India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c6.9

c6.9

The characteristic feature of Pāṇini’s system is that it derives words from verbal roots. He has given us comprehensive lists of suffixes and roots. In this way his grammar is a contribution not merely to Sanskrit, but to linguistics in general, throwing light on the structure of the cognate Indo-European languages. Pāṇini, unlike Sākaṭāyana, did not carry to extremes the theory of treating all nouns as verbal derivatives, but also recognised the formation of fortuitous words (*yadṛichchhā śabda*, *nipātana-śabda*) in the language for which no certain derivation could be vouchsafed. Pāṇini's work is distinguished by the balanced judgment which it demonstrates in relation to contentious or extreme views.