Page:Systems-of-Sanskrit-Grammar-SK Belvalkar.pdf/26

Systems of Sanskrit Grammar Systems Sanskrit Grammar §12- -1 Skythians was Deioces (fr) whose date is cir. 700 B. C., and Paini must have lived before B. C. 700 or at least not long after that date. 18 It is of course conceded that none of these arguments are decisive taken singly. Alternative suppositions could be made to explain away some of these facts. Thus Panini may conceivably mention the city of Sangala even after its destruction by Alexander. The Persians and the Assyrians might have turned into mercenary soldiers after the loss of their independence. And in the case of the sutra, since Patañjali in his gloss on Kāṭyāya- na's vārtika does not mention the Sakas or the Yavanas, the two words may not possibly form a genuine part of Kätyäyana's addition, and consequently no cogent argu- ment could be based on that circumstance,-waving the alternative possibility of Panini having at times made mistakes. Finally, it is not altogether impossible that the sutras on which our arguments for Panini's antiquity are based, were taken over by Pauini bodily from some of his predecessors, just as, contrariwise, the sütras from which his modernity is inferred (especially the word in sutra iv. 1.149) were later interpolations. But in that way anything is possible and we would be reduced to speechlessness. The upshot of all this is that there is nothing in Pauini's Ashtadhyayi that is inconsistent with his having flourished in the seventh century B. C., and this negative conclusion is all that I am content to reach for the pre- sent, leaving the burden of proof with those who wish to maintain the contrary. 13. Known facts about Papini's life.--As differing from himself Panini mentions (v. 3. 80, vi. 2. 74, etc.) a school of Eastern grammarians, and in later literature he is also known by the name Salaturiya¹ which is probably derived taigiamas &c, from quìfù stanza 2.