Verse 1.94

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.94:

अविकारस्य शब्दस्य निमित्तैर्विकृतो ध्वनिः ।
उपलब्धौ निमित्तत्वमुपयाति प्रकाशवत् ॥ ९४ ॥

avikārasya śabdasya nimittairvikṛto dhvaniḥ |
upalabdhau nimittatvamupayāti prakāśavat || 94 ||

94. The sound, modified by its causes, becomes the cause of the cognition of the changeless word, just as the light from a lamp (becomes the cause of the perception of an object).

Commentary

Others, on the other hand, on account of difference from the process which results in the use of the terms universal and particular, assert that there is only one word which is external, not subject to any change through the sounds modified by their own causes and not residing in the sounds. It is manifested as is done by the light of a lamp when there is no vagueness in the object, with the colouring of the changes in the manifesting sound, as though it has received a new form.¹

Notes

1. Another view of sphoṭa is referred to here. It is not clear who held this view. Vṛ. gives the following quotation expressing this view: Tasmin nityāṃ śabdaśaktim, pratijānate = they assert that there is one eternal word-power in it (the ether). The main idea here is that the sounds, which differ from one another because of difference in the articulatory movements, cause the cognition of the one changeless word without effecting any change in it, just as the light from a lamp reveals the object without effecting any change in it. This process is said to be different from the one relating to the universal and the individual in wholes like a jar: ākṛtivyaktivyavahāravaidharmyāt. The parts of a jar are the substrata of the whole, namely, the jar. The jar itself, which is the individual, is the cause of the cognition of the universal in it and of the application of the word ‘jar’ to it. This is not the relation between the sounds and the word, because the sounds cannot co-exist. As Vṛ. puts it: Yaugapadyābhāvāc chabdabhāgānām.