The Paiicharatras, or Bhagavatas, are an early Vaishnava sect, in which the doctrine of faith, already alluded to, is strongly developed. Hence their tenets are defended by Ramanuja, though they are partly condemned as heretical in the Brahma-sutras. The Paiupatas, one of several gaiva (Mahegvara) sects, hold the Supreme Being (I.§vara), whom they identify with diva (as pasfu-pati, or "lord of beasts"), to be the creator and ruler of the world, but not its material cause. With the Sankhyas they admit the notion of a plastic material cause, the Pradhana; while they follow Patanjali in maintaining the existence of a Supreme God.
(Vyakaratia).—Pattini. Linguistic inquiry, phon etic as well as grammatical, was early resorted to both for the pur pose of elucidating the meaning of the Veda and with the view of settling its textual form. The particular work which came ulti mately to be looked upon as the "veafiga" representative of gram matical science, and has ever since remained the standard author ity on Sanskrit grammar in India, is Panini's Ashtadhyclyi, so called from its "consisting of eight lectures (adhytiya)," of four Was each. For a comprehensive grasp of linguistic facts, and a pene trating insight into the structure of the vernacular language, this work stands probably unrivalled in the literature of any nation— though few other languages, it is true, afford such facilities as the Sanskrit for a scientific analysis. Panini's system of arrangement differs entirely from that usually adopted in our grammars, namely, according to the parts of speech. As the work is composed in aphorisms intended to be learnt by heart, economy of memory matter was the author's paramount consideration. His object was chiefly attained by the grouping together of all cases exhibiting the same phonetic or formative feature, no matter whether or not they belonged to the same part of speech. For this purpose he also makes use of a highly artificial and ingenious system of algebraic symbols, consisting of technical letters (antibandha), used chiefly with suffixes and indicative of the changes which the roots or stems have to undergo in word-formation. The date of Panini has been the subject of much discussion but may be safely put at about 40o B.C.
Panini mentions some sixty-four predecessors which shows that this study had undergone a long process of development. Perhaps the most important of his predecessors was Sakatayana, also mentioned by Yaska—the author of the Nirukta, who is like wise supposed to have preceded Panini—as the only grammarian (vaiyakaratia) who held with the etymologists (nairukta) that all nouns are derived from verbal roots.
Panini's Sutras continued for ages after to form the centre of grammatical activity. But, as his own work had superseded those of his predecessors, so many of the scholars who devoted them selves to the task of perfecting his system have sunk into oblivion.
Katydyana.—The earliest of his successors whose work has come down to us (though perhaps not in a separate form) is Katyayana, the author of a large collection of concise critical notes, called V arttika, intended to supplement and correct the Sutras, or give them greater precision.
Pataiijali.—Kityiyana was followed by Patanjali, the author of the (Vyakaraiia-) Mand-bhashya, or Great Commentary, who flourished about 15o B.C. For the great variety of information it incidentally supplies regarding the literature and manners of the period, this is, from an historical and antiquarian point of view, one of the most important works of the classical Sanskrit literature. The Mahabhashya is not a continuous commentary on Panini's grammar, but a collection of the critical comments or karikds on 1,713 of the 4,00o rules of Panini. Patailjali is also called Gonardiya perhaps meaning "a native of Gonarda," a place, probably identical with Gonda, a town some 20 m. north west of Oudh—and Gonikaputra, or son of Gonika.
Sanskrit dictionaries (ko.fa), invariably composed in verse, are either homonymous or synonymous, or partly the one and partly the other. There are occasional attempts at alphabetical order in the former but not in the latter. There are many intended for the use of poets and are collections of rare words and synonyms, rather than lexicons of the language. The great dictionary is the famous Amara-koia ("immortal treasury") by Amarasirnha, who probably lived early in the 6th century. This dictionary consists of a synonymous and a short homonymous part ; whilst in the former the words are distributed in sections according to subjects, such as heaven and the gods, time and seasons, etc. ; in the latter they are arranged according to their final letter, without regard to the number of syllables.