Aindra school of grammar

The "Aindra" (of Indra) school of Sanskrit grammar is one of the eleven schools of grammar mentioned in Panini's "Ashtadhyayi". It is named after Indra in allusion to Lord Indra, the king of Gods in Hindu mythology. Arthur Coke Burnell, a renowned orientologist, in his 1875 book, "On the Aindra school of Sanskrit grammars" details this school. Burnell believed that most non-Paninian systems of Sanskrit grammar were traceable to this school of grammar, believed to be the oldest and reputed to be founded by Indra himself.

Aindra, Katantra schools and the Tolkappiyam

Burnell's search for the Aindra school took him to Southern India where he came across the Tamil grammatical work "Tolkappiyam". A preface of this work, written during the twelfth century CE by Ilampuranar describes the work as "aindiram nirainda Tolkappiyam" ('comprising Aindra'). This, Burnell posits is an allusion to the pre-Paninian Aindra school of grammar.

Further, Burnell proceeded to do an exhaustive comparison of the Tokappiyam with two non-Paninian schools of grammar, namely, the "Katantra" school of Sanskrit grammar and the "Kaccayana", a Pali school of Southern India. Based on the comparisons and allowing for divergences due to the structural differences between Tamil and Sanskrit/Pali, Burnell concluded that the Tolkappiyam corresponds to the "Katantra" school minutely and across the board.

He also demonstrated that many of the technical terms of the Tolkappiyam and of later Tamil grammars were merely simple translations of Sanskrit terms which he attributes to the Aindra school or the other pre-Paninian texts.

While his demonstration of the influence of Sanskrit on the Tolkappiyam has met with some approval, his attribution and approximation of all non Paninian schools of Sanskrit grammar with the Aindra school has met with resistance. [George Cardona, "Panini: a survey of research" (1998), Motilal Banarsidass Publ., pp 151] Takanobu Takahashi, "Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics" (1995) Brill Academic Publishers ISBN 9004100423 pp 26] Some scholars have also toed a less committal line on the question of Sanskrit infuence itself. ["...it has been identified that Tolkappiyam and other Sanskrit grammar works share some charactersitics, but also show significant dissimilarities..." - Rajam, V. S. (1981), A comparative study of two ancient Indian grammatical traditions: The Tamil Tolkappiyam compared with the Sanskrit Rk-pratisakhya, Taittiriya-pratisakhya, Apisali siksa, and the Astadhyayi" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania: 1981)]

Aindra and Panini

Having demonstrated the influence of the "Katantra" school on the grammars of Pali and Tamil and with the help of a linkage to the Aindra school that the "Tolkappiyam" afforded, Burnell proceeded to show the differences in the technical terms used by the Aindra school and those used by the Paninians.

ee also

* Schools of Sanskrit grammar
* Panini (grammarian)
* Tolkappiyam
* Vyakarana
* Sanskrit grammar

Notes

References

* Trautmann, Thomas R. 2006. Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.52-54.
* Burnell, Arthur Coke. 1875. On the Aindra school of Sanscrit Grammarians: their place in the Sanscrit and subordinate literatures.