Pingala | |
|---|---|
| Born | unclear, 3rd or 2nd century BCE[1] |
| Academic work | |
| Era | Maurya or post-Maurya |
| Main interests | Sanskrit prosody, Indian mathematics, Sanskrit grammar |
| Notable works | Author of the "Chandaḥśāstra" (also called Pingala-sutras), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody. Creator of Pingala's formula. |
| Notable ideas | mātrāmeru, binary numeral system. |
Acharya Pingala[2] (Sanskrit: पिङ्गल, romanized: Piṅgala; c. 3rd–2nd century BCE)[1] was an ancient Indian poet and mathematician,[3] and the author of the Chhandaḥśāstra (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.[4]
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.[5][6] 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.[7] Another think tank identifies him as Patanjali, the 2nd century CE scholar who authored Mahabhashya.