The Aindra (of Indra) 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 deities in

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and r ...

Arthur Coke Burnell Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 184012 October 1882) was an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency who was also a scholar in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. He catalogued the Sanskrit manuscripts in southern India, particular ...

, a renowned orientologist, in his 1875 book, ''"On the Aindra school of Sanskrit grammars"'' details this school. Burnell believed that most non-Pāṇinian systems of Sanskrit grammar were traceable to this school of grammar, believed to be the oldest and reputed to be founded by Indra himself.

Aindra, Katantra schools and the Tolkappiyam

Burnell's search for the Aindra school took him to Southern India where he came across the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

grammatical work '' Tolkappiyam''. A preface of this work, written during the twelfth century CE by Ilampuranar describes the work as ''aindiram nirainda Tolkappiyam'' ^{ncorrect quote/sup>('comprising Aindra'). This, Burnell posits is an allusion to the pre-Pāṇinian Aindra school of grammar.

While his demonstration of the influence of Sanskrit on the Tolkappiyam has met with some approval, his attribution and approximation of all non Pāṇinian schools of Sanskrit grammar with the Aindra school has met with resistance.Takanobu Takahashi, ''Tamil Love Poetry and Poetics'' (1995) Brill Academic Publishers pp 26 Some scholars have also taken a less committal line on the question of Sanskrit influence itself.''"...it has been identified that Tolkappiyam and other Sanskrit grammar works share some charactersitics, but also show significant dissimilarities..."'' - Rajam, V. S. (1981), A comparative study of two ancient Indian grammatical traditions: The Tamil Tolkappiyam compared with the Sanskrit Rk-pratisakhya, Taittiriya-pratisakhya, Apisali siksa, and the Astadhyayi'' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania: 1981)

See also

* Schools of Sanskrit grammar
* Pāṇini

, era = ;;6th–5th century BCE
, region = Indian philosophy
, main_interests = Grammar, linguistics
, notable_works = ' ( Classical Sanskrit)
, influenced=
, notable_ideas= Descriptive linguistics

(Devanag ...

* Tolkappiyam
* Vyakarana
* Sanskrit grammar

The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminat ...

* Katantra

Notes

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References

* Trautmann, Thomas R. 2006. Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 52–54.
* Burnell, Arthur Coke. 1875. On the Aindra school of Sanscrit Grammarians: their place in the Sanscrit and subordinate literatures.

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