The meaning of ca 'and': coordination and compounding in the Indian grammatical tradition

Journal article

The tradition of linguistic analysis in ancient India, vyākaraṇa ‘grammar’, developed a unique and complex approach to the topic of coordination and the question of the meaning of ‘and’. This approach, moreover, was not static but evolved over the roughly 2,000-year history of the tradition. Although the basics of the ancient Indian theory of cārtha ‘the meaning of ca ‘and’’ are well-known, the finer details of the grammarians’ approach, and in particular the differences between the major grammarians, and the evolution of the theory over time, remain to be clearly described. In this paper we present a detailed account of the tradition’s approach to coordination, considering not only the mainstream Pāṇinian tradition, but also the competing traditions of the Cāndra and Kātantra schools.

Authors: Benson, JW; Lowe, JJ; Molina-Muñoz, A; Shen, Y

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Society for Premodern Asia
• Journal: Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia
• Acceptance date: 2025-09-05
• EISSN: 2169-2289
• ISSN: 0003-0279
• Language: English