If any one asks, "Where are we to learn how to separate a root and an affix so as to be able to say, 'This part is the original root and this is an affix,'" may we not reply that to those who have drunk the waters of Patañjali this question produces no confusion, since it is notorious that the rules of grammar have reference to this very point of the separation of the original roots and affixes? Thus the very first sentence of the venerable Patañjali, the author of the "Great Commentary," is "_atha śabdánuśásanam_," "Now comes the exposition of words." The particle _atha_ ("now") is used here as implying a new topic or a commencement; and by the phrase, "exposition of words," is meant the system of grammar put forth by Páṇini. Now a doubt might here arise as to whether this phrase implies that the exposition of words is to be the main topic or not; and it is to obviate any such doubt that he employed the particle _atha_, since this particle implies that what follows is to be treated as the main topic to the exclusion of everything else. The word "exposition" (_anuśásana_), as here used, implies that thereby Vaidic words, such as those in the line _śaṃ no devír abhishṭaye_,[308] &c., and secular words as ancillary to these, as the common words for "cow," "horse," "man," "elephant," "bird," &c., are made the subject of the exposition, _i.e._, are deduced from their original roots and properly formed, or, in other words, are explained as divided into root and affix. We must consider that the compound in this phrase represents a genitive of the object [_śabdánuśásanam_ standing for _śabdasyánuśásanam_], and as there is a rule of Páṇini (_karmaṇi cha_, ii. 2, 14), which prohibits composition in such a construction, we are forced to concede that the phrase _śabdánuśásanam_ does not come before us as a duly authorised compound.