The Shiva Sutras (IAST: śivasūtrāṇi; Devanāgarī: शिवसूत्राणि) or Māheshvara Sutras (Devanāgarī: माहेश्वर सूत्राणि) are fourteen verses that organize the phonemes of the Sanskrit language as referred to in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, the foundational text of Sanskrit grammar. Within the tradition they are known as the akṣarasamāmnāya, "recitation of phonemes," but they are popularly known as the Shiva Sutras because they are said to have been revealed to Pāṇini by Shiva (also known as Maheshvara). They were either composed by Pāṇini to accompany his Aṣṭādhyāyī or predate him. The latter is less plausible, but the practice of encoding complex rules in short, mnemonic verses is typical of the sutra style.