A Popular Survey of Indian Linguistic Traditions

“Linguistics in Ancient India in the Context of Culture and Ritual” (Moscow, Vodoley, 2020, 244 p.) by O. A. Voloshina, published in Russian, presents a popular survey of Indian linguistic traditions, with a particular focus on descriptive methods of Pāṇini's grammar. A popular book on this topic written in Russian is indeed highly in demand. However, the book by Voloshina is not a popular, high-quality book, rather an imperfect compilation. The references in the book are mainly irrelevant or out of date. Works of contemporary leading scholars in Vedic studies are totally ignored. As a result, the book contains a number of errors and wrong conclusions, let alone numerous typos in Sanskrit. The author fails to distinguish consistently between historical description, the ideology of Vedic texts, and their subsequent interpretation in the frames of Hinduism. Chapters of the book that deal with Pāṇini's grammar provide parallels with concepts of modern linguistics. These seem promising, though sometimes a bit straightforward. The author is suggested to distinguish between descriptive and comparative parts in the chapters on Pāṇini.

Linguistics in Premodern India

Indian linguistic thought begins around the 8th–6th centuries bce with the composition of Padapāṭhas (word-for-word recitation of Vedic texts where phonological rules generally are not applied). It took various forms over these 26 centuries and involved different languages (Ancient, Middle, and Modern Indo-Aryan as well as Dravidian languages). The greater part of documented thought is related to Sanskrit (Ancient Indo-Aryan). Very early, the oral transmission of sacred texts—the Vedas, composed in Vedic Sanskrit—made it necessary to develop techniques based on a subtle analysis of language. The Vedas also—but presumably later—gave birth to bodies of knowledge dealing with language, which are traditionally called Vedāṅgas: phonetics (śikṣā), metrics (chandas), grammar (vyākaraṇa), and semantic explanation (nirvacana, nirukta). Later on, Vedic exegesis (mīmāṃsā), new dialectics (navya-nyāya), lexicography, and poetics (alaṃkāra) also contributed to linguistic thought. Though languages other than Sanskrit were described in premodern India, the grammatical description of Sanskrit—given in Sanskrit—dominated and influenced them more or less strongly. Sanskrit grammar (vyākaraṇa) has a long history marked by several major steps (Padapāṭha versions of Vedic texts, Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali, Bhartṛhari’s works, Siddhāntakaumudī of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, Nāgeśa’s works), and the main topics it addresses (minimal meaning-bearer units, classes of words, relation between word and meaning/referent, the primary meaning/referent of nouns) are still central issues for contemporary linguistics.