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Systems of Sanskrit Grammar [§-9 The so-called Aindra treatises 11

further adds that the Tolkappiyam, one of the oldest Tamil grammars, represents itself to be full of the Aindra system, and was read in the Pandya King’s assembly and there met with approval. This Tolkappi- yam is closely related to Katantra, to Kachchayana’s Pali grammar, and to the Pratisikhyas, all of which are to be regarded as treatises belonging to the Aindra school af . gtammarians. The conclusion’ which Dr. Burnell reaches is that the ‘Aindra was the oldest school of Sanskrit grammar, and that Aindra treatises were actually known to and quoted by Panini and others, and that Aindra treatises still exist in the Pratisdkhyas, in the Katantra, and in similar works, though they have been partly recast or corrected.’ And again, ‘the Aindra treatises belong to a system older than Panini’s, though- there is perhaps reason, to believe that not one of them is, as a whole, older than the grammar of the last.’

That the technical terms used by the so-called Aindra treatises are connected with one another and are, further, simpler and more primitive than those of Panini is quite evident ; and on this ground it is not unlikely that they represent a school of grammarians prior to Panini’s. But since, besides the Aindra, we have at least two other schools also older than Panini, it will not do to put down every one of these safijfids as belonging to the Aindra school, seeing thet we have no information re- garding the safijfiis of the other two. In the present state of our knowledge, the fact that the Aindra school is nowhere quoted by name either in Panini or Maha- bhashya or Kasik& should point to the conclusion—also endorsed by Keilhorn—that the Aindra school is post- Paniniya in date, though pre-Paniniya in substance. Possibly it may ,be no other than the Kétantra school

1 Compare his Easey on the Aindra school of grammarians, passim. �