The Introduction of Writing into Achaemenid Gandhāra and the Origin of Pāṇini’s Grammar

Abstract

In this article, I argue that the composition of Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (fourth century bce), a sophisticated derivational grammar of Sanskrit, was made possible by the introduction of writing into ancient India in the wake of the Achaemenids’ conquest of Gandhāra in the late sixth century bce. Various theoretical and terminological features of Pāṇini’s grammar can be adduced as evidence that it was produced in a literate environment. Here I present and discuss some of the arguments against Pāṇini’s literacy, pointing out their weaknesses, in particular their underestimation of the radical novelty of Pāṇini’s work, which marked an epochal shift towards the secularisation of knowledge, and reliance on the myth of the powerful orality.