India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.13

c6.13

*EPITHETS*—Pāṇini’s *magnum opus*, the *Ashṭādhyāyī*, is a code of Sanskrit grammar consisting of about 4,000 or to be more precise 3,995 rules. Pāṇini wrote in the *sūtra* style with admirable regard for economy of words. Although Kātyāyana after him also composed the *vārttikas* in the *sūtra* form, Pāṇini alone is understood by the term *sūtrakāra* (*Pāṇineḥ sūtrakārasya*, *Bhāshya*, II. 2. 11; I. 414). In a *kṛidanta* rule (III. 2. 23) he teaches the formation amongst other words of *sūtrakāra* and *śabdakāra*. Patañjali speaks of Pāṇini adopting the *sūtra* style as the medium of teaching grammar (*vyākaraṇaṁ sūtrayati*, III. 1. 26; II. 34). Previous writers were perhaps inclined to treat Vyākaraṇa as composed of rules as well as individual words (*lakshya-lakshaṇa*). But Patañjali tells us that Pāṇini’s contribution consisted in framing *sūtras* to embody the linguistic phenomena and to build up a system, rather than pursue the arduous and lengthy process of taking each word separately (*na hi Pāṇininā śabdāḥ proktāḥ, kiṁ tarhi, sūtram*, I.12). The title *śabdakāra* also may be applied to Pāṇini, since grammar concerned as it was with words is referred to as *śabda* in the *Ashṭādhyāyī* itself (I.1.68 and VIII.3.86, *śabda-saṁjñā*). Elsewhere Pāṇini derives *śābdika* as applied to a grammarian on account of his authorship of *śabda* or grammar (IV.4.34, *Śabdaṁ karoti śābdikaḥ*). Since Pāṇini was the promulgator of a complete system of grammar, *Vyākaraṇa*, the title *vaiyākaraṇa* also applies to him, and he himself uses this term for a grammarian in one of his *sūtras* (VI. 3.7).