PhD student solves 2,500-year-old Sanskrit problem- PublishedA Sanskrit grammatical problem which has perplexed scholars since the 5th Century BC has been solved by a University of Cambridge PhD student.Rishi Rajpopat, 27, decoded a rule taught by Panini, a master of the ancient Sanskrit language who lived around 2,500 years ago.Sanskrit, although not widely spoken, is the sacred language of Hinduism and has been used in India's science, philosophy, poetry and other secular literature over the centuries.Panini's grammar, known as the Astadhyayi, relied on a system that functioned like an algorithm to turn the base and suffix of a word into grammatically correct words and sentences.His supervisor at Cambridge, professor of Sanskrit Vincenzo Vergiani, said: "He has found an extraordinarily elegant solution to a problem which has perplexed scholars for centuries."