LINGUIST

Pāṇini

500 BC - 460 BC

Photo of Pāṇini

Icon of person Pāṇini

Pāṇini (; Sanskrit: पाणिनि, pāṇini [páːɳin̪i]) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life are unknown, except only what can be inferred from his works, and legends recorded long after. His most notable work, the Aṣṭādhyāyī, is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His work formally codified Classical Sanskrit as a refined and standardized language, making use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology, and lexicon, organised according to a series of meta-rules. Since the exposure of European scholars to his Aṣṭādhyāyī in the nineteenth century, Pāṇini has been considered the "first descriptive linguist", and even labelled as "the father of linguistics". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Pāṇini is the 3rd most popular linguist (up from 13th in 2019), the 5th most popular biography from Pakistan (up from 7th in 2019) and the most popular Pakistani Linguist.

Pāṇini is most famous for his work on Sanskrit grammar. He is the author of the Aṣṭādhyāyī, which is the first known work on Sanskrit grammar.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Pāṇini by language

Loading...

Among LINGUISTS

Among linguists, Pāṇini ranks 3 out of 214Before him are Ferdinand de Saussure, and Edgar de Wahl. After him are Patanjali, Noam Chomsky, Max Müller, William James Sidis, Noah Webster, Mahmud al-Kashgari, Roman Jakobson, Mesrop Mashtots, and Rasmus Rask.

Most Popular Linguists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 500 BC, Pāṇini ranks 3Before him are Artaxerxes I of Persia, and Anaxagoras. After him are Leucippus, Xanthippe, Ezra, Xerxes II of Persia, Brennus, Zeuxis, Artemisia I of Caria, Ajatashatru, and Myron. Among people deceased in 460 BC, Pāṇini ranks 1After him are Ajatashatru, Meton of Athens, Mnesikles, Pharnabazus II, Paeonius, Parrhasius, Hippo, Agatharchus, Calamis, Diagoras of Rhodes, and Callimachus.

Others Born in 500 BC

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 460 BC

Go to all Rankings

In Pakistan

Among people born in Pakistan, Pāṇini ranks 5 out of 217Before him are Akbar (1542), Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876), Guru Nanak (1469), and Manmohan Singh (1932). After him are Muhammad Iqbal (1877), Porus (-400), Nawaz Sharif (1949), Shehbaz Sharif (1951), Chanakya (-375), I. K. Gujral (1919), and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948).

Among LINGUISTS In Pakistan

Among linguists born in Pakistan, Pāṇini ranks 1