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INTRODUCTION
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN LEXICOGRAPHY
$1. The oldest extant lexical work in Sanskrit is the Vedic Nighantu which has been commented on by Yaska in his Nirukta. It is a collection of a number of words, nominal as well as The Nighantu verbal, peculiar to the Vedas. Most pro
and the Nirukta,
bably there were other works of a similar nature, but no traces of them have as yet been found. The present work is a dry string of words with no subject or predicate. It is divided into five chapters, the first three being arranged in synonymous groups of nominal as well as verbal bases, the fourth containing lists of inflected words whose meanings are to be determined from the context, and the fifth, lists of the different deities. Its author is not known, but it was current long before Yaska wrote his commentary, being usually learnt by rote by the beginners of the Vedic study (whence its other name, Samāmnāya).' Yāska has been considered older than Panini (c. fourth century B.C.) on the ground that Yaska does not refer to Panini or to his work, although he names a number of other grammarians who have been cast into the background by Panini, while Panini gives a rule for the formation of the word Yaska2 which shows that he was familiar with it.
Cf समाम्नायः समाम्नातः स व्याख्यातत्र्यः, तमिमं समाम्नायं निघण्टव इत्याचक्षते, Nir. I.1.1. Also, साक्षात्कृतधर्माण ऋषयेो बभूवुस्तेऽसाक्षात्कृतधर्मभ्य उपदेशेन मन्त्रान् सम्प्राहुरुपदेशाथ ग्लायन्तोऽवरे विल्मग्रहणायेमं ग्रन्थं समाम्नायिषु वेदं च वेदाङ्गानि ibid., I. 6. 5 (बिल्मं भिल्मं भाषणमिति नैरुक्ताः )
2 यस्कादिभ्यो गोत्रे Paņ. II. 4. 63.
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