Astadhyayi of Panini

Panini’s grammar of sanskrit written in the sixth century B.C., is the earlist linguistic description of the language and is the source and inspiration for the development of comparative philosophy and modern linguistics. The Astadhyayi remains the most correct and complete grammer ever written and is considered a model for all grammars.

Simotra M. Katre’s expert translation fo the Astadhyayi is the first English translation of the work to use Roman transliteration for the sanskrit text. Not only scholars of sanskrit but also general linguists will find accessible this new presentation fo the classic work which relies letters, italics, and small capitals to visually present the operation of Panini’s metalinguistic technique. This work also consistently indicates the manner in which the ellipsis created by the formulation of Panini’s strings of aphoristic rules is to be filled in by using his own metalinguistic procedures. Included are helpful appendices and lists.

Review(s)

“Professor Katre’s translation is indeed an accomplished piece of work. It is the culmination of a very long career in Indo-Aryan linguistics, a work carefully done, …and one that will be of genuine value to scholars in the field.” – George Cardona, Professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

“One could not find a better editor, translator, or commentator than Sumitra M. Katre has demonstrated himself to be.” – Winfred P. Lehmann, Director, Linguistics Research center, University of Texas at Austin

“… this translation will be an indispensable tool, not only for the Indianist and the Indo-Europeanist, but also for the general linguist, more interested in formal grammatical theory… a valuable work for constant reference for the specialist.” – Edgar C. Polome, Professor of Oriental and African Languages, University of Texas at Austin

About the Author:

Sumitra M. Katre (1906-1998) a lexicographer, Indo-Aryan and Paninian Linguist, was born on 11th April at Honnavar, Karnataka, and died on 21st October in San Jose, California, USA. Prof. Katre made the initiation of the gigantic Sanskrit Dictionary Project, Encyclopedia of Sanskrit on Historical Principles, with 11 million slips preserved in the scriptorium. His work The Formation of Knokani is his tribute to his mother tongue Konkani. S.M. Katre’s 1966 work, The Formation of Konkani, which utilized the instruments of modern historical and comparative linguistics across six typical Konkani dialects, showed the formation of Konkani to be distinct from that of Marathi. He was president of the 7th Session of All India Konkani Parishad held on 27th & 28 April, 1957 at Mumbai.