Panini

(4th c. B.C.E.) The greatest Sanskrit
grammarian, whose descriptive account
of that language in his Ashtadhyayi
(“Eight Sections”) became the prescriptive norm for the language in later generations. Panini was not the earliest
grammarian, since he names several in
his text; his genius lay rather in his skills
as an organizer and systematizer. Each
of the Ashtadhyayi’s eight sections is
written as a series of brief aphorisms
(sutras), each of which provides the
foundation and necessary background
for those that follow. Panini’s use of this
form allowed him to provide a complete
account of the language in the briefest
possible space, and the text’s condensed
form made it easier to memorize. As
with most sutra texts, the Ashtadhyayi’s
terseness of expression presupposes a
commentary, of which the most famous
is the Mahabhashya, written by the
grammarian Patanjali in the second
century B.C.E.