Computational Model to Generate Case-Inflected Forms of Masculine Nouns for Word Search in Sanskrit E-Text

The problem of word search in Sanskrit is inseparable from complexities that include those caused by euphonic conjunctions and case-inflections. The case-inflectional forms of a noun normally number 24 owing to the fact that in Sanskrit there are eight cases and three numbers-singular, dual and plural. The traditional method of generating these inflectional forms is rather elaborate owing to the fact that there are differences in the forms generated between even very similar words and there are subtle nuances involved. Further, it would be a cumbersome exercise to generate and search for 24 forms of a word during a word search in a large text, using the currently available case-inflectional form generators. This study presents a new approach to generating case-inflectional forms that is simpler to compute. Further, an optimized model that is sufficient for generating only those word forms that are required in a word search and is more than 80% efficient compared to the complete case-inflectional forms generator, is presented in this study for the first time

Towards automating the generation of derivative nouns in Sanskrit by simulating Panini

About 1115 rules in Astadhyayi from A.4.1.76 to A.5.4.160 deal with generation of derivative nouns, making it one of the largest topical sections in Astadhyayi, called as the Taddhita section owing to the head rule A.4.1.76. This section is a systematic arrangement of rules that enumerates various affixes that are used in the derivation under specific semantic relations. We propose a system that automates the process of generation of derivative nouns as per the rules in Astadhyayi. The proposed system follows a completely object oriented approach, that models each rule as a class of its own and then groups them as rule groups. The rule groups are decided on the basis of selective grouping of rules by virtue of anuvrtti. The grouping of rules results in an inheritance network of rules which is a directed acyclic graph. Every rule group has a head rule and the head rule notifies all the direct member rules of the group about the environment which contains all the details about data entities, participating in the derivation process. The system implements this mechanism using multilevel inheritance and observer design patterns. The system focuses not only on generation of the desired final form, but also on the correctness of sequence of rules applied to make sure that the derivation has taken place in strict adherence to Astadhyayi. The proposed system's design allows to incorporate various conflict resolution methods mentioned in authentic texts and hence the effectiveness of those rules can be validated with the results from the system. We also present cases where we have checked the applicability of the system with the rules which are not specifically applicable to derivation of derivative nouns, in order to see the effectiveness of the proposed schema as a generic system for modeling Astadhyayi.Comment: 16th World Sanskrit Conference, Bangkok June 28th - July 02 201