As indicated by the references, which Panini himself has made in his Original Pronouncements (sutras) to a number of other grammarians and as gathered from some other sources like the Nirukta of Yüska, the Pratisakhyas and the Siksas, he had been preceded by a line of teachers (acaryas) who had severally developed and promulgated their mutually distinct systems of Samskrit grammar (vyakarana). In course of time, however, Panini's system alone remained firm in its ground, evidently, because in point of comprehensiveness as well as enunciatory technique, it proved superior to all other parallel systems which gradually receded to the background, lost their colour and went out of vogue. The enunciation (anusasana) of Panini became, then onwards, the subject of 'Reviewing Pronouncements' (Varttikas) which were enunciated by a number of later acaryas with Katyayana as the foremost among them. They made it their life-mission to preserve and further develop Panini's Anusasana by making new additions to its basic materials as well as by subjecting it to a thoroughgoing technical examination towards re-assessing and, wherever necessary, altering its formulative aspects.
Almost all the stütras, numbering about four thousand, which Panini enunciated were of practical nature, These aimed at the widest possible comprehension and the strictest possible regulation of such prevalent vocabulary and idiom of Sanskrit as, at the time when he flourished, was recognized, among the learned circles, as being correct and, as such, worthy of use (sista-prayoga). About one thousand Varttikas out of an aggregate of four thousand and odd thereof, as formulated by Katyayana, were likewise of the said practical nature and all the rest carried out the said critical examination of the technical aspect of Panini's contribution. Patanjali, in his Great Commentary (Maha-bhasya), commented upon the said body of Katyayana, and added to the same another almost equivoluminous varttika-like material, mainly, contributed by himself. He also formulated another about one hundred Permissive Pronouncements (Istis), towards further adding to the basic materials of vocabulary and usage which Panini and Katyayana had already encompassed and brought under regulation.
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