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An Indian doctoral student from the University of Cambridge has solved a grammatical conundrum that has puzzled scholars since the 5th century BC. Rishi Rajpopat, 27, deciphered a line in a text by Panini, a master of Sanskrit.
Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism. The language has been used throughout the ages in Indian literature, including science, philosophy, and poetry. The language is still spoken in India by a relatively small group of people.
Panini’s grammar, known as Astadhyayi, is based on a system that worked like an algorithm. This algorithm was used to convert word parts into grammatically correct words and sentences.
Often two or more Panini rules apply at the same time. This creates conflicts. Panini has devised a so-called meta-rule for this problem as an aid in determining which rule applies.
But this often led to grammatical errors after using Panini’s system. Rajpopat proposed a better and simpler rule than the traditional metarule interpretation.
Using this method, he managed to form grammatically correct words in almost all cases. The research was published in the scientific journal Apollo.
Eureka moment after a month hiatus
Rajpopat had a “eureka moment” to resolve the issue after struggling with him for nine months. “I closed the books for a month and just enjoyed the summer – swimming, biking, cooking, praying and meditating,” he told the newspaper. University of Cambridge.
“Then I reluctantly returned to work. Within minutes, as I turned the pages, patterns emerged and everything started to make sense.”
He still had a lot to do, but most of the puzzle was solved, he said. “For the next few weeks, I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep and spent hours in the library, including in the middle of the night.”
He did this to verify his discovery and fix other related issues. “This work took another 2.5 years.”
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