Amazing Science – By J J O’Connor and E F Robertson
Grammar, Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology – Sanskrit was the classical
literary language of the Indian Hindus and Panini is considered the
founder of the language and literature.
Panini
Article by: J J O’Connor and E F Robertson
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Born: about 520 BC in Shalatula (near Attock),
now Pakistan Died: about 460 BC in India
Panini was born in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus river
in present day Pakistan. The dates given for Panini are pure guesses.
Experts give dates in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th century BC and there
is also no agreement among historians about the extent of the work
which he undertook. What is in little doubt is that, given the period
in which he worked, he is one of the most innovative people in the
whole development of knowledge. We will say a little more below about
how historians have gone about trying to pinpoint the date when Panini
lived.
Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and
scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Sanskrit
was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus and Panini is
considered the founder of the language and literature. It is
interesting to note that the word "Sanskrit" means "complete" or
"perfect" and it was thought of as the divine language, or language of
the gods.
A treatise called Astadhyayi (or Astaka ) is Panini’s major work. It
consists of eight chapters, each subdivided into quarter chapters. In
this work Panini distinguishes between the language of sacred texts
and the usual language of communication. Panini gives formal
production rules and definitions to describe Sanskrit grammar.
Starting with about 1700 basic elements like nouns, verbs, vowels,
consonants he put them into classes. The construction of sentences,
compound nouns etc. is explained as ordered rules operating on
underlying structures in a manner similar to modern theory. In many
ways Panini’s constructions are similar to the way that a mathematical
function is defined today. Joseph writes in [2]:-
Sanskrit’s potential for scientific use was greatly enhanced as a
result of the thorough systemisation of its grammar by Panini. … On
the basis of just under 4000 sutras [rules expressed as aphorisms], he
built virtually the whole structure of the Sanskrit language, whose
general ‘shape’ hardly changed for the next two thousand years. … An
indirect consequence of Panini’s efforts to increase the linguistic
facility of Sanskrit soon became apparent in the character of
scientific and mathematical literature.
Joseph goes on to make a convincing argument for the algebraic nature
of Indian mathematics arising as a consequence of the structure of the
Sanskrit language. In particular he suggests that algebraic reasoning,
the Indian way of representing numbers by words, and ultimately the
development of modern number systems in India, are linked Panini
should be thought of as the forerunner of the modern formal language
theory used to specify computer languages. The Backus Normal Form was
discovered independently by John BACKUS in 1959, but Panini’s notation
is equivalent in its power to that of BACKUS and has many similar
properties. It is remarkable to think that concepts which are
fundamental to today’s theoretical computer science should have their
origin with an Indian genius around 2500 years ago.
At the beginning of this article we mentioned that certain concepts
had been attributed to Panini by certain historians which others
dispute. One such theory was put forward by B Indraji in 1876. He
claimed that the Brahmi numerals developed out of using letters or
syllables as numerals. Then he put the finishing touches to the theory
by suggesting that Panini in the eighth century BC (earlier than most
historians place Panini) was the first to come up with the idea of
using letters of the alphabet to represent numbers.
There are a number of pieces of evidence to support Indraji’s theory
that the Brahmi numerals developed from letters or syllables. However
it is not totally convincing since, to quote one example, the symbols
for 1, 2 and 3 clearly don’t come from letters but from one, two and
three lines respectively. Even if one accepts the link between the
numerals and the letters, making Panini the originator of this idea
would seem to have no more behind it than knowing that Panini was one
of the most innovative geniuses that world has known so it is not
unreasonable to believe that he might have made this step too.
There are other works which are closely associated with the Astadhyayi
which some historians attribute to Panini, others attribute to authors
before Panini, others attribute to authors after Panini. This is an
area where there are many theories but few, if any, hard facts.
We also promised to return to a discussion of Panini’s dates. There
has been no lack of work on this topic so the fact that there are
theories which span several hundreds of years is not the result of
lack of effort, rather an indication of the difficulty of the topic.
The usual way to date such texts would be to examine which authors are
referred to and which authors refer to the work. One can use this
technique and see who Panini mentions.
There are ten scholars mentioned by Panini and we must assume from the
context that these ten have all contributed to the study of Sanskrit
grammar. This in itself, of course, indicates that Panini was not a
solitary genius but, like Newton, had "stood on the shoulders of
giants". Now Panini must have lived later than these ten but this is
absolutely no help in providing dates since we have absolutely no
knowledge of when any of these ten lived.
What other internal evidence is there to use? Well of course Panini
uses many phrases to illustrate his grammar and these have been
examined meticulously to see if anything is contained there to
indicate a date. To give an example of what we mean: if we were to
pick up a text which contained as an example "I take the train to work
every day" we would know that it had to have been written after
railways became common. Let us illustrate with two actual examples
from the Astadhyayi which have been the subject of much study. The
first is an attempt to see whether there is evidence of Greek
influence. Would it be possible to find evidence which would mean that
the text had to have been written after the conquests of Alexander the
Great? There is a little evidence of Greek influence, but there was
Greek influence on this north east part of the Indian subcontinent
before the time of Alexander. Nothing conclusive has been identified.
Another angle is to examine a reference Panini makes to nuns. now some
argue that these must be Buddhist nuns and therefore the work must
have been written after Buddha. A nice argument but there is a counter
argument which says that there were Jaina nuns before the time of
Buddha and Panini’s reference could equally well be to them. Again the
evidence is inconclusive.
There are references by others to Panini. However it would appear that
the Panini to whom most refer is a poet and although some argue that
these are the same person, most historians agree that the linguist and
the poet are two different people. Again this is inconclusive
evidence.
Let us end with an evaluation of Panini’s contribution by Cardona in
[1]:-
Panini’s grammar has been evaluated from various points of view. After
all these different evaluations, I think that the grammar merits
asserting … that it is one of the greatest monuments of human
intelligence.
Article by: J J O’Connor and E F Robertson
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of St Andrews, Scotland
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Panini…
__________________________________________
"Panini, famous grammarian of the Sanskrit language, lived in India
some time between the 7th and the 4th centuries B.C. Following in the
steps of the Brahmi alphabet makers, he became the most renowned of
the grammarians. His work on Sanskrit, with its 4,168 rules, is
outstanding for its highly systematic methods of analyzing and
describing language.
The birth of linguistic science in Western Europe in the 19th century
was due largely to the European discovery of Panini’s Sanskrit
grammar, making linguistics a science.
The modern science of linguistics is the basis for producing alphabets
for languages yet unwritten today."
JAARS Alphabet Museum
Box 248
Waxhaw, NC 28173
________________________________________
Panini’s grammar (6th century BCE or earlier) provides 4,000 rules
that describe the Sanskrit of his day completely. This grammar is
acknowledged to be one of the greatest intellectual achievements of
all time. The great variety of language mirrors, in many ways, the
complexity of nature and, therefore, success in describing a language
is as impressive as a complete theory of physics. It is remarkable
that Panini set out to describe the entire grammar in terms of a
finite number of rules. Scholars have shown that the grammar of Panini
represents a universal grammatical and computing system. From this
perspective it anticipates the logical framework of modern computers.
One may speak of a Panini machine as a model for the most powerful
computing system.
Source: Staal, F. 1988. Universals. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
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Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and
scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Sanskrit
was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus.
In a treatise called Astadhyayi Panini distinguishes between the
language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication.
Panini gives formal production rules and definitions to describe
Sanskrit grammar. The construction of sentences, compound nouns etc.
is
…
