India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.14

c6.14

*KĀTYĀYANA’S ESTIMATE*—Kātyāyana has been Pāṇini's ablest scientific critic, but also a follower. His own genius was of a high order. He subjected Pāṇini's work to a searching examination, modifying and supplementing the *sūtras* where there was need for it in the process of time, initiating discussions on contentious grammatical theories, at times developed in as many as fifty-nine *vārttikas* (cf. *sūtra* I. 2. 64), and in other cases justifying and defending Pāṇini against his critics. He has written in a critical and scientific spirit, and not as a detractor of Pāṇini. The number of his *vārttikas* is nearly 4,263, showing that he laboured hard to bring out the depth and value of the Pāṇinian system.