Sūtra NexusAncient rules. Living systems.

History and timeline

Only the dating sentences that were on the page opened 2026-10-16.

Learn it in 5 minutes

English Wikipedia's Pāṇini article, checked 2026-10-16, treats the dates as disputed. It reports that George Cardona (1997) says the available evidence strongly supports a date no earlier than 400 BCE, and that earlier dates rely on interpretations that are not probative.

The same article reports that Oskar von Hinüber (1989) and Harry Falk (1993) place Pāṇini in the mid-4th century BCE. This app does not choose between those reports.

The article mentions Kātyāyana and Patañjali inside that dating discussion. This page does not assign either of them a century, because that sentence was not the one copied into the notes.

All of these years are approximate scholarly estimates as reported by that encyclopedia page. Confirm before relying. Nothing here is a primary source.

Foundations, dependencies, history, roadmap

Dependencies. None, but the Aṣṭādhyāyī page explains the work being dated.

History. This page is the history room.

Roadmap. Add a later grammarian only when a page that states the date has been opened and quoted narrowly.

Where the idea shows up. Histories of linguistics mention this tradition. A specific modern book needs its own citation. Confirm before relying.

A visual

History stays disputed History stays disputed Open the pageQuote thedisputeDo not pick ayearConfirm beforerelyingA moving dot shows the reading order. Reduced motion hides it. DisclaimerSūtra Nexus is an independent, free, learning-only student project. It respects everytradition, scholar, publisher, company and vendor. Trademarks, texts and sources belong totheir owners, and nothing here is affiliated with or endorsed by them. If something shouldbe removed or corrected, it will be handled promptly through the contact form. Nothing hereis sold. I am happy to volunteer for any organization.Learner path drawn for this app. Counts and file notes are from the data. Confirm before relying on any wider claim.
History stays disputed. Learner path drawn for this app. Counts and file notes are from the data. Confirm before relying on any wider claim.

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Worked example

Say a date without overclaiming

  1. Open the history diagram. It names Cardona, then Hinüber and Falk.
  2. Say: Wikipedia's Pāṇini article, checked 2026-10-16, reports both.
  3. Do not say the true year is 350, or 500, or any single year.
  4. If you need a date for a citation, go back to the article and to the books it names.

Quiz

What does the page report from Cardona 1997?

Who does the article say place Pāṇini in the mid-4th century BCE?

Does this app pick one year?

Are Kātyāyana and Patañjali given centuries here?

What should a reader do before quoting a year?

Ecosystem

Glossary

  • approximate — The article's dates are scholarly estimates. This app marks them that way.

Sister topics

Aṣṭādhyāyī and credits.

Bridges

The bridge to computing history is not claimed here. The metalanguage idea is discussed on the Wikipedia page; this room does not expand it beyond the dating sentences.

Later hooks

A timeline that stays empty where a date was not opened.

Sources and go deeper

  • English Wikipedia, Pāṇini. The page reports Cardona (1997) that evidence supports a date no earlier than 400 BCE, and that Hinüber (1989) and Falk (1993) place him in the mid-4th century BCE. The dates are disputed on that page. last checked 2026-10. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.