Verse 3.8.2

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.8.2:

कार्यकारणभावेन ध्वनतीत्याश्रितक्रमः ।
ध्वनिः क्रमनिवृत्तौ तु ध्वनिरित्येव कथ्यते ॥ २ ॥

kāryakāraṇabhāvena dhvanatītyāśritakramaḥ |
dhvaniḥ kramanivṛttau tu dhvanirityeva kathyate || 2 ||

2. In ‘it sounds’ (dhvanati), sound is presented as having inner sequence (krama) on the basis of the relation of causality; when there is no more sequence, it is just called ‘sound’.

Commentary

The definition of action [read verse 1 on previous page], is made clear by means of an illustration.

[Read verse 2 above]

[In the sentence ‘the bell rings’ (ghaṇṭā dhvanati) sound is presented by the verb as an action or a process, the parts of which have temporal sequence. The bell is the cause of the sound and the sound is the object. The bell whose activity leads to the result called sound is said to ring. Or we may look upon it like this: Sound is something which happens in a series like waves and the earlier wave is the cause and the later wave is the effect. When the activity of the bell ceases, there is no question of earlier and later waves. Then we simply say: ghaṇṭāyā dhvaniḥ = the sound of the bell. We do not then say: ‘the bell rings’. In other words, sound is now presented as a thing and not as a process. In the sentence ‘dhvaniṃ karoti’ = ‘he makes a sound’, if we understand a process, it is due to the presence of the word ‘karotiḥ’. The process is the meaning of the sentence and not of the individual word. A meaning which is understood through the presence of another word is sentence meaning and not word-meaning. A word is authority only in regard to the meaning which it denotes. It has been pointed out again and again that, in Grammar, things as presented by words count and not things as they are.]

Another illustration is now given.