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{{For|the Buddhist monk|Katyayana (Buddhist)}}
{{Citations missing|article|date=January 2008}}
{{Infobox scholar
| image =
| caption =
| name = Kātyāyana
| birth_date = est. 2nd century BC{{citation-needed|date=June 2018}}
| birth_place = Southern India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| era = [[Vedic period]]
| main_interests = [[Sanskrit grammarian]], [[Indian mathematics|mathematician]] and [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic]] priest
| notable_ideas =
| major_works = [[Vārttikakāra]], Vyākarana, later [[Śulbasūtras]]
| influences =
| influenced =
}}

'''Kātyāyana''' (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana (c. 2nd century BC){{citation-needed|date=June 2018}} was a [[Sanskrit grammarian]], [[Indian mathematics|mathematician]] and [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic priest]] who lived in [[History of India|ancient India]].

==Origins==
According to some legends, he was born in the Katya lineage originating from Vishwamitra, thus called Katyayana.

The [[Kathāsaritsāgara]] mentions Kātyāyana as another name of [[Vararuci]], a re-incarnation of Lord [[Shiva]]'s gana or follower Pushpadanta. The story also mentions him learning grammar from Shiva's son [[Kartikeya]] which is corroborated in the [[Garuda Purana]] where [[Kartikeya]] (also called Kumara) teaches Katyayana the rules of grammar in a way that it could be understood even by children.<ref>[https://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/garud-puran/garuda-vol-2/chapter-01/topic-101]</ref> It may be that his full name was in fact Vararuci Kātyāyana.<ref name=Winternitz>{{Cite book|first=Moriz|last=Winternitz|title=Geschichte der indischen Literatur. Bd. 3: Die Kunstdichtung. Die wissenschaftliche Litteratur. Neuindische Litteratur. Nachträge zu allen drei Bänden|publisher=Amelang|place=Leipzig|year=1920|page=391}}</ref>

==Relation to Goddess Katyayini==
In texts like [[Kalika Purana]], it is mentioned that he worshipped Mother Goddess to be born as his daughter hence she came to be known as [[Katyayani]] or the "daughter of Katyayan" who is worshipped on the sixth day of [[Navratri]] festival.<ref>[http://www.durga-puja.org/different-forms-of-durga.html Forms of Durga]</ref> According to the [[Vamana Purana]] once the gods had gathered together to discuss the atrocities of the demon [[Mahishasura]] and their anger manifested itself in the form of energy rays. The rays crystallized in the hermitage of Kātyāyana [[Rishi]], who gave it proper form therefore she is also called Katyayani. <ref>[https://www.hinduscriptures.in/scriptures/puranas-18-puranas-mahapurana/vamana-purana/chapter-18/topic-1]</ref>

==Works==
He is known for two works:
* The ''[[Vārttikakāra]]'', an elaboration on [[Pāṇini]] grammar. Along with the ''[[Mahābhāṣya]]'' of [[Patañjali]], this text became a core part of the ''[[Vyākaraṇa]]'' ([[grammar]]) canon. This was one of the six [[Vedanga]]s, and constituted compulsory education for students in the following twelve centuries.
* He also composed one of the later [[Śulbasūtras]], a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc.<ref>Joseph (2000), p. 328</ref>

==Views==
Kātyāyana's views on the sentence-meaning connection tended towards naturalism. Kātyāyana believed, that the word-meaning relationship was not a result of human convention. For Kātyāyana, word-meaning relations were ''siddha'', given to us, eternal. Though the object a word is referring to is non-eternal, the substance of its meaning, like a lump of gold used to make different ornaments, remains undistorted, and is therefore permanent.

Realizing that each word represented a categorization, he came up with the following conundrum (following [[Bimal Krishna Matilal]]):
:"If the 'basis' for the use of the word 'cow' is ''cowhood'' (a universal) what would be the 'basis' for the use of the word 'cowhood'?
Clearly, this leads to infinite regress. Kātyāyana's solution to this was to restrict the universal category to that of the word itself — the ''basis'' for the use of any word is to be the very same word-universal itself."

This view may have been the nucleus of the [[Sphoṭa]] doctrine enunciated by [[Bhartṛhari]] in the 5th century, in which he elaborates
the word-universal as the superposition of two structures — the meaning-universal or the [[semantic]] structure (''artha-jāti'')
is superposed on the sound-universal or the [[phonological]] structure (''śabda-jāti'').

In the tradition of scholars like [[Pingala]], Kātyāyana was also interested in mathematics. Here his text on the sulvasutras dealt with [[geometry]], and extended the treatment of the [[Pythagorean theorem]] as first presented in 800 BCE by [[Baudhayana]].<ref>Pingree (1981), p. 6</ref>

Kātyāyana belonged to the [[Aindra School of Grammar]] and may have lived towards the [[Punjab]] region of the [[Indian Subcontinent]].{{Citation needed|reason=for the latter half of the statement.|date=March 2015}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==References==
* Joseph, George Gheverguese: [[The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics]]
* Pingree, David. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1FuKGFu0rAEC ''Jyotihsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature'']. Otto Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden, 1981. {{ISBN|3-447-02165-9}}.

==External links==
*[http://www.shankaracharya.org Katyayana and Advaita]
*{{MacTutor Biography|id=Katyayana}}

{{Indian mathematics}}
{{Indian Philosophy}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katyayana}}
[[Category:Ancient Sanskrit grammarians]]
[[Category:Ancient Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC people]]
[[Category:Indian Sanskrit scholars]]
[[Category:2nd-century BC mathematicians]]

Kātyāyana - Revision history

66.30.118.123 at 01:09, 26 July 2021