Page:Systems-of-Sanskrit-Grammar-SK Belvalkar.pdf/32

 Systems of Sanskrit Grammar § 15 - 1 class, but rather give merely a few leading types. Pāṇini in his sūtras gives only the first word of a gana and they have hence been considerably tampered with since his times. So, although we cannot be certain whether any one word now found in the Ganapatha existed in Panini's day, still the bulk of our present Ganapatha may safely be considered as coming from the hands of the grammarian himself. 24 The next device to secure brevity was the invention of peculiar technical symbols such as ,,,, &c. Some of these may have been known to Pāņini from his predecessors, while others were probably of his own creation: Patañjali dístinctly tells us that f, g and w were known to him already.¹ In the framing of the sütras Panini always scrupu- lously omitted all such words as may be conveniently supplied from sense or from preceding sütras. The technical name for this process is anuvritti, and to secure it he has made some of his sütras adhikära-sätras," that is to say, sutras which have to be repeated, wholly or in part, each time any of the sutras dominated by it are to be interpreted. Lastly, in portions of the Ashtadhyayi he has so arranged the sutras that where two sutras appear equally applicable, that which comes earlier in the order of the Ashtadhyāyī must obtain precedence over the one which comes later.³ 1 Mahabhashya on i. 2. 58, and 2 Kaiyyata in the same place. Panini shows that a particular sutra is an adhikara sutra by i, the word wr followed by a word in the ablative cage occurring in a subsequent satra to which the adhikkra is to at fodaffer: 1 continue; as in i. 4. 56; 2. 3 Papini viii. 2.1-gfensi e. g. i. 2.48, where f has it; 3. giving a numerical value to some mute letter add- ed to the sutra; e. g. (2) is supposed to be added to v. 1.30 to show the extent of the adhikära; and 4. -