 Welcome. I welcome you all to this course Introduction to Paninian Grammar. My name is Malhar Kulkarni and I teach this course at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences IIT Bombay. This is a fourth year elective course that I offer at IIT Bombay. My email address is mentioned on this slide, malhar at the rate hss.iitb.ac.in as well as malharku at the rate gmail.com. Please mark this for any future correspondence. This is the first lecture of the course and in this lecture we shall study some general information about this course. What exactly is the aim of the course? What all are the topics that will be covered in this course? What will be the pattern of assignments, the kinds of questions that can be asked, that will be asked and so on and so forth. Let us take some more information about the course. The aim of the course is stated on this particular slide. It is clear from the title of the course itself that the aim of this course is to introduce the Paninian grammar to the students, provide an introduction to Paninian grammar. Thereby we shall study the approaches the scholars have taken to study Paninian grammar. There are two approaches, systemic approach and textual approach. The systemic approach studies the Paninian grammatical system and the textual approach studies the sources of Paninian grammatical tradition. Both these approaches, they are interlinked and both these approaches need to be studied if we want to understand Paninian grammar better. In modern world where we are moving towards data science and in new age, cutting age technologies, understanding language as a phenomenon has become an important task and therefore it is believed that systems such as Paninian grammatical system, the rules involved in the system, the explanation of language given in this system can become path guiding to the researchers. It is from this point of view that we see that scholars are taking interest in studying Paninian grammatical tradition. Paninian grammatical tradition is studied in the Sanskrit focused institutions as part of their regular curriculum. There are 15 Sanskrit universities in India and Paninian grammatical tradition is an integral part of the curriculum of these Sanskrit universities. Apart from these, there are several universities in which Sanskrit language is being taught, literature in Sanskrit is being taught and most of these departments, most of these universities teach Paninian grammar as part of their curriculum. We see that the approach taken in the university system tends to be more a textual approach in which the text of Paninian grammatical tradition is studied and then there is this systemic approach which studies the Paninian grammatical system, the linguists and most notably and recently the computational linguists they are studying the Paninian system from the point of view of developing a system and that system is that of say machine translation, language generation and so on and so forth. The aim of this course is to provide an introduction as far as the Paninian grammatical tradition is concerned and also the Paninian grammatical system is concerned. We take into account both these approaches, the systemic approach as well as the textual approach and aim to impart some introductory knowledge with respect to both these approaches. We stress on the fact that the study of the system of Panini done together with the study of the sources on which this system of Panini is built is more fruitful as it gives you a direct insight as far as the system is concerned when you look at the texts in which this system is built and therefore once again I would like to stress the fact that in this course we aim to introduce both these approaches, the textual approach as well as the systemic approach. Let us talk about the systemic approach, what do we mean by this approach? We study the rules of grammar when we say that we will study the systemic approach. The rules of grammar in the Paninian grammatical tradition analyze the linguistic usage which was contemporary to Panini's times as well as before him both these usages they are studied and then the rules of grammar they analyze this usage and from a bigger component they go to a smaller unit from that smaller unit they go analyze further into the further smaller unit. This is the process of analysis using the same rules from those smaller units bigger units can be constructed and using the similar rules from those bigger units the further bigger units are constructed. This is the synthesis approach and these bigger units they are bound in particular structures and also they are part of a particular system. This system needs explanation, needs interpretation and also it needs elaboration. We will try to do these things in this course in an introductory manner. The details can be worked out in advanced level courses as well as specialized studies that can be taken up in future. Now this system of Paninian grammar relies heavily on the meta language used in Paninian grammar so we shall deal with this very important question namely what is a meta language, how different it is from an object language. So we shall study these two concepts object language and meta language and then what is the meta language of Paninian grammar and what are its features. Answers to these questions will help us understand the meta language better which will help us interpret, decode the rules written in Paninian grammar better and in the more systematic manner. So we will spend some time studying this meta language and one of the most important features of this meta language is the markers, the sounds that are used as markers which trigger certain kinds of operations. Therefore this becomes a very important topic that we shall study. Now if we go to the textual approach we will study parts of the text called Ashtadhyayi, mark this word Ashtadhyayi. This is the name of the famous grammar of Sanskrit composed by Panini around 350 to 500 BCE. What is the meaning of the name of the text Ashtadhyayi? It has got two components Ashtadhyayi Ashtadhyayi means eight and Adhyayi means chapter. What it primarily means is a text with eight chapters. That is how the meaning of the name of the text is derived, a text with eight chapters. Each chapter has four sub chapters. Each sub chapter is called Pada in Sanskrit and therefore we can say that there are 32 sub chapters. Each sub chapter contains the rules also known as Sutra. Thus if we count we find that there are approximately 4000 sutras, 4000 rules of grammar. These rules will be constantly referred to in this course. So it is important for us to be familiarized with the reference, with the numbering scheme that will be used to refer to these rules. For example, 1.1.1. If you get this reference what it means is that the first one in fact there are three ones. The first one refers to the chapter or Adhyayi and there are eight chapters. So in this case the first one is referring to the first chapter amongst the eight chapters. The second one refers to the sub chapter, the Pada. This number cannot be beyond four. So this is the first Pada amongst the four Padas in the first Adhyaya. And the third one refers to the rule or the Sutra. This could be N number and right now we are referring to the first rule from amongst those N. So for example if we are looking at 1, 4, 100 what we are actually studying is the first chapter, fourth sub chapter and 100th rule. If we refer to 2, 3, 7, T what we are referring to is the second chapter, third sub chapter and the seventh rule. This is what we are referring to. Coming back to 1.1.1, we are referring to the first Adhyaya, first Pada and the first rule. The very beginning, very first rule of Ashtadhyayi, the Paninian grammar. So this is how we shall refer to these Sutras which are part of the text Ashtadhyayi in which is based the entire system of Paninian grammar. Please note about this system of reference to the rules. This is extremely important. The biggest sub chapter or biggest Pada in the Ashtadhyayi is 6-1. It contains 223 Sutras of various kinds dealing with different kinds of themes with different natures. Some of them are the meta rules, some of them are the prescription rules, some of them are the Adhikara rules and so on and so forth. And we shall study these types later on in this course in some detail. Then we have the smallest sub chapter or Pada which is 2238. 22 contains only 38 Sutras. This is the smallest ever sub chapter in the Ashtadhyayi. The biggest chapter or the Adhyaya is the 6th chapter with 736 Sutras in all in all the four sub chapters. And the smallest chapter obviously is the second chapter which consists of only 267 Sutras or rules. Here is the screenshot of the text of Ashtadhyayi. It is referred to as Sutra Patha. Patha is the collection, Patha is the reading or uttering. So, Ashtadhyayi Sutra Patha, the word Sutra Patha also gives the angle of oral tradition. These Sutras were part of the recitation. These Sutras and still are part of recitation. These Sutras are memorized and then passed on from one generation to the next and this continued we believe for at least more than 2000 years. This is called Sutra Patha. And here is a screenshot of the Sutra Patha for you. On the left hand side, this one, this is the title page printed and published in Roman, Ashtadhyayi Sutra Patha of Panini with Vartika, Ganas, Dhatupatha, Paniniya, Shiksha and Paribhasha Patha. And same we have in Devanagari, Ashtadhyayi Sutra Patha, Vartika, Ganas Patha, Dhatupatha, Paniniya, Shiksha, Paribhasha Patha, Sahitaha. We will explain what all these stand for. Right now just note that this is how the text is printed and this is the title of that text, Ashtadhyayi Sutra Patha. And this is how the Sutra Patha looks like. So in this screenshot on this page, we see that there are some Sutras which are printed over here from 1 to 21 in this column and then there are some others on this right hand side. So 1 to 8 which are printed on this page and from 9 onwards up to 29 printed on this second page. There are two pages, page 2 and page 3 over here. You will also notice that at the beginning of each chapter, we find a reference to the name of the chapter. This is Prathamodhyayaha and Prathamakpadaha. The reference is made clear and then you number the Sutra. So Prathamodhyayaha, Prathamakpadaha and Prathamamsutram, 1, 1, 1 is this, 1, 1, 2 is this and so on and so forth. The numbers are there to indicate the exact location of the Sutra in the text of Ashtadhyayi. In this particular text, right now we were referring to the numbers which occur on the left hand side. But it is also observed that there are some numbers which come on the right hand side 16, 17, 34 and so on and so forth. Right now we just ignore these numbers. They are also the references. They are the references of the text called Vaya Karana Siddhanta Kavmudhi about which we shall talk little later. So these are the references to that text. What these references mean is that in the text of Vaya Karana Siddhanta Kavmudhi, which was composed in the 17th century CE, this Sutra, 1, 1, 1 appears on this number, 16th. That text called Vaya Karana Siddhanta Kavmudhi rearranges this entire text of Ashtadhyayi thematically according to the themes. And within those themes, the first theme is the technical terms. So obviously these two, 16 and 17, they go into that section, that first chapter called Saudhnya Prakaranam, the technical terms in that text. And then 34 and then the fourth Sutra appears on the number 2656. So this fourth Sutra in the Ashtadhyayi, this when arranged thematically appears in the text of Vaya Karana Siddhanta Kavmudhi at this number, at this very late number. There are obvious reasons. And so the question arises as to why Panini put this Sutra over here. And there are answers to these questions, textually as well as systematically. And this is also an answer which gives an insight about how a particular code is written and what kind of requirements it has, the grammarian, the grammar has in order to enlist different kinds of rules together. So we shall study this in detail later on. Right now, it is clear to us what these two numbers stand for. Whenever we refer to 1.1.1, we refer to these left numbers. Please do not take into consideration the numbers given on the right hand side. They will be useful to you later on, when you also study the Vaya Karana Siddhanta Kavmudhi. As is clear from this page, page number 2 over here, you see on the left hand side, there is a reference to the Adhyaya and Pada, a 1 and pa 1, Adhyaya 1, Pada 1 followed by a number of small Sutra like texts. These are indeed the Sutras. As you see at the end, there is a remark, iti pratyahara sutrani. So these are 14 Sutras and they help form the pratyaharas. And we shall study what is a pratyahara. We shall also study how these pratyaharas get formed in detail. We shall also study what are the principles on which these 14 Sutras are constructed and how to interpret them. They are also considered as part of the text of Ashtadhyayi and that is why they come at the beginning. Counting these numbers, we said earlier that the number of Sutras in the text of Ashtadhyayi, they are approximately 4000. Some scholars omit these 14 Sutras and the number changes and that is the reason why we are using the word approximately. There are some other reasons also as we stated that this text was part of the oral transmission and there were certain devices that were created in order to keep the text intact. But in the course of time, this text also became a subject of writing. It was written down in the form of manuscripts. It was commented upon and then in the process, the later commentators added some statements in the text of Ashtadhyayi as the sutras. And the further later commentators, they realized this fact and they also noted down and attributed one particular text for doing this. That is a very interesting phenomenon and we have published an article explaining this particular phenomenon. But we shall not deal with it right now. We just note this particular interesting phenomenon and move ahead. So, this is the text of Ashtadhyayi and as you see once again over here in 1127, there are some words that are listed. This is what is the list of words also known as Gana which is part of the text of Ashtadhyayi. And then we also see that there are some other glosses which one is found below the sutra 9. These are the vartikas. So, this is the vartika, this is a gana and so on. So, this is the sutra patha together with the vartika and gana patha and there will be dhatu patha and shiksa and paribhasha patha also. And we have been studying this page and the features of this page. So, we said that these are the 14 pratyahara sutras and these are the sutras with left hand side numbers which we will refer to. The right hand side number you ignore. These are the gana members. This is the gana patha. This is the vartika after 9. This is another statement after 29. All these they constitute the sutra patha, the text of Ashtadhyayi. The question is how to decode a sutra which is at the base, which is the core of the entire system of panini. So, first of all we find out how many words are present in the sutra, exact number of words in the sutra. Then we figure out the case endings and their significance in the metal language. What do they stand for in the metal language? Once this is clear we also find out about the words that are continued from the previous sutras. This is how the sutras are arranged and that will also answer why 114 which is otherwise listed as 2656 comes at 114. Then we look at the appearance of meta rules which are present, which guide us to an extent as to how to interpret the sutra on account of certain triggers mentioned in the respective sutra. Then we look at the general conditions which are present for example the meaning conditions. Then we arrange the words following all these mechanisms and then we make the meaning of the sutra. This is how a sutra or a rule in the Ashtadhyayi gets decoded and we shall study this more in the coming lectures which are part of discourse. Then we will address the question about the significance of the sutra. What is the meaning of the word sutra itself? The thread. What does it signify? This is an important question that we shall address. What does it tell about the overall methodology of grammar? That one statement is a thread which weaves together forms which are used by speakers in the language in their day to day usage. So, the sutras by themselves reveal certain fact, certain methodology that is used in this particular grammar and that is very insightful which we shall study later on in this course. This is what generally we aim to do in this particular course. The detailed contains of this course are available on the web page of the course in which we shall also study apart from the meta language the process of speech production in detail. Noting down the importance of the cognitive aspect as well as the physical aspect and then the features of sounds thus produced which are considered as the base for the grammatical operations noted down by Panini in his rules. Apart from this we shall study the systemic as well as the textual approach and study the Panimian grammar. I thank you for joining this course and I hope you will enjoy this course. Thank you all.