स्वरव्यवस्थापर्याये कारणम्

Why did the svara-vyavasthA that deviated fromthe aShTAdhyAyI system thrive at the cost of the latter? Possible reasons:

  • When the svara-s had (mostly) fallen out of use in laukika speech, the simpler thing to teach youngsters, even if it is completely artificial, thrived.“Listen boys – anudaatta is lower tone, udaatta is higher tone, svarita is even higher. simple. no falling tone business. now get to memorization.”
  • Better marketing strategy. Certain shiShTa-s who had noticed the deviation from pANinidevised various easily accessible and well marketed shikShA texts.Such as saying – oh look here – “pANinIya” shikShA is so clear. It was by pANini himself so don’t worry about inconsistency with aShTAdhyAyI.