Ancient Sanskrit grammarians

upright=1.15|thumb|Patanjali as an avatar of Shesha

Panini (, ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar of Ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th centuries BCE.

Bhartṛhari (Devanagari: ; Bhartrihari; fl. c. 5th century CE), was an Indian-Hindu linguistic philosopher and poet, known for his contributions to the fields of linguistics, grammar, and philosophy. He is believed to have been born in the 5th century in Ujjain, Malwa, India. He decided to live a monastic life and find a higher meaning but was unable to detach from worldly life. He lived as a yogi in Ujjain until his death.

Acharya Pingala (; c. 3rd2nd century BCE) was an ancient Indian poet and mathematician, and the author of the '' (), also called the Pingala Sutras'' (), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody.

Shaunaka (, ) is the name applied to teachers, and to a Shakha of the Atharvaveda. It is especially the name of a celebrated Sanskrit grammarian, author of the , the , the , six Anukramaṇīs (indices) to the Rigveda, and the Vidhāna of the Rigveda. He is the teacher of Katyayana and Ashvalayana and is said to have combined the Bashkala and Shakala Shakhas of the Rigveda. In the Mahabarata, he is identified as the son of Ruru and Pramadvara, and in the Bhagavata Purana, he is identified as the grandson of Gritsamada and son of Sunaka, who belongs to the Bhrigu dynasty.

Kātyāyana (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana ( century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India.

Yāska (7th–5th century BCE) was an ancient Indian grammarian and Vedic linguist. Preceding Pāṇini (7th–4th century BCE), he is traditionally identified as the author of Nirukta, the discipline of "etymology" (explanation of words) within the Sanskrit grammatical tradition, and the Nighantu, the oldest proto-thesaurus in India. Nirukta is one of the six Vedāṅgas (limbs of the Veda) in Hinduism. Yaska is widely regarded as the precursive founder of the discipline of what would become etymology in both the East and the West.

Vararuci (also transliterated as Vararuchi) () is a name associated with several literary and scientific texts in Sanskrit and also with various legends in several parts of India. This Vararuci is often identified with Kātyāyana. Kātyāyana is the author of Vārtikās which is an elaboration of certain sūtrās (rules or aphorisms) in Pāṇini's much revered treatise on Sanskrit grammar titled Aṣṭādhyāyī. Kātyāyana is believed to have flourished in the 3rd century BCE. However, this identification of Vararuci with Kātyāyana has not been fully accepted by scholars. Vararuci is believed to be the autho

Shakatayana (; 814–760 BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, linguist, and Vedic scholar. He is known for his theory that all nouns are derived from a verbal root which contrasted to grammarian Pāṇini. He also posited that prepositions only have a meaning when attached to nouns or other words. His theories are presented in his work, Śākaṭāyana-śabdānuśāsana, which is not found in its entirety but referenced by other scholars such as Yāska and Pāṇini.