Verse 1.119

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.119:

षड्जादिभेदः शब्देन व्याख्यातो रूप्यते यतः ।
तस्मादर्थविधाः सर्वाः शब्दमात्रासु निश्रिताः ॥ ११९ ॥

ṣaḍjādibhedaḥ śabdena vyākhyāto rūpyate yataḥ |
tasmādarthavidhāḥ sarvāḥ śabdamātrāsu niśritāḥ || 119 ||

119. The difference between ‘ṣaḍja’ and others is grasped when conveyed through words; therefore, all kinds of meanings depend upon the powers of words.

Commentary

Everything depends upon the word which causes its cognition and enters into usage when grasped through remembrance of it as intertwined with its word (smṛtinirūpaṇā), as identified with its word through memory (abhijalpanirūpaṇā) and as connected with some particular action (ākāranirūpaṇā). The distinction between ṣaḍja, ṛṣabha gāndhāra, dhaivata, niṣāda, pañcama and madhyama, the words expressive of which are not well-defined nor well-known, cannot be understood without knowing the words on which depend their understanding. Cowherds, shepherds and others invent special words and accomplish their special purposes in regard to cows and other animals. Therefore, a thing with its distinctive feature, closely linked with general or special words the meanings of which are clearly grasped or otherwise respectively, is illuminated, embraced and identified with a cognition which is united with the power of the word, intertwined with the word and has the form of the word.¹

Notes:

The purpose of this verse is to show that distinction between things can be known only through words. The distinctive features of some things in this world are easy to see and they have their words to express them. But the distinctive features of some things are not easy to grasp. By merely listening to the musical notes ṣaḍja etc., one cannot understand their special characteristics. One can do so only with the help of the technical explanation of the Science of Music. What we cognise can enter into worldly usage only if we can express it in words. The process of cognition has three stages which, as explained by Vṛṣabha, are: (1 to see a thing and to remember it as ṃtertwined with its word (Smṛtinirūpaṇā), (2) to cognise the identity between word and meaning (abhijalpanirūpaṇā), (3) to see it as connected with some action (ākāranirūpaṇā).

The intimate relation in which the word and the meaning figure in the cognition is emphasised in the Vṛtti by the use of several expressions covering different aspects of it: bhedavānarthaḥ śābdaśakti-saṃsṛṣṭayā śabdānuviddhayā śabdātmikayā buddhyā prakāśyate upagṛhyate svīkriyate. The meaning is illuminated and embraced by the cognition, it becomes one with it. The word, on the other hand, is also intertwined with the cognition which has the form of the word. The cognition has the form of the word which has the form of the meaning. (upgṛhītārthākāraśabdarāpā [upagṛhītārthākāraśabdarūpā?] sā buddhiḥ—Vṛ.)