Katyayana
Encyclopedia
Kātyāyana was a Sanskrit grammarian
, mathematician
and Vedic
priest who lived in ancient India
.
, that the word-meaning relationship was not a result of human convention. For Kātyāyana, word-meaning relations were siddha, given to us, eternal. Though the object a word is referring to is non-eternal, the substance of its meaning, like a lump of gold used to make different ornaments, remains undestroyed, and is therefore permanent.
Realizing that each word represented a categorization, he came up with the following conundrum (following Matilal):
Clearly, this leads to infinite regress. Kātyāyana's solution to this was to restrict the universal category to that of the word itself — the basis for the use of any word is to be the very same word-universal itself.
This view may have been the nucleus of the Sphoṭa doctrine enunciated by Bhartṛhari in the 5th c., in which he elaborates
the word-universal as the superposition of two structures — the meaning-universal or the semantic structure (artha-jāti)
is superposed on the sound-universal or the phonological structure (śabda-jāti).
In the tradition of scholars like Pingala
, Kātyāyana was also interested in mathematics. Here his text on the sulvasutras dealt with geometry
, and extended the treatment of the Pythagorean theorem
as first presented in 800 BC by Baudhayana
.
Kātyāyana belonged to the Aindra school of grammar
ians and may have lived towards the North west of the Indian subcontinent.
See the article Indian Sulbasutras for more information on the Sulbasutras in general and the mathematical results which they contain.
Vyakarana
The Sanskrit grammatical tradition of ' is one of the six Vedanga disciplines. It has its roots in late Vedic India, and includes the famous work, The Sanskrit grammatical tradition of ' is one of the six Vedanga disciplines. It has its roots in late Vedic India, and includes the famous work, ...
, mathematician
Indian mathematics
Indian mathematics emerged in the Indian subcontinent from 1200 BCE until the end of the 18th century. In the classical period of Indian mathematics , important contributions were made by scholars like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II. The decimal number system in use today was first...
and Vedic
Historical Vedic religion
The religion of the Vedic period is a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites...
priest who lived in ancient India
History of India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
.
Works
He is known for two works:- The VarttikaVarttikakaraA ' , in Indian linguistics and philosophy, is a person who wrote a critical commentary or a gloss on a given grammatical or philosophical work....
, an elaboration on Pāṇini grammar. Along with the Mahābhāsya of PatañjaliPatañjaliPatañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
, this text became a core part of the vyākarana (grammarGrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
) canon. This was one of the six VedāṅgaVedangaThe Vedanga are six auxiliary disciplines traditionally associated with the study and understanding of the Vedas.#Shiksha : phonetics, phonology and morphophonology #Kalpa : ritual#Vyakarana : grammar...
s, and constituted compulsory education for students in the following twelve centuries. - He also composed one of the later Sulba SutrasSulba SutrasThe Shulba Sutras or Śulbasūtras are sutra texts belonging to the Śrauta ritual and containing geometry related to fire-altar construction.- Purpose and origins :...
, a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc.
Views
Kātyāyana's views on the word-meaning connection tended towards naturalism. Kātyāyana believed, like PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, that the word-meaning relationship was not a result of human convention. For Kātyāyana, word-meaning relations were siddha, given to us, eternal. Though the object a word is referring to is non-eternal, the substance of its meaning, like a lump of gold used to make different ornaments, remains undestroyed, and is therefore permanent.
Realizing that each word represented a categorization, he came up with the following conundrum (following Matilal):
- If the 'basis' for the use of the word 'cow' is cowhood (a universal) what would be the 'basis' for the use of the word 'cowhood'?
Clearly, this leads to infinite regress. Kātyāyana's solution to this was to restrict the universal category to that of the word itself — the basis for the use of any word is to be the very same word-universal itself.
This view may have been the nucleus of the Sphoṭa doctrine enunciated by Bhartṛhari in the 5th c., in which he elaborates
the word-universal as the superposition of two structures — the meaning-universal or the semantic structure (artha-jāti)
is superposed on the sound-universal or the phonological structure (śabda-jāti).
In the tradition of scholars like Pingala
Pingala
Pingala is the traditional name of the author of the ' , the earliest known Sanskrit treatise on prosody.Nothing is known about Piṅgala himself...
, Kātyāyana was also interested in mathematics. Here his text on the sulvasutras dealt with geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
, and extended the treatment of the Pythagorean theorem
Pythagorean theorem
In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras' theorem is a relation in Euclidean geometry among the three sides of a right triangle...
as first presented in 800 BC by Baudhayana
Baudhayana
Baudhāyana, was an Indian mathematician, whowas most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sūtra—appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars—called the , which contained several important mathematical results. He is older than the other...
.
Kātyāyana belonged to the Aindra school of grammar
Aindra school of grammar
The Aindra school of Sanskrit grammar is one of the eleven schools of Sanskrit grammar mentioned in Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi. It is named after Indra in allusion to Lord Indra, the king of Gods in Hindu mythology. Arthur Coke Burnell, a renowned orientologist, in his 1875 book, "On the Aindra school...
ians and may have lived towards the North west of the Indian subcontinent.
See also
- Pāṇini
- Indian mathematicians
See the article Indian Sulbasutras for more information on the Sulbasutras in general and the mathematical results which they contain.