The Mauryan Polity c5.s2.t2.10

c5.s2.t2.10

On this account can one call Patañjali pre-Pāṇiniyan or can he be credited with ignorance of Pāṇini? Apparently there was one set of scholars, perhaps a conservative school, who still clung to Vedic philology in spite of the rich fruits of the Pāṇiniyan school. There is evidence to show that Kauṭalya was not ignorant of the Pāṇiniyan rules. In Bk. II, chap. 10, he shows himself familiar with *Aṣṭādhyāyī*, a book of eight chapters in *sūtras*. Kauṭalya mentions names of some *gaṇas* like *prādi* and *cādi* found in Pāṇini’s *gaṇapāṭha*. Further there are found in the treatise some technical terms of Sanskrit grammar. There are, on the other hand, facts which bear out the statement that Kauṭalya follows the Vedic system of philology. First, mention is made of the fourfold classification of the parts of speech.⁴ Secondly, Kauṭalya uses the term *avyaya* in the masculine gender. But the *Liṅgānuśāsana* traditionally ascribed to Pāṇini uses the word in both the masculine and neuter genders. Pāṇini distinctly classifies it under neuter gender.¹ It may be remembered in this connection that the *Liṅgānuśāsana* is an important work consisting of 183 *sūtras*. It prescribes rules for determining the gender of nouns. For "unlike modern languages Sanskrit has a gender for every noun not necessarily determined by the sex."² In the same way we come across a large number of *upasarga* and *nipāta*.³ The *Arthaśāstra* enumerates letters of the alphabet as sixty-three: *akārādayo varṇāḥ Triṣaṣṭiḥ*. The Pāṇinīyan *Śikṣa* also says that the alphabet consists of 63 or 64 letters, these being divided into five classes. Whether it is a *bona fide* work of the great grammarian is seriously questioned in different quarters. The book commences with a salutation to Pāṇini, and Pāṇini is often repeated in the verses which are 59 in number dealing with a variety of metres. Here as in the *Kauṭalīya* the author speaks in the third person which is a feature of all ancient works. The *Vyākaraṇa*, which constitutes the teachings of Pāṇini,