Pingala
Acharya Pingala (Sanskrit: पिङ्गल, romanized: Piṅgala; c. 3rd–2nd century BCE) was an ancient Indian poet and mathematician, and the author of the Chandaḥśāstra (Sanskrit: छन्दःशास्त्र, lit. 'A Treatise on Prosody'), also called the Pingala-sutras (Sanskrit: पिङ्गलसूत्राः, romanized: Piṅgalasūtrāḥ, lit. 'Pingala's Threads of Knowledge'), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody.
Pingala | |
|---|---|
| Born | unclear, 3rd or 2nd century BCE |
| Academic work | |
| Era | Maurya or post-Maurya |
| Main interests | Sanskrit prosody, Indian mathematics, Sanskrit grammar |
| Notable works | Author of the "Chhandaḥśāstra" (also called Pingala-sutras), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody. Creator of Pingala's formula. |
| Notable ideas | mātrāmeru, binary numeral system. |
The Chandaḥśāstra is a work of eight chapters in the late Sūtra style, not fully comprehensible without a commentary. It has been dated to the last few centuries BCE. In the 10th century CE, Halayudha wrote a commentary elaborating on the Chandaḥśāstra. According to some historians Maharshi Pingala was the brother of Pāṇini, the famous Sanskrit grammarian, considered the first descriptive linguist. Another think tank identifies him as Patanjali, the 2nd century CE scholar who authored Mahabhashya.