Verse 1.78

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.78:

इन्द्रियस्यैव संस्कारः शब्दस्यैवोभयस्य वा ।
क्रियते ध्वनिभिर्वादास्त्रयोऽभिव्यक्तिवादिनाम् ॥ ७८ ॥

indriyasyaiva saṃskāraḥ śabdasyaivobhayasya vā |
kriyate dhvanibhirvādāstrayo'bhivyaktivādinām || 78 ||

78. Those who hold that the word is manifested by the sounds conceive of it in three ways—that a certain fitness is brought about in the sense of hearing, that a fitness is produced in the word itself or that a fitness results in both.

Commentary

In this verse, only the process of the manifestation of the word is stated. Giving illustrations is the topic of the next two verses.

In this matter, some think that the sound, when produced, perfects the sense of hearing and the sense of hearing, thus perfected, becomes the means of the perception of the word.¹ Other upholders of manifestation are of the view that the word, perfected by contact with the sound, becomes the object of the sense of hearing. According to others, the sound brings benefit both to the word and to the sense of hearing. The sense and the object, favoured by a helping factor, cause the perception of the word. Like the benefit conferred by the light of the lamp in regard to things perceived by the sense of vision, (here also) the powers of the causal factors, merely because they require a helping factor, do not go beyond the totality of the causal factors.²

Notes

1. Vṛṣabha understands the perfection of the sense of hearing itself in three ways: (1) the sounds impart to the sense of hearing the power of grasping the word which was not there before. (2) the sounds only awaken the power which was already there (3) what is called perfection of the sense means the presence of the sounds in the sense of hearing, favourable to its grasping the word.

2. What is meant here is that the function of the sounds, whether it be the perfection of the sense of hearing or of the word, does not go beyond the totality of the causal factors, but is part of them, just as the light of the lamp is part of the causal factors in the perception of visual objects.

The Vṛtti here may be compared with the following passage:—

Sa ca nādaḥ śrotrasyānugrahe varttate. Tadanugṛhītaṃ śrotraṃ śābdopalabdhau saṃarthaṃ bhavati, yathā akṣṇo rañjanam ityeke. Apare śābdasyaiva, yathā prokṣaṇam pṛthivyā eva, na ghrāṇasya. Ubhayor ityapare, yathā vaśyendriyasya prathamataścakṣūraśmīn ghaṭam cānugṛhṇāti.

(Bhartrhari’s commentary on the Mahābhāṣya, p. 20 (A.B.O.R.I, XLIII).