India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.130

c10.s3.t1.130

Thus the most acute grammatical controversy in his days was that concerning the derivation of nouns from verbs. The Nairuktas and the Śākaṭāyana school held the view that nouns were derived from verbs. On the other hand, Gārgya, who was probably a Nairukta, and the grammarians maintained that it was not necessary to trace each and every noun to a verb (*Nāmany-ākhyatajānīti Śākaṭāyano nairukta-samayaścha*, Yāska, I.12; *Bhāshya*, II.138, *Nāma cha dhātujamāha Nirukte Vyākaraṇe Śakaṭasya cha tokam*). Yāska himself subscribed to the theory of verbal derivation of nouns, but he disapproved of the ridiculous attempts made at times by the followers of Śākaṭāyana to invent fanciful derivations of nouns from verbs (*Nirukta*, I.13): 'The etymologist who indulges in improper and unauthorized derivation of words deserves censure; the scientific principle thereof cannot be faulty'.