Astadhyayi of Panini: Roman Transliteration and English Translation

Panini’s grammar of Sanskrit, written in the sixth century B.C., is the earliest linguistic description of the language and is the source and inspiration for the development of comparative philology and modern linguistics. The Astadhyayi remains the most correct and complete grammar ever written and is considered a model for all grammar.
Sumitra M. Katre’s expert translation of 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 of the classic work, which relies on the Roman alphabet’s upper and lower-case 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.

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 Konkani 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 in Mumbai.