The Impact of Panini's Grammar on Modern Linguistics

A new era of Linguistic studies began when some of the old ideas of ancient Indians and Greeks were revived and reconstructed, says Noam Chomsky. It is interesting to examine how Bloomfield and Chomsky revived, reconstructed, revised and remodelled the fundamentals of the ancient Sanskrit grammar of Panini in the new models of Descriptive and generative grammars. The study of languages in a scientific way carefully and comprehensively started in our Universities only recently. The traditional studies of languages in Europe before the 20th century were largely philosophical rather than scientific. However, it is wonderful that an ancient Sanskrit Grammar written in India more than two thousand and five hundred years ago by an old sage called Panini is perfectly scientific in all respects. The present study reveals that modern Linguistics is in essence a revision of Panini's grammar written in India in the 5th century B.C.