India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.2

c6.2

*GRAMMAR* (*Vyākaraṇa*)—Grammar was regarded by the Indians as the first and most important of the sciences (*Vyākaraṇaṁ nāmeyam uttarā vidyā*, *Bhāshya*, 1.2.32; I.208; also *shaṭsu aṅgeshu pradhānam*). The results attained by them in the systematic analysis of language surpass those arrived at by any other nation. "The Sanskrit grammarians were the first to analyse word-forms, to recognise the difference between root and suffix, to determine the functions of suffixes, and on the whole to elaborate a grammatical system so accurate and complete as to be unparalleled in any other country." (Macdonell, *India's Past*, p. 136). Their singular achievements in this field have also rendered eminent services to Western philology.