Sanskrit Poets of India
Biography of Panini (the Sanskrit Grammarian & author of Ashtadhyayi)

Panini was a great sanskrit grammarian and the author of Asthadhyayi, the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of Vedic religion. Panini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the end of the period of Vedic Sanskrit, by definition introducing Classical Sanskrit.

There are hardly any written records or biography of Panini as such that have information on the time he was born. It is however estimated that he was born around the 4th, 5th or 6th B.C. Historians differ in these dates as well. It is also said that he was born in Shalatula, near Indus River. This place is now in the present day Pakistan. Experts and historians however, base these dates on pure guesswork. Also, there is hardly any proof regarding the extent of his work. The life history of Panini is purely based on estimates and guesses.

Panini was one of the most inventive and original people who helped in the development of knowledge of Sanskrit grammar. He is considered to be the founder of literature and language. This famous Sanskrit grammarian gave a scientific analysis of Sanskrit phonetics and morphology. Being the language of Gods, Sanskrit was considered to be a complete and the perfect language. Panini analyzed the classical Sanskrit language, which was the language of all literary works, and more light was thrown on the phonology of this language.

Among Panini's works, the most famous and major one is called "Ashtadhyayi". It is a thesis that consists of eight chapters and each chapter is divided into quarter chapters. This treatise basically highlights the difference between the language of holy texts and the language used for communicating in normal lives. A basic set of rules and grammar was given to describe Sanskrit grammar. He went on step by step and explained the use of nouns, vowels and verbs and divided them into classes. He then went on to explain the construction of sentences and the use of compound nouns and tenses. It is very similar to the principles of Mathematics as the construction of this grammatical pattern function mathematically.