The Kasikavrtti of Jayaditya-Vamana: A Complete Exposition of Panini’s Astadhyayi Sanskrit Text with English Translation and Explanation, Vol. 1: Adhyaya-s 1 & 2

Panini’s monumental grammar Astadhyayi, embodied in nearly 4000 cryptic statements called sutra-s, remains incomprehensible without the aid of detailed explanations and commentaries. The Kasikavrtti, a Sanskrit work ascribed to Jayaditya and Vamana of about the 7th century CE, stands out among the great mass of commentarial literature as the only exposition that covers all the sutra-s in their Paninian sequence. It is marked by its lucid explanations, simplicity of style, abundance of illustrative examples, and a profound awareness of grammatical works that preceded it, like the Mahabhasya and Candra-Vyakarana. The Kasikavrtti has therefore served as the basic source on which any Astadhyayi exposition in any language should rely, up to the present day. The present series, of which this is the first volume, is intended to offer the complete Kasika with an accurate English translation and explanation, sources and analysis of the examples, and its possible relation to predecessors in its field. It is hoped that this unabridged and annotated English version will not only bring the whole Kasika within the reach of the modern reader, but will generally make Panini’s grammar an interesting journey as well.