Culture - - Posted on March, 2 at 12:36 am
Though the beginnings of grammatical studies in India can be traced back to the period of the Brahmanas, the first important treatise on the subject is Yaska’s Nirukta. The work deals with etymology, a subject included in the six Vedangas.
The earliest available work dealing with Sanskrit grammar is Panini’s Ashtadhyayi. The author refers to his predecessors like Shakatayana, and Shaunaka, indicating existence of a long tradition of grammatical studies before the days of Panini.
The next important figure to follow Panini was Katyayana who flourished about third century BCE. Till his period some forms recorded by Panini seem to have become obsolete. Katyayana noted all these changes in the spoken language in the forms of Varttikas, which were written to explain and support the Sutras of Panini.
Katyayana was followed by Patanjali in the second century BCE. His Mahabhashya is a more extensice work explaining and some times correcting Panini’s sutras. Kaiyata’s commentary on Mahabhashya is yet another work in the field of grammar which comes from twelfth century CE.
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