There are hardly any written records or biography of Panini as such
that have information on the time he was born. It is however estimated
that he was born around the 4th, 5th or 6th B.C. Historians differ in
these dates as well. It is also said that he was born in Shalatula, near
Indus River. This place is now in the present day Pakistan. Experts and
historians however, base these dates on pure guesswork. Also, there is
hardly any proof regarding the extent of his work. The life history of
Panini is purely based on estimates and guesses.
Panini was one of the most inventive and original people who helped in
the development of knowledge of Sanskrit grammar. He is considered to be
the founder of literature and language. This famous Sanskrit grammarian
gave a scientific analysis of Sanskrit phonetics and morphology. Being
the language of Gods, Sanskrit was considered to be a complete and the
perfect language. Panini analyzed the classical Sanskrit language, which
was the language of all literary works, and more light was thrown on the
phonology of this language.
Among Panini's works, the most famous and major one is called "Ashtadhyayi".
It is a thesis that consists of eight chapters and each chapter is
divided into quarter chapters. This treatise basically highlights the
difference between the language of holy texts and the language used for
communicating in normal lives. A basic set of rules and grammar was
given to describe Sanskrit grammar. He went on step by step and
explained the use of nouns, vowels and verbs and divided them into
classes. He then went on to explain the construction of sentences and
the use of compound nouns and tenses. It is very similar to the
principles of Mathematics as the construction of this grammatical
pattern function mathematically.
