A grammatical problem that has confused Sanskrit scholars since the 5th century BC has finally been solved by an Indian PhD student at Cambridge University, reveals a report by Independent.
27-year-old Rishi Rajpopat deciphered a rule that was taught by Panini -- master of the ancient Sanskrit language who lived around two and a half thousand years ago.?
Panini¡¯s grammar, also known as Astadhyayi works on a system that¡¯s actually similar to an algorithm -- turning the base and suffix of a word into grammatically correct sentences and phrases.
However, two or more of Panini¡¯s rules are known to apply together, which results in rule conflicts.?
Panini taught a ¡®metarule¡¯ that the scholars have traditionally interpreted as if in case there is a conflict between two rules of equal weight, the rule that¡¯s newer in the grammar¡¯s serial order is the one to finally go with. This however didn¡¯t always render grammatically-accurate results.
Rajpopat however decided to reject the traditional interpretation of the metarule. He instead argued that Panini meant that between the rules that would be applied to the left and right side of a word, Panini wanted the rule to be applied to the right side.
Following this rule, Rajpopat discovered that Panini¡¯s ¡®language machine¡¯ managed to produce grammatically correct words with almost no exceptions.
He said in a statement, ¡°I had a eureka moment in Cambridge. After nine months trying to crack this problem, I was almost ready to quit, I was getting nowhere. So I closed the books for a month and just enjoyed the summer, swimming, cycling, cooking, praying and meditating.¡±
¡°Then, begrudgingly I went back to work, and, within minutes, as I turned the pages, these patterns started emerging, and it all started to make sense. There was a lot more work to do but I¡¯d found the biggest part of the puzzle. Over the next few weeks, I was so excited, I couldn¡¯t sleep and would spend hours in the library including in the middle of the night to check what I¡¯d found and solve related problems. That work took another two and half years.¡±
He added: ¡°Some of the most ancient wisdom of India has been produced in Sanskrit and we still don¡¯t fully understand what our ancestors achieved. We¡¯ve often been led to believe that we¡¯re not important, that we haven¡¯t brought enough to the table. I hope this discovery will infuse students in India with confidence, pride, and hope that they too can achieve great things.¡±
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