﻿AND PRACRIT LANGUAGES. 203 



is a patronyinick, indicating his descent from Pariin; 

 but accordiTicr to the Paurdnica legends, he was 

 grandson of Devala, an inspired legislator. What- 

 ever may be the true history of Panini, to him the 

 Sutras, or succinct aphorisms of grammar, are attri- 

 buted by universal consent. His system is grounded 

 on a profound investigation of the analogies in both 

 the regular and the anomalous inflections of the 

 Sanscrit lano-uaLre. He has combined those analo- 

 gies in a very artificial manner ; and has tlius com- 

 pressed a most copious etymology into a very nar- 

 row compass. His precepts are indeed numerous*, 

 but they have been framed with the utmost concise- 

 ness ; and this great brevity is the result of very 

 ingenious methods which have been contrived for 

 this end, and for the purpose of assisting the student's 

 memory. In Panixi"s system the mutual relation 

 of all the parts marks that it must have been com- 

 pleted by its author -, it certainly bears internal evi- 

 dence of its having been accomplished by a single 

 effort, and even the corrections, whicii are needed, 

 cannot be interwoven with the text. It must not 

 be hence inferred, that Paxini was unaided by the 

 labours of earlier grammarians ; in many of his pre- 

 cepts he cites the authority of his predecessorsj^ 

 sometimes for a deviation from a general rule, often 

 for a grammatical canon which has universal co- 

 gency. He has even employed some technical terms 

 without defining them, because, as his commenta- 

 tors remark, those terms were already introduced 

 by earlier grammarians. J None of the more ancient 



works, 



Since each Purdna contains a cosmogony, with mythological and 

 heroick history, the works which bear that title may net unaptly be 

 compared to the Grecian Theogonies. 



* Not fewer than SyQii. 



+ Sa'calya, Ga'kgya, Ca's' yapa, Ga'lava, Sa'cat'a'tana, 

 and others. 



J In a few instances he quotes former grsmmars to refute them. 



