| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| Panini |
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(pä´n n) (KEY) , fl. c.400 B.C., Indian grammarian. His Asht dhyy [eight books] (tr. 1891) is one of the earliest works of descriptive linguistics and is also the first individually authored treatise on Sanskrit. Each of its 3,995 rules governing roots and suffixes is introduced in a sutra, a concise aphorism. The Ashtdhyy also contains historical, social, and geographical information. It is still used in the Brahmanic schools in India. | 1 | | See his Ashtdhyy, ed. by S. C. Vasu (tr. 1962); studies by T. Goldstuecher (1860, repr. 1965) and V. Misra (1966). | 2 |
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| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
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