Pāṇini as an Executed Algorithm: Rule Application, the Tripādī, and Ordering Structure in a Computational Aṣṭādhyāyī

Vishal Sharma

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i02.86224

Pāṇini as an Executed Algorithm: Rule Application, the Tripādī, and Ordering Structure in a Computational Aṣṭādhyāyī

Author(s)	Mr. Vishal Sharma
Country	India
Abstract	Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī is often described as an algorithm, and a long-running dispute—recently sharpened between Rajpopat (2022) and Kiparsky (2026)—concerns how the grammar resolves conflicts when several rules could apply. Any settlement of that disagreement requires an empirical image of the real-world interactions between laws at scale that have never been quantified. Using vidyut-prakriya, an orderly set of sūtras applied in a rule-faithful computational AṣṭādhyāyīI measured the structure of rule application and produced 309,059 verbal derivations (10,571,709 rule applications) for each derivation. There are four conclusions. First, rule use is extremely concentrated: 99.3% of applications come directly from the Aṣṭādhyāyī, only 502 distinct sūtras appear, and just nine of them account for half of all applications, dominated by the anubandha (marker) bookkeeping. Second, derivational depth is highly structured and additive: causative (ṇic) stems require a median of 38 rule applications against 28 for primary finite verbs. Third, the tripādī (the grammar's final three quarters, governed by the asiddhatva principle) behaves as an operationally sealed, internally ordered terminal block: once the housekeeping saṃjñā rules of the first book are set aside, 99.8% of derivations apply no further operational rule after entering the tripādī, and 99.9% of adjacent tripādī applications respect its internal order. Fourth, rule ordering is largely, but not wholly, deterministic: among frequent sūtra pairs, 81% occur in a single fixed order and 19% are context-variable, and the variable pairs localize where ordering—the substance of the conflict-resolution debate—actually does work. The engine reproduced 3,159 Kāśikā-derived test cases without error. I argue that these measurements supply the missing empirical substrate for the ordering debate and a quantitative anatomy of the grammar in execution.
Keywords	Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pāṇini, computational grammar, rule ordering, tripādī, asiddhatva, conflict resolution, derivational complexity
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 6, Issue 2, March-April 2024
Published On	2024-03-07
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2024.v06i02.86224

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Pāṇini as an Executed Algorithm: Rule Application, the Tripādī, and Ordering Structure in a Computational Aṣṭādhyāyī

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