© DrSurabhi Verma

National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha

Course ID: HS 1317

INTRODUCTION TO THE METAPHYSICS OF

SANSKRIT LANGUAGE

Course Co-ordinator: Prof. Surabhi Verma

1
© DrSurabhi Verma

• Unit 1: Nature of Language

❖ What is Language?

❖ Difference between Bhāṣā, Vāk and Vāṇī

❖ Spoken and Compositional language

❖ The Knowledge disciplines related with discourse of Language

❖ Effect of orality on the Nature of Language

COURSE ❖ The Language of the Universe: Nāda (Resonance)
OUTLINE • Unit 2: Introduction to the components of Sanskrit Language

❖ Physical aspects

1. Sounds (Dhvani)

2. Syllables (akṣara/varṇa)

3. Śabda (word)

4. Pada (morphological unit)

5. Ukti (utterances)

2
© DrSurabhi Verma
❖ Metaphysical aspects

1. Language and Reality (Sattā)

2. Mantrātmaka and prapañcātmaka

3. Language as an ontological category

4. Discourse of language as Cognitive System

5. Intrinsic property of Language

COURSE 6. Verb centred Language: Sanskrit

OUTLINE
7. Special features of Sanskrit language

▪ Metrical (chāndas)

▪ Figurative (alaṃkāra yukta)

▪ Compound (samāsa) and assimilation (sandhiḥ) based

▪ Coded (inflectional- pratyayānta)

▪ Abbreviated (sutra baddha)

▪ Generative (derivational)

▪ Usage based (loka pramāṇa)

3
© DrSurabhi Verma

• Unit 3: The Discourse of śabda and artha

❖ Signifier (vācaka), signified (vācya) and the meaning (vācyārtha)
❖ The relationship of śabda and artha and the question of nitya (indestructible)
❖ Vāk and its four levels of manifestation
❖ The three types of meaning (artha)
❖ The two possibilities of getting meaning of utterances

COURSE
❖ The requirements for constructing meaning of utterances
• Unit 4: The Science of Mantra
OUTLINE ❖ Mantra: meaning and dimensions
❖ The Accents in Vaidika mantra
❖ The Purpose of Mantra
❖ Relation between mantra and spanda
❖ Autonomous spontaneous mantra (ajāpajāpa)

4
© DrSurabhi Verma

• Study of Language as an Ontological System

1. The Energy and Consciousness in Kashmir Śaiva Darśana

2. Introduction to the Kashmir Śaiva Darśana – Background and Literature

3. The Ontology (Tattva-mīmāṁsā) of Kashmir Śaiva Darśana

4. The Epistemology (Pramāṇa-mīmāṁsā) of Kashmir Śaiva Darśana

5. The Metaphysics (Śṛṣṭi Prakriyā) in Kashmir Śaiva Darśana

COURSE 6. The Manifestation Process - Subjective and Objective Manifestation

OUTLINE 7. The encapsulation and limitation of energy

8. The Cognitive Process

9. The Cognitive Triad

10.The Concept of Time and Space

11.Manifestation of sound energy as potencies in relation to ontological categories

12.The Transposition Effect during Genesis of Vāk

13.The rectification (purification) in reversal

5
 6
UNIT -5
© DrSurabhi Verma
© DrSurabhi Verma

SUMMARY
• Sound is eternal. It is in waves. The only thing which happens is that we can’t hear it always due to our limited capacity.
• Indians do not record a particular event. We generalize whatever is relevant for Human life. We record it in generality. We
draw the essence.
• The term ‘Param’ means ‘The First’ and Parā means ‘The next’.
• Indian Knowledge tradition is the transfer of ideas from one generation to another through the long tradition as cumulative
(unbroken tradition or chain) and continuous succession of texts and thinkers where conceptual thinking was done.
• Technical or technological words of Ṛgveda are still present in Indian languages as Tatsama or Tadbhava and they
constitute 90 to 95 % of Indian languages.
• Ideas keep on accumulation partly from the primary texts and partly from the commentary texts.
• Indians created a large body of literature, they are preserved not because they are sacred but because they are important
source of knowledge.
• Knowledge of different disciplines is classified into three categories received, recalled and imaginative. Śruti is received,
Smṛti is recalled and Kāvya is imaginative.
• Ten million Sanskrit manuscripts are still held in the world.

7
© DrSurabhi Verma

LANGUAGE AS THE GRAMMAR

OF REALITY
• Grammar regulates the language, it tries to bind the usage.
• Similarly the language regulates the reality. It constructs the reality and also modifies it as required.
• Thus, Language serves as the Grammar of Reality.
• Suggestions-
1. Translation should not be done without in depth understanding of cultural journey of a language.
2. Diving in the knowledge treasure of any language should be encouraged with a proper learning of the
language of that knowledge text. Superficial translations do not serve the purpose.
3. Rich vocabulary and usage, is the last and best evidence of existence of a language.

8
 9
THANK YOU.
© DrSurabhi Verma