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Sanskrit Language Study
Traditionally, Sanskrit study in India has meant study of Pāņini's grammar, the Aṣṭādhyāyi, universally considered the most perfect grammar known to history. Pāņini, standing at the end of a long line of predecessors (of whom sixty-four are mentioned), prepared a grammar to match the language it describes: Sanskrit, meaning "polished, refined, perfected." It consists, according to the traditional recital, of 3,972 sūtras. About a third of these terse sūtras have been explained by Katyāyana in his vārttikas. These sutras and varttikas were in turn explained by Patanjali in his Mahābhāṣya, or "Great Commentary." These three, Pāṇini, Kātyāyana, and Patanjali, are honored as the three greatest teachers of vyākaraṇa, the science of grammar. Their writings together comprise a bulk which can be overwhelming. The comparatively brief Kāšikā Vṛtti, or "Benares Commentary," is the earliest extant commentary which explains all 3,972 of Panini's sūtras. The translation of Panini's Aṣṭādhyāyi listed above, by Śrisa Chandra Vasu, includes the substance of the Kāšikā Vṛtti. As a commentary of some kind is necessary to even make Pāņini's sūtras intelligible, this was an excellent choice.
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Pāņini has carefully arranged his sūtras throughout so that the general rule is stated first, then subordinate rules in an ever narrowing focus, i.e., reasoning from universals to particulars. The study of Panini's grammar is held to be of great educational value, which has often been likened to that of the study of Euclid's geometry in the West. "For to make up a particular form the mind of the student has to go through a certain process of synthesis." (Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar). This has reference to how Sanskrit words are built from verb-roots according to regular processes described by Pāṇini. To more easily learn the processes of grammar recorded by Pāņini, his grammar has in recent centuries been rearranged topic-wise. The Siddhanta Kaumudi, a rearrangement according to topic which includes grammatical examples, came to be used throughout India in place of Panini's Aṣṭādhyāyi in its normal arrangement. The bulky Siddhanta Kaumudi (1028 +713 + 408 +247 + 106 pages in Śrīsa Chandra Vasu's translation) was greatly abridged as the Laghukaumudi (424 pages in Ballantyne's translation). For person's wanting to study Sanskrit grammar in brief but using
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