Vakya, Vākya: 27 definitions
Introduction:
Vakya means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
Alternative spellings of this word include Vaky.
Images (photo gallery)
In Hinduism
Natyashastra (theatrics and dramaturgy)
Vākya (वाक्य, “words”) refers to one of the representations through which the body (śārīra) expresse itself, according to the Nāṭyaśāstra chapter 24. It is also known by the name Vākyābhinaya. These bodily expressions, or representations (abhinaya), are to be executed in accordance with the psychological states (bhāva) and sentiments (rasa) available in the dramatic play (nāṭya). It forms a part of sāmānyābhinaya, or “harmonious representation”.
The vākya representation is mainly to accompany songs and dance. According to the Nāṭyaśāstra, “recitatives in Sanskrit and Prakrit composed in verse or prose when they possess meanings giving various sentiments (rasa), constitute the histrionic representation by ‘words’ (vākya)”.
Natyashastra (नाट्यशास्त्र, nāṭyaśāstra) refers to both the ancient Indian tradition (shastra) of performing arts, (natya—theatrics, drama, dance, music), as well as the name of a Sanskrit work dealing with these subjects. It also teaches the rules for composing Dramatic plays (nataka), construction and performance of Theater, and Poetic works (kavya).
Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar)
Vākya (वाक्य).—Sentence giving an idea in a single unit of expression consisting of the verb with its kārakas or instruments and adverbs.
Vākya (वाक्य).—A sentence giving an idea in a single unit of expression consisting of the verb with its karakas or instruments and adverbs; cf.आख्यातं साब्ययं सकारकं सकारकविशेषणं वाक्यसंज्ञं भवतीति वक्तव्यम् । साव्ययम् । उच्चैः पठति । सकारकम् । ओदनं पचति । (ākhyātaṃ sābyayaṃ sakārakaṃ sakārakaviśeṣaṇaṃ vākyasaṃjñaṃ bhavatīti vaktavyam | sāvyayam | uccaiḥ paṭhati | sakārakam | odanaṃ pacati |) M. Bh. on P. II. 1.1. Vart. 10. Regarding the different theoretical ways of the interpretation of a sentence see the word शाब्दबोध (śābdabodha). For details, see वाक्यपदीय (vākyapadīya) II. 2 where the different definitions of वाक्य (vākya) are given and the अखण्डवाक्यस्फोट (akhaṇḍavākyasphoṭa) is established as the sense of a sentence.
Vyakarana (व्याकरण, vyākaraṇa) refers to Sanskrit grammar and represents one of the six additional sciences (vedanga) to be studied along with the Vedas. Vyakarana concerns itself with the rules of Sanskrit grammar and linguistic analysis in order to establish the correct context of words and sentences.
Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology)
Vākya (वाक्य).—A celestial longitude value encoded in alphanumeric notation; (lit., sentence). Note: Vākya is a Sanskrit technical term used in ancient Indian sciences such as Astronomy, Mathematics and Geometry.
Jyotisha (ज्योतिष, jyotiṣa or jyotish) refers to ‘astronomy’ or “Vedic astrology” and represents the fifth of the six Vedangas (additional sciences to be studied along with the Vedas). Jyotisha concerns itself with the study and prediction of the movements of celestial bodies, in order to calculate the auspicious time for rituals and ceremonies.
Purana and Itihasa (epic history)
Vākya (वाक्य) refers to “words”, according to the Śivapurāṇa 2.3.33 (“The appeasement of Himavat”).—Accordingly, as Vasiṣṭha said to Himavat (Himācala): “O lord of mountains, listen to my words (vākya) in every respect conducive to your welfare; they are not against virtue. They are true and shall bring about your joy here and hereafter. Statements, in ordinary language and in the Vedas, are of three forms. A scholar knowing all lores understands them by means of his pure vision of knowledge. [...]”.
The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences. The eighteen mahapuranas total over 400,000 shlokas (metrical couplets) and date to at least several centuries BCE.
Yoga (school of philosophy)
Vākya (वाक्य) refers to the “teachings (of one’s guru)”, according to the Dattātreyayogaśāstra (roughly contemporary with the Amanaska’s second chapter).—Accordingly, while discussing the merits of Yogic practice: “Without practice, [the Yogin] becomes worldly. Therefore, having remembered the teachings (vākya) of his guru, he should practise [yoga] day and night. Thus, [only] through the constant practice of yoga, does the [second] stage [of yoga called] Ghaṭa arise. Without the practice of yoga, [it is all] in vain. [Yoga] is not perfected through social gatherings. Therefore, [the Yogin] should practise only yoga with every effort.”.
Yoga is originally considered a branch of Hindu philosophy (astika), but both ancient and modern Yoga combine the physical, mental and spiritual. Yoga teaches various physical techniques also known as āsanas (postures), used for various purposes (eg., meditation, contemplation, relaxation).
Sports, Arts and Entertainment (wordly enjoyments)
Vākya (वाक्य) refers to “words” (used while training hawks), according to the Śyainika-śāstra: a Sanskrit treatise dealing with the divisions and benefits of Hunting and Hawking, written by Rājā Rudradeva (or Candradeva) in possibly the 13th century.—Accordingly, [while discussing the training of hawks]: “[...] Thus gradually by touching it with the hand, by rousing it with soft words (vākya-upalālana), by giving it water and meat at regular intervals, by petting it, by protecting it from heat and cold, and by degrees opening the eyes, it should be tamed carefully. [...]”.
This section covers the skills and profiencies of the Kalas (“performing arts”) and Shastras (“sciences”) involving ancient Indian traditions of sports, games, arts, entertainment, love-making and other means of wordly enjoyments. Traditionally these topics were dealt with in Sanskrit treatises explaing the philosophy and the justification of enjoying the pleasures of the senses.
In Buddhism
Buddhist philosophy
Vākya (वाक्य) refers to “speech” (within a debate), according to Upāyakauśalyahṛdaya, an ancient work on the art of debate composed by Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna.—The first chapter [i.e., “an elucidation of debate (vāda-visadīkaraṇa)”] consists of eight sections which treat respectively of (1) an example (udāharaṇa), (2) a tenet, truth or conclusion (siddhānta), (3) the excellence of speech (vākya praśaṃsā), (4) the defect of speech (vākya-doṣa), (5) the knowledge of inference (anumāna or hetujñāna), (6) the appropriate or opportune speech (samayocita-vākya), (7) the fallacy (hetvābhāsa) and (8) the adoption of a fallacious reason (duṣṭa-vākyānusaraṇa).
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Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)
Vākya (वाक्य) refers to a “word”, according to the Guru-maṇḍala-arcana [i.e., “Guru Mandala Worship]” ritual often performed in combination with the Cakrasaṃvara Samādhi, which refers to the primary pūjā and sādhanā practice of Newah Mahāyāna-Vajrayāna Buddhists in Nepal.—Accordingly, “Oṃ blueish, dark-blue, eyeliner dark, a consort united with Akṣobhya, I worship you with devotion, arising from an indestructible word (vākya), Māmakī”.
Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayāna) are collected indepently.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
vākya : (nt.) a sentence; saying.
Vākya, (nt.) (fr. vac: see vāk & vācā; Vedic vākya) saying, speech, sentence, usually found in poetry only, e.g. D. II, 166 (suṇantu bhonto mama eka-vākyaṃ); A. II, 34 (sutvā arahato vākyaṃ); III, 40 (katvāna vākyaṃ Asitassa tādino); Sn. 1102 (=vacana Nd2 559); J. IV, 5; V, 78; Ap 25; KhA 166 (°opādāna resumption of the sentence); DhsA. 324 (°bheda “significant sentence” translation). (Page 606)
vākya (ဝါကျ) [(na) (န)]—
[vaca+ṇya．vacanīyaṃ vākyaṃ．rū．554．vattabbanti vākyaṃ．nirutti．779．ganthābharaṇa,ṭī．7．aññamaññasambandhattho vuccati etena padasamudāyenāti vākyaṃ．bhedacintā,dī．13．atthaṃ vacatīti vākyaṃ．bhedacintā,dī,12．mahāṭī．12．aññamaññāpekkhatthaṃ vacatīti vākyaṃ．bhedacintā,mahāṭī,13．vakka+ṇya．atthaṃ vakketi kathetīti vākyaṃ．bhedacintā,mahāṭī．12．uccateti vākyaṃ,padasamūho vākyaṃ．anuṭī,1．1va1．padasamudāyo．kappadduma．vākya-saṃ．vakka-prā．addhamāgadhī．]
[ဝစ+ဏျ။ ဝစနီယံ ဝါကျံ။ ရူ။ ၅၅၄။ ဝတ္တဗ္ဗန္တိ ဝါကျံ။ နိရုတ္တိ။ ၇၇၉။ ဂန္ထာဘရဏ၊ ဋီ။ ၇။ အညမညသမ္ဗန္ဓတ္ထော ဝုစ္စတိ ဧတေန ပဒသမုဒါယေနာတိ ဝါကျံ။ ဘေဒစိန္တာ၊ ဒီ။ ၁၃။ အတ္ထံ ဝစတီတိ ဝါကျံ။ ဘေဒစိန္တာ၊ ဒီ၊ ၁၂။ မဟာဋီ။ ၁၂။ အညမညာပေက္ခတ္ထံ ဝစတီတိ ဝါကျံ။ ဘေဒစိန္တာ၊ မဟာဋီ၊ ၁၃။ ဝက္က+ဏျ။ အတ္ထံ ဝက္ကေတိ ကထေတီတိ ဝါကျံ။ ဘေဒစိန္တာ၊ မဟာဋီ။ ၁၂။ ဥစ္စတေတိ ဝါကျံ၊ ပဒသမူဟော ဝါကျံ။ အနုဋီ၊ ၁။ ၁ဝ၁။ ပဒသမုဒါယော။ ကပ္ပဒ္ဒုမ။ ဝါကျ-သံ။ ဝက္က-ပြာ။ အဒ္ဓမာဂဓီ။]
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Marathi-English dictionary
vākya (वाक्य).—n (S) A sentence; a complete proposition; a short paragraph; a period. 2 A rule, maxim, dictum, aphorism.
vākya (वाक्य).—n A sentence. A rule, maxim.
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Sanskrit dictionary
Vākya (वाक्य).—[vac-ṇyat casya kaḥ]
1) Speech, words, a sentence, saying, what is spoken; शृणु मे वाक्यम् (śṛṇu me vākyam) 'hear my words', 'hear me'; वाक्ये न संतिष्ठते (vākye na saṃtiṣṭhate) 'does not obey'; संक्षिप्तस्याप्यतोऽस्यैव वाक्यस्यार्थगरीयसः (saṃkṣiptasyāpyato'syaiva vākyasyārthagarīyasaḥ) Śiśupālavadha 1.2.24.
2) A sentence, period (complete utterance of a thought); वाक्यं स्याद्योग्यताकाङ्क्षासत्तियुक्तः पदोच्चयः (vākyaṃ syādyogyatākāṅkṣāsattiyuktaḥ padoccayaḥ) S. D.6; पदसमूहो वाक्यम् (padasamūho vākyam) Tarka K.; श्रौत्यार्थी च भवेद्वाक्ये समासे तद्धिते तथा (śrautyārthī ca bhavedvākye samāse taddhite tathā) K. P.1.
3) An argument or syllogism (in logic).
4) A precept, rule, an aphorism.
5) (In astr.) The solar process for all astronomical computations.
6) An assertion, statement.
7) Command.
8) (In law) Declaration, legal evidence.
9) Betrothment.
Derivable forms: vākyam (वाक्यम्).
Vākya (वाक्य).—n.
(-kyaṃ) 1. A sentence. 2. A rule or aphorism. 3. Speech. 4. (In astronomy,) The solar process for all astronomical computations. E. vac to speak, ṇyat aff.
Vākya (वाक्य).—i. e. vac + ya, n. 1. Speech, Böhtl. Ind. Spr. 2375; mama vākyāt, In my name, [Pañcatantra] 142, 24. 2. A sentence, [Pañcatantra] 41, 17. 3. A rule.
Vākya (वाक्य).—[neuter] speech, words; statement, deposition ([jurisprudence]); sentence, periphasis ([grammar]).
1) Vākya (वाक्य):—a etc. See p. 936, col. 2.
2) [from vāc] b n. (ifc. f(ā). ) speech, saying, assertion, statement, command, words (mama vākyāt, in my words, in my name), [Mahābhārata] etc. etc.
3) [v.s. ...] a declaration (in law), legal evidence, [Manu-smṛti]
4) [v.s. ...] an express decl° or statement (opp. to liṅga, ‘a hint’ or indication), [Sarvadarśana-saṃgraha]
5) [v.s. ...] betrothment, [Nārada-smṛti, nāradīya-dharma-śāstra]
6) [v.s. ...] a sentence, period, [Rāmatāpanīya-upaniṣad; Pāṇini], [vArttika] etc.
7) [v.s. ...] a mode of expression, [Catalogue(s)]
8) [v.s. ...] a periphrastic mode of expression, [Pāṇini [Scholiast or Commentator]; Siddhānta-kaumudī]
9) [v.s. ...] a rule, precept, aphorism, [Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary]
10) [v.s. ...] a disputation, [Mahābhārata]
11) [v.s. ...] (in logic) an argument, syllogism or member of a syllogism
12) [v.s. ...] the singing of birds, [Harivaṃśa]
13) [v.s. ...] (in [astronomy]) the solar process in computations, [Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary]
Vākya (वाक्य):—(kyaṃ) 1. n. A sentence, a word; a rule.
Vākya (वाक्य):—(von vac) n. [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 7, 3, 67.] Schol. zu [3, 1, 124. 7, 3, 52.] [Vopadeva’s Grammatik 26, 10.]
1) Ausspruch, Rede, Worte; sg. und pl.: śṛṇu me tvam yadvākyaṃ mūṣiko bravīt [Mahābhārata 1, 5577.] vākyamarjunamabravīt [3, 1723.] suhṛdvākyamidaṃ śṛṇu [2171. 2287.] vākyamapratinandan [2279. 2743. 2910. 2977.] tena vākye kṛte samyakprativākye tathāhṛte [2979.] [Rāmāyaṇa 1, 1, 8. 45. 2, 20. 9, 53. 52, 15.] viśārada [53, 8. 2, 74, 18.] atikramya tu madvākyam [1, 62, 16.] [Śākuntala 22, 12.] uddhata [Spr. 2375.] tarhīdamastu bharatavākyam [Śākuntala 113, 6.] vaidyavākyastha [Suśruta 1, 123, 20.] ityādi mantriṇāṃ vākyaṃ na lebhe tasya cāntaram [Kathāsaritsāgara 40, 55.] sadbhāvavākyāni na tāni teṣām [Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka S. 74, 5.] aniṣṭamasatpraṇītam [75, 7.] paruṣa [78, 7.] duṣṭa [104, 19.] prasṛta adj. [BṚH. 14, 2.] madhura, priya, satya [Halāyudha 1, 141. 146.] [Lassen’s Anthologie (III) 91, 21.] valgu adj. [Bhāgavatapurāṇa 4, 26, 23.] [Pañcatantra 41, 17.] [Hitopadeśa 22, 3.] kva gantavyamityādivākyaiḥ pṛṣṭā [ŚUK.] in [Lassen’s Anthologie (III) 36, 9.] vedāntavākyajālaiḥ [SARVADARŚANAS. 55, 13.] vedāntavākyajāta [61, 13.] vedavākyāni [72, 19. 128, 3. fgg.] āpta [144, 2.] guru [91, 17.] śrutavākyā [Mahābhārata 5, 4496.] ityuktavākyā [Kathāsaritsāgara 48, 130.] mama vākyādvācyau in meinem Namen [Pañcatantra 142, 24.] Aussage vor Gericht: uktavākyasya sākṣiṇaḥ [Manu’s Gesetzbuch 8, 108.] ausdrückliche Aussage (Gegens. liṅga Andeutung) [SARVADARŚANAS. 159,14.] [Oxforder Handschriften 219,b, No. 525.] Ausdrucksweise [207,a,15.] doṣāḥ [208,a, No. 489.] Gesang der Vögel: vayāṃsi sādhuvākyāni [Harivaṃśa 4940.] —
2) Disputation: pañcāvayavayuktasya vākyasya guṇadoṣavit [Mahābhārata 2, 139.] Comm. zu [NYĀYAS. 1, 1, 32. 39.] —
3) Satz (in grammatischem Sinne) Vārtt. und [Patañjali] zu [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 8, 1, 20. Kārikā.] zu [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 1, 1, 14.] [Amarakoṣa 1, 1, 5, 3. 3, 4, 32, 1.] [TARKAS. 49.] [WEBER, Rāmatāpanīya Upaniṣad 335.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 71. 242.] [Sāhityadarpana 6.] [Scholiast] zu [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 1, 2, 33.] [Siddhāntakaumudī] zu [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 8, 1, 20.] [Vopadeva’s Grammatik 3, 143. 26, 10.] [SARVADARŚANAS. 41, 20. 42, 1. 70, 8. 123, 1. 135, 2.] Satzglied in einem Syllogismus [morgenländischen Gesellschaft 7, 307.] —
3) umschriebene Ausdrucksweise, z. B. rājñaḥ puruṣaḥ st. rājapuruṣaḥ [Scholiast] zu [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 1, 2, 46.] upagorapatyam st. aupagavaḥ zu [4, 1, 82. 8, 3, 85.] [Siddhāntakaumudī zu 1, 1, 30.] der Gebrauch von icchati mit einem infin. statt des desid. [Siddhāntakaumudī.154,a,11.] — Vgl. nirvākya, prati, pramāṇa, mahā, mithyā, satya .
Vākya (वाक्य) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Vakka.
Vākya (in Sanskrit) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 緣具 [yuán jù]: “to have fulfilled the requirements/conditions (for a valid argument)”.
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Hindi dictionary
Vākya (वाक्य) [Also spelled vaky]:—(nm) a sentence; ~[khaṃḍa] a clause; -[paddhati] method of sentence formation; -[bheda] syntactical difference; -[racanā] syntax, construction of a sentence; -[vijñāna] syntax; -[vinyāsa] amphibology, the order of a sentence; -[viśeṣa] a particular sentence; -[viśleṣaṇa] sentence-analysis; -[saṃyoga] grammatical construction.
...
Kannada-English dictionary
Vākya (ವಾಕ್ಯ):—
1) [noun] spoken words; speech.
2) [noun] an order; a command; a behest.
3) [noun] an assertive sentence; a statement.
4) [noun] (gram.) a word or a group of syntactically related words that expresses clearly the intention of the person who spoke or wrote it; a conventional unit of connected speech or writing; a sentence.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Vākya (वाक्य):—n. 1. speech; words; sentence; saying; what is spoken; 2. a sentence; 3. an argument; 4. rule; percept; an aphorism; 5. command; order;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Nya, Vaca, Vassa.
Starts with (+25): Vaakya-parivartan, Vakya vibhaga, Vakya-parivartana, Vakyabheda, Vakyabhinaya, Vakyacandrika, Vakyadambara, Vakyadhrik, Vakyadipaka, Vakyadipika, Vakyadosha, Vakyadvayasadharana, Vakyagarbhita, Vakyagatatva, Vakyagraha, Vakyaharini, Vakyakantha, Vakyakara, Vakyakarana, Vakyakhandana.
Full-text (+568): Vakka, Mahavakya, Aptavakya, Vakyashesha, Prativakya, Vakyartha, Vakyavinyasa, Vakyapadiya, Vakyavisharada, Vedavakya, Uktavakya, Nirvakya, Satyavakya, Purvavakya, Ativakya, Anuvakya, Vakyaprayoga, Vakyakhandana, Mithyavakya, Pramanavakya.
Relevant text
Search found 188 books and stories containing Vakya, Vaakya, Vaca-nya, Vaca-ṇya, Vākya; (plurals include: Vakyas, Vaakyas, nyas, ṇyas, Vākyas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Liberation in early Advaita Vedanta (by Aleksandar Uskokov)
4. The Vedāntic Mahā-vākyas < [Chapter 10 - Sarvajñātman and the doctrine of Upaniṣadic Mahā-vākya]
2. Mahā-vākya in Mīmāṃsā < [Chapter 10 - Sarvajñātman and the doctrine of Upaniṣadic Mahā-vākya]
1. Introduction and a Historical Note < [Chapter 10 - Sarvajñātman and the doctrine of Upaniṣadic Mahā-vākya]
Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara (Study) (by Debabrata Barai)
Part 3.11 - Nature of Vākya (sentence) and their types < [Chapter 5 - Analyasis and Interpretations of the Kāvyamīmāṃsā]
Part 3.12 - Rājaśekhara’s concepts on Nature of Kāvya (poetry) < [Chapter 5 - Analyasis and Interpretations of the Kāvyamīmāṃsā]
Part 4.1 - Nature and divisions of Vākya (literary speech) < [Chapter 5 - Analyasis and Interpretations of the Kāvyamīmāṃsā]
Krishna Sandarbha of Jiva Goswami (by Kusakratha Prabhu)
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 698 < [Kannada-English-Malayalam (1 volume)]
Page 216 < [Hindi-English-Nepali (1 volume)]
Page 479 < [Hindi-Assamese-English Volume 2]
Vakyapadiya (study of the concept of Sentence) (by Sarath P. Nath)
3.2. Sentence according to the Nyāya School < [Chapter 2 - Perspectives on the Concept of Sentence]
2. Definition of Sentence (vākya) < [Chapter 3 - The Concept of Sentence and Sentence-Meaning]
3.3. Sentence According to the School of Vyākaraṇa < [Chapter 2 - Perspectives on the Concept of Sentence]
Sahitya-kaumudi by Baladeva Vidyabhushana (by Gaurapada Dāsa)
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