Panini inquiry

[Steve Farmer]

I have a question for those on the List knowledgeable about
Panini. They are invited to respond on or off-List, as they see fit.

Does any evidence suggest that any of the ten named early
grammarians mentioned in the _Astadhyayi_ came from the NW?
Alternately, is there any other good evidence in the text of an
extended NW school of grammar that existed before the
_Astadhyayi_ was composed or compiled? My question isn't affected
by the current heated controversy over whether the_Astadhyayi_ is
an integral text (composed by "Panini" in the NW) or a heavily
stratified text simply redacted in the region.

Please note that in asking this I know the general comments about
"northern" and "eastern" grammarians in the _Astadhyayi_; am
aware of the existence of eastern figures among the ten earlier
grammarians named in the text; and am aware as well that certain
eastern traditions (e.g., the White Taittiriya) were apparently
not known to the author or compilers of the work.

My interest is in suggestion that traditional locations of the
(presumably) historical Panini in the NW aren't accidental, but
that Gandhara was associated from an early date (e.g., early
Achaemenid times) with a strong grammatical tradition. I am not
interested here in later Buddhist or Puranic testimonies about
learned traditions in the region, with which I am already
familiar.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

S. Farmer