'explanation, analysis', IPA: [ˈʋjaːkɐrɐɳɐ]) refers to one of the six ancient Vedangas, ancillary science connected with the Vedas, which are scriptures in Hinduism.
[12][13][14] Its aim was to prevent sloppy usage and transmission of the Vedic knowledge, states Howard Coward – a professor emeritus at the University of Victoria and the founding editor of the Journal for Hindu-Christian Studies.
[2] In Indian traditions, Vyākaraṇa has been one of the most important sciences, one extensively studied over its history, and that led to major treatises in the philosophy of language.
[15] Pāṇini and Yāska, two celebrated ancient scholars of Vyākaraṇa, are both dated to several centuries prior to the start of the common era, likely the 5th-century BCE.
[6] However, both of them cite prior scholars and texts, which though lost to history, imply that the field of Vyākaraṇa was an established and developed science of language before them.
[16] Between the two, Yaksa may be the older one and more known for Nirukta (etymology) – the fourth auxiliary field of Vedic studies, but the evidence for him preceding Pāṇini is scanty and uncertain.
[18][19] The study of grammar and the structure of language is traceable to the Rigveda, or 2nd millennium BCE, in hymns attributed to sage Sakalya.
[6] The literary evidence that the science of Vyākaraṇa existed in Vedic times abound in the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads, states Moriz Winternitz.
Some of these pre-Pāṇinian scholars mentioned by Pāṇini include Apisali, Kasyapa, Gargya, Galava, Cakravarmana, Bharadvaja, Sakatayana, Sakalya, Senaka and Sphoṭayāna.
It is written with a great deal of didactic skill as a dialog in clear, simple Sanskrit, and contains many enlightening examples.
One notices that the text follows in the tradition of instruction, similar to the dialog stye of the Western classics of antiquity.Later Indian scholars simplified Pāṇini rules, and trimmed his compilation of sutras to essential 1,400 from comprehensive 4,000, eliminating those they felt were too difficult and complicated or those narrowly concerned with Vedic language.
The 5th-century Hindu scholar Bhartṛhari has been the next most influential Vyākaraṇa thinker[opinion], wherein he presented his philosophy of grammar and how language affects thoughts.
[39] Bhartṛhari ideas were widely studied, but challenged as well in the last half of the first millennium, particularly by the ritual-driven[failed verification], Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy and by Dharmakirti of Buddhism.
[39] The most studied Vyākaraṇa scholars of early and mid-second millennium are Ksirasvamin, Haradatta, Maitreya Rakshita, and Kaiyata.
It is written in Bengali alphabet, making it accessible to the Bengal provinces by removing the complexity of Sanskrit grammar.
[17] These rules are preceded by a list of fourteen groups of sounds, in three sections called the Shiva-sutra, Pratyahara-sutra and Maheshvara-sutra.
[17][48] The Aṣṭādhyāyī groups the rules of language, for clear expression and understanding, into two, the verbal (Dhatupatha) and the nominal bases (Ganapatha).
[55] The text, state Howard and Raja, describes compound word formation based on syntactic and semantic considerations, such as in sutra 2.1.1.
[55] A sentence, states Pāṇini, must have syntactic unity, which includes mutual expectancy (Ākankshā) of the words and phonetic contiguity (Sannidhi) of construction.
Verbs according to Vyākaraṇa indicate action in a temporal sequence while nouns are static elements, states K Kunjunni Raja.
[63] The differences between the grammar rules of Pāṇini and of Kātyāyana may be because of historical changes to Sanskrit language over the centuries, state Howard Coward and K Kunjunni Raja.
[66] Word is considered a form of energy in this Hindu text, one with the potential to transform a latent mind and realize the soul.
Yāska also reports the view of Gārgya, who opposed Śākaṭāyana who held that certain nominal stems were 'atomic' and not to be derived from verbal roots[69] The Vyākaraṇa texts have been highly influential on Hindu philosophies.
The concept of a sentence (vakya) defined by Pāṇini, for instance, influenced and was similar to Jaimini, the later era founder of Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy.