Comparative Study of Indian Science

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: C S Mallinath

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the Vaisheshika, the Sankhya and the Yoga doctrines may be said to seek the via media. The Nyaya philosophers admit that there is a relationship between sound and object; otherwise as Vatsayana says any word might have signified any object. But this relationship is not a real and essential relation, as the Mimansakas contend but one that is called Samaya or the relation between the Signifier (Vachaka) and the Signified (Vachya). As regards the nature of sound, Gautama says, "Sound is not eternal, as it has origination, as it is a matter of sensuous perception and as it is commonly treated as adventitious (2-2-14 NyayaSutras)." Sound is looked upon by the Nyaya philosophers as the attribute of Akasa or Ether. The Vaiseshika theory of sound is exactly similar to the Nyaya one (Vide 2-2-21-37, Vaiseshika-Sutras). Th Sankhya position is not dissimilar. "A word and its object," urges Kapila against the Buddhist position,
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are related as Signifier and Signified." Then again, Kapila points out that there is no such thing perceived as Sphota; therefore, the Mimansaka theory is based rather on imagination. The Yoga theory of Sound may be best expressed in the words of Bhoja, "The relationship of the word and its object consisting in that of the Signifier and the Signified, is eternal. This relationship is signified by the meaning
".