Everything is rewriting.
Functions, conditionals, and familiar operators share one computational model. Outermost reduction makes conditionals lazy; call-by-need shares repeated work.
fn square(?x) -> ?x * ?x;SANSKRIT-FIRST. OPEN SOURCE.
Ancient rules.
New possibilities.
A programming language inspired by Pāṇini.
Write simple rules. Let computation unfold.
Sanskrit or Latin. The same expressive core.
THE ART OF REWRITING01 / सूत्र
A rule. A transformation. A result.
01 — define a rule
सूत्र वर्ग(?x) -> ?x * ?x।02 — apply & compose[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
|> प्रति(वर्ग) |> समष्टिNORMAL FORM55.
Term rewriting at the coreDevanagari & Latin syntaxRust implementationMIT licensed
01 / THE LANGUAGE
Small rules.
A different way to think.
In Sūtra, programs are sets of rewrite rules. An expression runs by transforming, step by step, until no rule applies.
The later rule prevails.
Start with a general rule, then add a specific exception. Sūtra resolves competing matches through paratva, inspired by Pāṇini’s grammar.
fn kind(?x) -> Other;
fn kind(a) -> Vowel;More than individual terms.
Rewrite sequences with sound classes, context, anchors, and segment captures. The standard library includes the fourteen śivasūtras and derived sound classes.
[?i:इक्, ?a:अच्]
-> [यणादेश(?i), ?a]।TWO SCRIPTS. ONE LANGUAGE.
Your syntax.
Your starting point.
Devanagari names are canonical. Latin aliases let you explore the same language from any keyboard.
SANSKRIT / संस्कृत
प्रयोग [1, 2, 3] |> प्रति((?x) => ?x * ?x) |> समष्टि।LATIN / ASCII
eval [1, 2, 3] |> map((?x) => ?x * ?x) |> sum;Both evaluate to 14.
02 / PLAYGROUND
A little rule goes a long way.
Edit an example. Run it. See the normal form.
The real Rust interpreter, running in your browser.
.sutra · Ctrl / ⌘ + Enter to run
OUTPUT / NORMAL FORMReady to run
Run the example to see the result.
Square each number, then reduce the list to a sum. Pipes compose ordinary functions.
Pure evaluation · No installation needed
The playground evaluates expressions and eval / प्रयोग statements. Files, imports, and interactive I/O are available in the CLI.
03 / AN OPEN EXPERIMENT
Rooted in grammar.
Built for exploration.
Sūtra is a founder-led research project exploring the benefits of Sanskrit’s rich grammar as a programming model. Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī inspires its rule-based design; the goal is a practical, general-purpose language.
Our starting point is an open-source interpreter: a concrete way to test ideas about rewriting, linguistic structure, and computation.
Follow the roadmap IMPLEMENTED TODAY
A working foundation.
Arbitrary-precision integers, lists, maps, records, higher-order functions, guards, pure effect-as-data I/O, modules, a static checker, and a formatter.
ON THE ROADMAP
Better tools for the next step.
A language server, richer REPL editing and completion, and optional static type checking beyond the current checker.
An experimental language in active development.
Explore it, question it, help shape it.
04 / MAKE SOMETHING
Start with a rule.
Clone the repository and run Sūtra locally.
You’ll need the Rust toolchain.
QUICKSTART
# Get the language git clone https://github.com/sk-chandra/sanskrit-lang.git cd sanskrit-lang cargo build --release # Evaluate your first expression cargo run -q -- eval "sum([1, 2, 3])" --ascii → 6