A discovery that could revolutionize the study of Sanskrit. Rishi Rajpupat27 years old, PhD student Cambridge Solve an ancient riddle of Hindi grammar by deciphering the rule of its placement sandwichesMr Sanskrit Who lived about 2,500 years ago, which scientists have been wondering about since the fifth century BC. Rajpupat said BBC that he had a “eureka moment” at Cambridge, after spending “nine months groping in the dark”. “I have closed the books for a month and have been enjoying the summer. Swimming, cycling, praying and meditating. When I got back to work, not without regret, within a few minutes everything was back to normal. Patterns came out.”
The conflict between the rules
there Grammar From Panini, otherwise known as Ustadhyayon a system that runs like a algorithm It allows you to convert the base and suffix of a word into other grammatically correct words and sentences. However, two or more Panini grammar rules are often applied at the same time conflicts. The Sanskrit teacher had conceived of a system for resolving these disputes, but no one has yet been able to figure out what he meant. The explanation given so far is: “In the event of a conflict between two rules of equal strength, the rule which comes later in the sequential grammatical order wins”. However, this rule often leads to grammatically incorrect results.
Rajpupat solution
Rajpupats have changed the interpretation of this rule. According to PhD student Panini, he meant that between the rules that can be applied to both the right-hand side and the left-hand side of a word, Always prefer those on the right side. With this explanation, he realizes that the words have always been true. “I hope that this discovery will give Indian students like myself confidence and pride, and I hope that they too can achieve great things.”
Cover photo: Pa Media/BBC
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