The Ashtadhyayi (Aṣṭādhyāyī, meaning "eight chapters") is the earliest known grammar of Sanskrit, and one of the first works on descriptive linguistics, generative linguistics, or linguistics altogether. It was composed roughly around 400 BC by the Gandharan grammarian Panini, and it describes (and prescribes) the grammar of Classical Sanskrit completely, and also mentions many forms of pre-Classical Vedic Sanskrit as exceptions. Its notational structure has been compared to that of the Backus-Naur form.

Panini's work had a phenomenal success, and later Sanskrit grammarians were essentially reduced to the role of his commentators. His work is still used, or at least referred to, in the teaching of Sanskrit today.

Panini's grammar

• Shiva Sutras (phonology)
• Ashtadhyayi (morphology)
• Dhatupatha (lists classes verbal roots)
• Ganapatha (lists classes of primitive nominal stems)

The Ashtadhyayi consists of 3,959 sutras (sutrani) or rules, distributed among eight chapters, which are each subdivided into four sections or padas (padani).

From example words in the text, and from a few rules depending on the context of the discourse, additional information as to the geographical, cultural and historical context of Panini can be discerned.

The rules

The first two sutras are as follows:

1.1.1 vṛ́ddhir āT-aiC

1.1.2 aT-eṆ guṇáḥ

In these sutras, the capital letters are special meta-linguistic symbols; they are called IT markers (see below). The C and Ṇ refer to Shiva Sutras 3 and

Therefore, the two sutras consist of a term, followed by a list of phonemes; the final interpretation of the two sutras above is thus:

1.1.1: the technical term vṛ́ddhi denotes the phonemes ā, ai, au.

1.1.2: the technical term guṇa denotes the phonemes a, e, o.

At this point, one can see they are definitions of terminology: guṇa and vṛ́ddhi are the terms for the full and the lengthened ablaut grades, respectively.

List of IT markers

• suP   nominal desinence
• Ś-IT
  • Śi   strong case endings
  • Ślu   elision
  • ŚaP   active marker
• P-IT
  • luP   elision
  • āP   ā-stems
    • CāP
    • ṬāP
    • ḌāP
  • LyaP   (7.1.37)
• L-IT
• K-IT
  • Ktvā
  • luK   elision
• saN   Desiderative
• C-IT
• M-IT
• Ṅ-IT
  • Ṅí   Causative
  • Ṅii   ī-stems
    • ṄīP
    • ṄīN
    • Ṅī'Ṣ
  • tiṄ   verbal desinence
  • lUṄ   Aorist
  • lIṄ   Precative
• S-IT
• GHU   class of verbal stems (1.1.20)
• GHI   (1.4.7)

Editions

• Otto Böhtlingk, Panini's Grammatik 1887, reprint 1998 ISBN 3875481984
• Sumitra, M. Katre, Astadhyayi of Panini 1985, reprint Motilal Banarasidass, 1989.

See also

• Sanskrit
• seṭ and aniṭ roots
• Text in Devanagari (on Wikisource)

sa:अष्टाध्यायी