LANGUAGE IN INDIA

C-SEMIOLOGY IN SEARCH OF PANINI
Ranjit Singh Rangila

THE PROBLEMATICS

Panini is presented as 'the initiator of the sciences of mind' in a contribution called Reading Sawtantra Karata in Panini (Rangila 2005c) that immediately preceded the present one. It is shown as to how Panini builds up calculi of signification (the 'karaka' system as it is technically called) and places that in the body-brain-mind of physically living person who keeps using the same to conduct its computations throughout its life as and when the person desires, or is obliged to create its life making messages. The body-brain-mind of this living human person does root its computations through a very subtle and detailed mathematical wisdom that Panini formulates.

It is further shown that this move helps Panini to model architecture of human mind, the processing modules that have its definite mathematical resources. Hopefully these mathematical resources can be taken up in detail in some future writing.

Experience has it that at the face of it this discovery, or even call it a personal proposal in Panini could be something delightful to Paninikaras. Yet, at a more serous level of consideration, the proposition may be received at the most as a side issue in Paninian studies. Given the status of Paninian studies in the universities and institutions in the country, it could be an encouraging redemption if one is proved wrong.

INSTITUTIONAL LINGUISTICS AND PANINI IN INDIA

The scenario in the institutional linguistic studies in India is not uniquely different. One is not sure whether the discovery could carry any news value and excitement to the linguists in India.

It is quite likely that contemporary culture of ideas, especially in India, may even find the contribution of a doubtful proposition. This realization is based on the fact that somehow the picture of Panini and of his work(s) that has got created is that Panini is a grammarian who created a grammar of Sanskrit language. And, unfortunately, this picture has come in the way of receiving Panini's work as one of the great knowledge traditions of human civilization. After all if Panini has to do something with Sanskrit, he should be of interest to those who deal with the language. Why should scholarship in general bother about the work?

MESSING UP WITH ISSUES

Two issues are messed up in such a picture of the work(s) of Panini. First, that Panini is a grammarian and that too in the sense in which 'grammar' is meant

If one turns to the long tradition of Paninian studies way back upto Patanjali, for instance, one finds that Panini's work has been discussed, criticized and validated to its minutest details. The Siddhanta Kamudi tradition of Paninian studies has even tried experimentation with Ashtadhiyayai. For instance, Bhattoji Diksita's (Vasu 1962) rearrangement of the Panini Sutras in the order that he thought them to be more productive could be cited as one of the important achievements of this trend.

DOES TRADITION COMMIT TO SOME DEFINITE INTELLECTUAL ATTITUDE?

As the Paninian tradition has it, grammar, its internal structure, economy principles, the operational wisdom, the derivative mechanisms, the elemental discoveries and systems that they get placed into, the citation devices, the minimality and maximality primitives, the theory building intuitions, and even the role of the 'grammar' in the world of knowledge have been effectively conceptualized as well as debated.

These being the central concerns of the tradition, there is every reason to expect that the tradition commits to some definite intellectual attitude towards nature of things as well as towards the nature of inquiry. Likewise it is equally a reasonable expectation that the scholarship participating in the tradition develop a particular vision of its concerns.

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RANJIT SINGH RANGILA

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