Agni Purāṇa
349 - The pratyähäras and fundamental rules in grammar
Skanda said:
1. O Katyayana! Ishall describe the essence of grammar that is of the form of perfected words for imparting to the beginners,
2. Pratyähärası etc. are the notations facilitating the function of the treatise, Aiun rulk, eon, aiauc, hayavarat, lan, namanananam jhabhañ, ghadhadhash, jabagadadas, khaphachathathacatatav, kapay, sashasar, hal are (the fourteen) pratyāhāras. In the enumeration, the consonant at the end is indicatory. The vowel would be (read with) the nasal. The first letter being taking together with the indicative letter at the end, would become the denotative of the letters which occur in between such as aņ, en, at, yan, chav, jham, bhash, ak, ik, an, in, yan, with the letter ņa coming after wards. (Similarly we have) am, yam, fiam, ac, ic, aic, ay, may, jhay, khay, jad, jhav, khao, cav, sav, as, has, vas, jhas, al, hal, val, ral, jhal and al the pratyähäras.
1. Several letters or affixes are comprehended as one syllable by means of combining the first letter of an aphorism with its final indicatory letter or if several aphorisms are comprehended, the final letter of the last member is combined with the first such as an etc. denoting aiup etc.
Summary of chapter 351 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:
The seven vibhaktis (case-endings) for the sup (nominal) declension are presented with complete paradigms for masculine ajanta (vowel-stem) words. The prātipadika types — short-a stems (vṛkṣa, rāma), long-ā stems, and i-stems — are fully declined in singular, dual, and plural across all seven cases plus vocative. Selected pronouns including sarva and other sarvanāma-s are also declined. The theoretical basis — the saptavidha kāraka relations linking each vibhakti to its semantic role (kartā, karma, karaṇa, sampradāna, apādāna, sambandha, adhikaraṇa) — is stated, so that the paradigms are understood not as rote lists but as expressions of how Sanskrit encodes the structure of reality in its case-system.
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