Panini: His Place in Sanskrit Literature

Still a provocation of this kind alone would have as little induced me to take up my pen now as it did heretofore; but when I see the public told authoritatively, yet without any proof, that Sayana teaches that understanding of the Veda which was current in India no longer than a few centuries ago;-when I see that the most distinguished and the most learned Hindu scholars and divines-the most valuable, and sometimes the only, source of all our knowledge of ancient India-are scorned in theory, mutilated in print, and, as a consequence, set aside in the interpretation of Vaidika texts;-when I see that the most ancient records of Hindu antiquity are interpreted to the European public in such a manner as to cease to be that which they are;-when a clique of Sanskritists of this description vapours about giving us the sense of the Veda as it existed at the commencement of Hindu antiquity;- when I see that the very forms of the language are falsified, and that it is made aprinciple to slur the grammar of Panini, and to ridicule those who lay stress on it. on this ground I have raised my voice, however feeble and solitary for the moment, and have endeavoured to examine the competence of those who set themselves up as our masters and authorities. On this ground I have raised my voice, however feeble and solitary for the moment, and have endeavoured to examine the competence of those who set themselves up as or masters and authorities. On this ground I have endeavoured to vindicate for Panini the position he holds in Sanskrit literature, and the position he ought to hold amongst honest Sanskrit philologers.