deriv LSK ETT STT aSTA ALPH OLDHOMEPAGE NEWHOMEPAGE

/vArttika / वार्त्तिक

A /vArttika is a footnote / correction / amendment / addition to a pANini sUtra.

Those were attached by later grammarians to commentaries to PANini आणिनि, and were mostly accepted by the community of grammarians.

During the first few centuries after /pANini, grammarians compared what /pANini had said and the actual way people were speaking. Well, not ALL people, just the ones who were considered to speak best, the educated people. If /pANini was at variance with what those people where used to say, then /pANini was suspected of being in error and a footnote was added to the grammar. And that's why we have a footnote under sUtra caturanaD... that says that a female beast of burden can be called anaDuhI अनडुही or anaDvAhI अनड्वाही — because at some point in history, people said it both ways.

However, after some date, pANini पाणिनि's grammar had been taught for so long and had got such amazing amounts of prestige, that whenever /pANini was at variance with educated people, the grammar teachers told the educated people that they were speaking wrong, and they should change their way of speaking to agree with what /pANini had to say. So, no one has written a /vArttika again since.