48 OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF SANSKRIT transmission of the Vedic texts was achieved was the Pada- patha, in which each word of the text was repeated separately. To do this correctly, as it is done in the main, involved the be- ginning of grammatical analysis and, since it involved the resolution of Sandhi, phonetic analysis. The phonetic teaching necessary for the correct recitation of the Vedas is embodied in the Prdtisdkhyas . There are several of these attached to various Vedic schools, and they deal with the subject in great detail and with accuracy. They are a very important source for our knowledge of ancient pronunciation. It is disputed whether any of these texts in their present form are earlier than Panini, but in some form or other instruction of this sort must be as old as the Vedic schools themselves. Later works dealing with phonetics are the Siksds which exist in large numbers and contain valuable observations. Difficulties in the interpretation of the Vedic texts owing to the obsolescence of words led to the beginnings of lexicography. The earliest work of this kind, the Nighanfu consists of lists of difficult Vedic words, of divinities, etc., drawn up for the use of teachers. The commentary on these by Yaska, who is probably not far removed from Panini in time, contains the earliest systematic discussions on questions of grammar. Here we find the parts of speech already distinguished as ndman r noun sarvandman- f pronoun dkhydta - ' verb upasarga - * preposi- tion * and nipata- * particle The derivation of nouns by means of krt and taddhita affixes has become a well established theory, and an interesting argument between Sakafayana and Gargya is reported as to whether all nouns can be derived in this way from verbal roots. The former maintained that they could, and in spite of the cogent arguments on the other side advanced by Gargya, this was the theory that generally held the field in Sanskrit grammatical theory. It is a fact that a larger propor- tion of the Sanskrit vocabulary is capable of such analysis than is the case in most languages. The date of Panini is most commonly fixed in the fourth century b.c, which is in accordance with the native tradition which connects him with the Nanda king of Magadha. Nothing is known of his life except the fact that he was bom in the extreme North-West of India at Salatura. His Astadhydyi which fixed the form of Sanskrit grammar once and for all, consists of some 4,000 aphorisms of the greatest brevity. This
