A PhD student at the University of Cambridge in the UK has solved a mystery of Sanskrit grammar that has puzzled scholars since the 5th century BC.The 27-year-old Rishi Rajpopat, the founder of the principle of Sanskrit, was the famous teacher Panini of the ancient past, who formulated this principle about two and a half thousand years ago.According to Cambridge University, Sanskrit is spoken today only in India, where the number of speakers of this ancient language is estimated at 25 thousand.Mr. Rishi Rajpopat says that for nine months he had been tinkering and his research was not progressing at all, but finally the moment came when he understood the secret.When I couldn't understand anything, I closed the books for a month and went out to enjoy the summer, sometimes swimming, sometimes cooking, sometimes worshiping and thinking.""After that I dragged my feet back to work, and it was only after a few minutes of turning the page that (Panini's sample pages) began to make sense to me."Rishi explains that he would "sit in the library for many hours, and sometimes late into the night."Nevertheless, he had to research for the next two and a half years to unravel the mystery.
A page from an ancient manuscript of Panini published in the 18th century on which Rishi Rajputat based his theory.
Although Sanskrit is not widely spoken today, it is the sacred language of Hinduism and is also used in science, philosophy, poetry and other non-religious literature in India.The grammar devised by Panini is called Ustadhai. The system works on algorithm-like principles, in which each word is formed by combining a prefix and a suffix, after which a meaningful word or phrase is formed.But Panini's grammar often applies two or more rules to each word.hus, Panini created a 'meta-rule' for the grammar he was teaching hundreds of years ago, and traditionally experts have taken it to mean that if two equal rules of grammar conflict in a word, The rule that comes later wins.But Mr. Rajpopat rejects the traditional interpretation of this great principle of Panini. He says that the 'before' and 'after' interpretation is not correct, but Panini speaks of the principles of 'right' and 'left' of the word. had been. That is, according to Panini's rule, if there is a conflict between two major rules of grammar in a word, then the rule on the left will be preferred over the right.Applying this interpretation of Panini's Meta-Rule, Mr. Rajpopat also traced Panini's 'Language Machine' through which almost all the words of Sanksarat conformed to the rules of grammar.MHe said, "I hope that this discovery will instill a new spirit of confidence, pride and hope in the students of India and they will feel that they too can do great things."Mr. Rajpopat's PhD supervisor and professor of Sanskrit at the University of Cambridge, Vincenzo Vergiani, said his student had "discovered a brilliant solution to a problem that has puzzled scholars for centuries."At a time when people's interest in the Sanskrit language is increasing, this discovery will bring about a revolution."
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