deriv LSK ETT STT aSTA ALPH OLDHOMEPAGE NEWHOMEPAGE

@pANini's razor

The ASHAP principle, aka pANini's razor, is stated as —

ardhamAtrAlAghavena putrotsavam manyante vaiyAkaraNAH
अर्धमात्रालाघवेन पुत्रोत्सवं मन्यन्ते वैयाकरणाः
"shaving off one consonant from a sUtra makes a grammarian happier than his son's coming of age ceremony"

If you google for "panini's razor" you will find a very interesting article by Kiparsky. There he shows examples of how /pANini designed the sUtras in such a way as to make the total length of all the sUtras as short as possible.