The Ashtadhyayi (, meaning "eight chapters") is the earliest known grammar of Sanskrit, and the earliest known work on descriptive linguistics, generative linguistics, and perhaps linguistics as a whole. 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 consists of several parts, of which the Ashtadhyayi contains the morphological rules:

• 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

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The first two sutras are as follows:

1.1.1

1.1.2

In these sutras, the capital letters are special meta-linguistic symbols; they are called IT markers (see below). The ' and ' refer to Shiva Sutras 4 and 3, respectively, where the same markers occur, forming what is known as the pratyaharas ', '. They denote the list of phonemes {ai, au} and {e, o} respectively. The T appearing in both sutras is also an IT marker: It is defined in sutra 1.1.70 as indicating that the preceding phoneme is not representing a list, but a single phoneme, encompassing all supra-segmental features such as accent and nasality. For further example, ' and ' represent {'} and {'} respectively.

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 denotes the phonemes {, ai, au}.

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

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

List of IT markers

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•    nominal desinence
• •    strong case endings
  •    elision
  •    active marker
• •    elision
  • '   '-stems
  •    (7.1.37)
• •    elision
•    Desiderative
• •    Causative
  •    -stems
  •    verbal desinence
  •    Aorist
  •    Precative
•    class of verbal stems (1.1.20)
•    (1.4.7)

Editions

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• Otto Böhtlingk, Panini's Grammatik 1887, reprint 1998 ISBN 3875481984
• Katre, Sumitra M., Astadhyayi of Panini, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987. Reprint Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989. ISBN 0292703945

See also

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• Sanskrit
• ' and ' roots
• Text in transliteration (on Wikisource)
• अष्टाध्यायी

External links

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• http://www.languageinindia.com/feb2004/panini.html
• http://www.taralabalu.org/panini.html Free software with sivasutras, sutra-patha, gana-patha and dhatu-patha. This software 'generates' grammar related to sandhi (coalescense) and shabdas (declensions) based on the

Sanskrit | Indian literature

Aṣṭādhyāyī | अष्टाध्यायी | อัษฏาธยายี