Verse 1.97

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.97:

ग्रहणग्राह्ययोः सिद्धा योग्यता नियता यथा ।
व्यङ्ग्यव्यञ्जकभावेन तथैव स्फोटनादयोः ॥ ९७ ॥

grahaṇagrāhyayoḥ siddhā yogyatā niyatā yathā |
vyaṅgyavyañjakabhāvena tathaiva sphoṭanādayoḥ || 97 ||

97. Just as there is an eternal fitness between the senses and the objects, in the same way, there is the relation of manifestor and manifested between particular sounds and the word (sphoṭa).

Commentary

Another opposite view is now put forward: The word is not manifested because the (so-called) manifestators are fixed. In this world, what is to be manifested does not require a fixed manifestor, since all objects like jars are manifested by any one of the following, a precious stone or a lamp or a luminous plant or a planet or a star. In the case of words, on the other hand, it is held that fixed sounds manifest them; the sounds which are the causes of the manifestation of particular phonemes cannot manifest other phonemes. Therefore, words are not manifested. To this, the verse which begins with the words: “between the senses and the objects (grahaṇa-grāhyayoḥ) is the answer. Just as the colour which inheres in the sense of vision is the cause of the manifestation of external colour, not other qualities nor other senses, nor the qualities of other senses, in the same way, they (the sounds) become the causes of the manifestation of external objects.¹

Notes

1. The answer to the present objection consists in pointing out that even in regard to other manifestors, like the senses, there is a certain fixity and restriction. While the sense of vision, which is of the nature of fire according to the Vaiśeṣikas, can reveal the colour of external objects, it cannot reveal their smell or taste.

Against the argument that such fixity does not exist where a thing is manifested by a sense having the same attribute as itself, the following answer is given—

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