पृष्ठम्:Laghu paniniyam vol2.djvu/६

PREFACE

The kind reception accorded to my grammar of
Classical Sanskrit, called the Laghupaniniyam, by the Uni-
versity of Madras and the Sanskrit Colleges of Mysore and
Travancore, as well as by the public in general, was one of
the circumstances which suggested to me the idea of writ-
ing a sequel or supplement to it. The Laghupaniniyam
which was published two years ago professed to treat
only of Samskrita or the literary language of the classical
period of Sanskrit literature. But the word Sanskrit in its
wider sense has come to include an earlier stage of the lan-
guage, that is, the dialect in which the Rishis of the Vedic
period sang their hymns. And it must be admitted that
the stupendous work of the world's greatest grammarian
comprehends both stages of the language. Indeed, Panini
in fact goes much further, and has noted the peculiarities of
usage not only in the two broad divisions of the language,
familiarly known as Chhandas (Vedic) and Bhasha (Class-
ical), but also in the minor or intermediate dialects as they
appear in the Mantra, Yajus (in its several recensions) and
Brahmana. This thoroughness is the chief merit of
Panini. As Laghupaniniyam, the first part of my gram-
mar was an attempt to offer a popular exposition of the
Laukika sutras of Panini, the present volume is a similar
attempt in the case of Vaidika Sutras.
Apart from my eagerness to secure completeness
to my work, I had a special incentive to treat of Vedic
Grammar on the basis of Panini; because, it was this part
of his work that had not received an adequate exposition
at the hands of his commentators. Panini's contempora-
contempo
(1) Vide opening remarks p. 8.