Grammar. Philosophy and Epistemology

[Harsha Dehejia]

Friends:

While respectfully agreeing with Madhav and Dominik, may I say that Panini's 
Vyakrana was merely a systematisation of Sanskrit that had already 
developed? Just as hasta mudras of dance are merely refinements of ordinary 
gestures and codified shilpa is stylisation of folk images.

I would like to suggest that intuitive, not formal, semantics in Sanskrit 
occured much before Panini and therefore one cannot discount sugestions of 
semantics that one finds in words such as drishti.

Regards.

Harsha

Harsha V. Dehejia
Professor of Indian Studies, Carleton University
Ottawa, ON., Canada.