pleasant medium. In his own words:
This composition is like a lamp to those who perceive the meaning of words and like a hand mirror for a blind man to those without grammar. This poem, which is to be understood by means of a commentary, is a joy to those sufficiently learned: through my fondness for the scholar I have here slighted the dullard. ''Bhaṭṭikāvya'' 22.33–34.


Legacy

Pāṇini is known for his text ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', a
sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...
-style treatise on
Sanskrit grammar The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminatin ...
, which consists of 3,996 verses or rules on
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
,
syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...
and
semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
in "eight chapters" which is the foundational text of the '' Vyākaraṇa'' branch of the
Vedanga The Vedanga ( ', "limb of the Veda-s"; plural form: वेदाङ्गानि ') are six auxiliary disciplines of Vedic studies that developed in Vedic and post-Vedic times.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Vedanga" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia o ...
, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of the
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
. His aphoristic text attracted numerous '' bhashya'' (commentaries), of which the ''
Mahābhāṣya ''Mahabhashya'' (, IAST: '','' , "Great Commentary"), attributed to Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of Sanskrit grammar from Pāṇini's treatise, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', as well as Kātyāyana's ''Vārttika-sūtra'', an ela ...
'' by
Patanjali Patanjali (, , ; also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra) was the name of one or more author(s), mystic(s) and philosopher(s) in ancient India. His name is recorded as an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these a ...
is the most famous. His ideas influenced and attracted commentaries from scholars of other
Indian religions Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification o ...
such as
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. Pāṇini's analysis of noun compounds still forms the basis of modern linguistic theories of compounding in Indian languages. Pāṇini's comprehensive and
scientific theory A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the universe, natural world that can be or that has been reproducibility, repeatedly tested and has corroborating evidence in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocol (s ...
of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of
Classical Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...
. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. Pāṇini's theory of morphological analysis was more advanced than any equivalent Western theory before the 20th century. His treatise is generative and descriptive, uses metalanguage and meta-rules, and has been compared to the
Turing machine A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...
wherein the logical structure of any computing device has been reduced to its essentials using an idealized
mathematical model A mathematical model is an abstract and concrete, abstract description of a concrete system using mathematics, mathematical concepts and language of mathematics, language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed ''mathematical m ...
.


Modern linguistics

Pāṇini's work became known in 19th-century Europe, where it influenced modern linguistics initially through
Franz Bopp Franz Bopp (; 14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguistics, linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative linguistics, comparative work on Indo-European languages. Early life Bopp was born in Mainz, but the pol ...
. Subsequently, a wider body of work influenced Sanskrit scholars such as
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
,
Leonard Bloomfield Leonard Bloomfield (April 1, 1887 – April 18, 1949) was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. He is considered to be the father of American distributionalis ...
, and
Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...
.
Frits Staal Johan Frederik "Frits" Staal (3 November 1930 – 19 February 2012) was the department founder and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and South/Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Staal specialized in the study of Ved ...
(1930–2012) discussed the impact of Indian ideas on language in Europe. After outlining the various aspects of the contact, Staal notes that the idea of formal rules in language – proposed by
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
in 1894 and developed by
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
in 1957 – has origins in the European exposure to the formal rules of Pāṇinian grammar. In particular, de Saussure, who lectured on Sanskrit for three decades, may have been influenced by Pāṇini and Bhartrihari; his idea of the unity of the signifier-signified in the
sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...
somewhat resembles the notion of
Sphoṭa (, ; "bursting, opening", "spurt") is an important concept in the Indian grammatical tradition of Vyakarana, relating to the problem of speech production, how the mind orders linguistic units into coherent discourse and meaning. The theory of ' ...
. More importantly, the very idea that formal rules can be applied to areas outside of logic or mathematics may itself have been catalysed by Europe's contact with the work of Sanskrit grammarians.Frits Staal, The science of language, Chapter 16, in Gavin D. Flood, ed. ''The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism''
Blackwell Publishing Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publis ...
, 2003, 599 pages , . p. 357-358


De Saussure

Pāṇini, and the later Indian linguist Bhartrihari, had a significant influence on many of the foundational ideas proposed by
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...
, professor of
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
, who is widely considered the father of modern
structural linguistics Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating semiotic system whose elements are defined by their relationship to other elements within th ...
and with Charles S. Peirce on the other side, to
semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...
, although the concept Saussure used was
semiology Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...
. Saussure himself cited Indian
grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
as an influence on some of his ideas. In his ''Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes'' (''Memoir on the Original System of Vowels in the Indo-European Languages'') published in 1879, he mentions Indian grammar as an influence on his idea that "reduplicated
aorist Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
s represent imperfects of a verbal class." In his ''De l'emploi du génitif absolu en sanscrit'' (''On the Use of the
Genitive Absolute In Ancient Greek grammar, the genitive absolute is a grammatical construction consisting of a participle and often a noun both in the genitive case, which is very similar to the Latin grammar#Ablative, ablative absolute in Latin. A genitive absolut ...
in Sanskrit'') published in 1881, he specifically mentions Pāṇini as an influence on the work. Prem Singh, in his foreword to the reprint edition of the German translation of Pāṇini's Grammar in 1998, concluded that the "effect Panini's work had on Indo-European linguistics shows itself in various studies" and that a "number of seminal works come to mind," including Saussure's works and the analysis that "gave rise to the
laryngeal theory The laryngeal theory is a theory in historical linguistics positing that the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language included a number of laryngeal consonants that are not linguistic reconstruction, reconstructable by direct application of the com ...
," further stating: "This type of structural analysis suggests influence from Panini's analytical teaching." George Cardona, however, warns against overestimating the influence of Pāṇini on modern linguistics: "Although Saussure also refers to predecessors who had taken this Paninian rule into account, it is reasonable to conclude that he had a direct acquaintance with Panini's work. As far as I am able to discern upon rereading Saussure's ''Mémoire'', however, it shows no direct influence of Paninian grammar. Indeed, on occasion, Saussure follows a path that is contrary to Paninian procedure."


Rishi Rajpopat

A PhD student at the Cambridge University, Rishi Rajpopat elaborated in his PhD thesis a deeper understanding of Panini's "language machine" by designing a simple system of resolving rule conflicts. His thesis has been critiqued as being built upon flawed premises and understanding of rules by prominent Indian Sanskrit scholars.


Comparison with modern formal systems

Pāṇini's grammar is the world's first
formal system A formal system is an abstract structure and formalization of an axiomatic system used for deducing, using rules of inference, theorems from axioms. In 1921, David Hilbert proposed to use formal systems as the foundation of knowledge in ma ...
, developed well before the 19th century innovations of
Gottlob Frege Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philos ...
and the subsequent development of
mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...
. In designing his grammar, Pāṇini used the method of "auxiliary symbols", in which new affixes are designated to mark
syntactic categories A syntactic category is a syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the ''phrasa ...
and the control of grammatical derivations. This technique, rediscovered by the logician
Emil Post Emil Leon Post (; February 11, 1897 – April 21, 1954) was an American mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory. Life Post was born in Augustów, Suwałki Govern ...
, became a standard method in the design of
computer programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...
s. Sanskritists now accept that Pāṇini's linguistic apparatus is well-described as an "applied" Post system. Considerable evidence shows ancient mastery of
context-sensitive grammar A context-sensitive grammar (CSG) is a formal grammar in which the left-hand sides and right-hand sides of any Production (computer science), production rules may be surrounded by a context of terminal symbol, terminal and nonterminal symbols. Cont ...
s, and a general ability to solve many complex problems.
Frits Staal Johan Frederik "Frits" Staal (3 November 1930 – 19 February 2012) was the department founder and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and South/Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Staal specialized in the study of Ved ...
has written that "Panini is the Indian
Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
."


Other works

Two literary works are attributed to Pāṇini, though they are now lost. * The ''Jāmbavati Vijaya'' is a lost epic poem cited by Rajashekhara in Jalhana's '' Sukti Muktāvalī''. A fragment of this work can be found in Ramayukta's commentary on the Namalinganushasana. The title suggests that the work dealt with Krishna's winning of Jambavati from the underworld as his bride. Rajashekhara is quoted thus in Jalhana's ''Sukti Muktāvalī'':
: नमः पाणिनये तस्मै यस्मादाविर भूदिह। : आदौ व्याकरणं काव्यमनु जाम्बवतीजयम्॥
: namaḥ pāṇinaye tasmai yasmādāvirabhūdiha। : ādau vyākaraṇaṃ kāvyamanu jāmbavatījayam॥
* Ascribed to Pāṇini, the ''Pātāla Vijaya'' (Victory in/over the Underworld) is a lost work cited by Namisadhu in his commentary on the Kavyalankara (Poetic Aesthetics) of Rudrata. The ''Pātāla Vijaya'' is considered the same work as the ''Jāmbavati Vijaya'' by Moriz Winternitz. There are many proto-mathematical concepts found in Pāṇini's works. Pāṇini came up with a plethora of ideas to organize the known grammatical forms of his day in a systematic way. Like any mathematician who models a known phenomenon in mathematical language, Pāṇini created a metalanguage which is very close to the modern-day ideas of algebra.


See also

*
List of Indian mathematicians Indian mathematicians have made a number of contributions to mathematics that have significantly influenced scientists and mathematicians in the modern era. One of such works is Hindu numeral system which is predominantly used today and is likely ...
* Pingala * Seṭ and aniṭ roots *
Tolkāppiyam ''Tolkāppiyam'', also romanised as ''Tholkaappiyam'' ( , ''lit.'' "ancient poem"), is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. It is the earliest Tamil text mentioning Gods, perhaps linked to ...


Glossary


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * Ingerman suggests that the then-called Backus normal form be renamed to the Pāṇini–Backus form, to give due credit to Pāṇini as the earliest independent inventor. * * * * * * *T. R. N. Rao
''Pāṇini-backus form of languages''.
1998. * * * * * Tiwary, Kapil Muni 1968 Pāṇini's description of nominal compounds, University of Pennsylvania doctoral dissertation. Janaki Prakashan: Patna. * *


Further reading

;Works * Pāṇini. ''Ashtādhyāyī''
Book 4
Translated by Chandra Vasu.
Benares Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges, Ganges river in North India, northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hinduism, Hindu world.* * * * The city ...
, 1896. * Pāṇini. ''Ashtādhyāyī''
Book 6–8
Translated by Chandra Vasu.
Benares Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges, Ganges river in North India, northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hinduism, Hindu world.* * * * The city ...
, 1897. ;Pāṇini * 2000. *


External links


Pāṇinian LinguisticsPaSSim – Paninian Sanskrit Simulator
simulates the Pāṇinian Process of word formation
Gaṇakāṣṭādhyāyī
a software on Sanskrit grammar, based on Pāṇini's Sutras
Ashtadhyayi, Work by Pāṇini
*Forizs, L
Pāṇini, Nāgārjuna and Whitehead – The Relevance of Whitehead for Contemporary Buddhist Philosophy
with the ''Mahābhāṣya'' and ''Kāśikā'' commentaries, along with the ''Nyāsa'' and ''Padamanjara'' commentaries on the ''Kāśikā''. (PDF) Sanskrit. {{DEFAULTSORT:Panini 6th-century BC mathematicians 5th-century BC mathematicians 5th-century BC Indian writers Ancient Indian grammar works Ancient Indian mathematicians Ancient Sanskrit grammarians Morphologists People from Gandhara Sanskrit poets Vyakarana Indian Sanskrit scholars Swabi District Taxila Tehsil Patna Panchatantra