Sambodhi 2012 Vol 35

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 97

Vol. XXXV, 2012
Bhartshari's Approach to Vākya-Sakti
87
known before it can cause the meaning to be known. The resemblance between the sense and the word is that their power or fitness is natural and not due to human effort. That relation (śakti) is the power of powers, it is the attribute of attributes. Bh gives his idea on the vrtti upon his kārikā, that where one thing renders service to another, one can under a relation between the two. Two unrelated things cannot render service to each other. Relation is not the same as power or capacity because it is the former which regulates the production of particular effect by power or capacity. Power resides in a particular things and it's relation which regulates it. That qualities resides in substances is regulated by relation.
According to Bh lakṣārhta and vyañgyārtha always understood (bodha) from a vākya, but vācyārtha understood from a pada which is independent. Pada does not have any laksārhta and vyañgyārtha. Therefore laksārhta and vyañjanā is not a separate kind of sakti like abhidhā.22
Thus, the grammrian philosophers developed a consistent system for nothing technical grammatical issues as well as epistemology and metaphysics. This is how language relates man to his enivornment or his universe acquires thought or konwledge. This knowledge gets verbalized by the speaker or writer when he encodes it and becomes a language and when this language is received and decoded by the listener by sabda-sakti and sabdabodha, the speaker gets related to the universe. But such a relation is possible only if one accepts the reality of language, universe and their relationship. While Naiyāyikas and the Mimāṁsakas accepted all these three components to be real, the advaitins and the Grammarians accepted if with a grain of salt. The śunyavādin, on the other hand, out rightly denied such reality.
In fact, in Indian Tradition the Philosophy of grammar has shown itself to be both a means of theoretical knowledge and spiritual discipline leading to moksa or release. The philosophical analysis of language offered in the grammatical literature is not just a logical exercise to satisfy intellectual curiosity but it is an earnest a spiritual approach to identify oneself with the ground of speech phenomena i.e. Sabdabrahman.
References : āptāvākyam sabdah Taraksaṁgraha of Annambhatta (sabdapariccheda) 2. "afta pfectura : :", Nyā. Si. Mu. Sabdakhanda.
Vaiyakarana Siddhānta Laghumañjusā (Kuruksetra University Publi.) tasmād padapadārthayoh....drstatvāt Also, pare tu śābdabodhajanaka padapadārtha sambandhatvam ityāhuh. Laghumañjusā (sphotavāda), p.13.