This article discusses a few marginal and two central lines of thought on grammar (from Patañjali, 2nd cent. BCE onwards), with regard to their reflections on the place of grammar in a larger framework of philosophical and religious thought. For the grammarian-philosopher Bhartrhari (5th-6th cent. CE), language has a universal, non-dual aspect which is identical with the self of the speaker, who has to try to bring to perfection his employment of the language in order to realize Brahman. For Nārāyaṇa-Bhaṭṭa (17th cent. CE), however, language and grammatical thought are "modes" of the mind that can be suspended or given up, just as other activities of the mind according to the system of yoga. God Krṣṇa and the complete Brahman are identified and can be implored to "find satisfaction" in the individual, which presupposes metaphysical dualism.
