India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s3.t1.135

c10.s3.t1.135

*ETERNITY OF WORDS*—This doctrine is the basis of the philosophy of Grammar. Kātyāyana in his *vārt.* on IV.4.1 refers to two opposite schools, *viz.* *naityaśabdika* and *kāryaśabdika* (*Bhāshya*, II.329). The *Ṛik Prātiśākhya* refers to the two views regarding the eternity and not-eternity of letters (XIII.14). Yāska quotes the opinion of Audumbarāyaṇa holding that words vanish with their utterance (*Indriyanityam vachanam Audumbarāyaṇaḥ*, *Nirukta*, I.2). Patañjali reveals in his discussion that Pāṇini as well as Kātyāyana were advocates of the eternity of words, but that does not preclude the grammatical operations of *lopa* and *āgama* affecting words. Pāṇini defines *lopa* or elision as *adarśana* (I.1.60), which Patañjali explains as *antaradhāna*, *i.e.* disappearance. On the contrary, the *Tait. Prāt.* held that *lopa* is *vināśa* or annihilation, (I.57), a view based on the non-eternity of words. Similarly, Pāṇini's *ādeśa* was previously known as *vikāra* (Kāt. I.31).