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CHAPTER XVIII
OF WORDS (PADA) 1. Sounds and words
In the last chapter we have seen that sabda as a pramāņa consists in sentences or propositions put forth by some trustworthy person. Now a sentence is a group of words (pada) arranged in a certain way. To understand a sentence (vakya) we have to understand its constituent words. Hence we propose to consider here the nature and meaning of words, as well as other questions in connection with the understanding of words.
Sabda literally means sound. In linguistics it means also words or sentences. A word is a particular kind of sound. So also a sentence is a group of sounds arranged in a certain order. How then is a word related to ordinary sounds?
According to the Nyaya, sound is a physical phenomenon. It is the attribute of an intangible and all-pervading substance called ākāśa or the ether. Air is not the substratum of the quality of sound, but the medium of its transition from one place to another. Sound is a product of the conjunction of two bodies or of the disjunction of the parts of one composite body. It is therefore non-eternal or subject to origin and cessation in time. The Mīmāmsakas here controvert the Nyaya position and hold that sound is eternal, since it is not produced, but only manifested by the contact of two bodies. It is unnecessary for our present
1 Vide TB, pp. 26-27.
