Vakyapadiya (study of the concept of Sentence)
by Sarath P. Nath | 2018 | 36,088 words
This page relates ‘Requisites (c): Sannidhi (Proximity)’ of the study on Vakyapadiya by Bhartrhari and his treatment of the Concept of Sentence in Language. Bhartrhari was a great grammarian and philosopher who explored the depth and breadth of Sanskrit grammar. These pages analyse the concepts and discussions on sentence and sentence-meaning presented in the Vakyapadiya, against the different systems of knowledge prevalent in ancient India (such as Mimamsa, Nyaya and Vyakarana).
6. Requisites (c): Sannidhi (Proximity)
[Full title: 6. Requisites for Understanding the Sentence-Meaning, (c): Sannidhi (Proximity)]
Sannidhi or āsatti is generally defined as the condition that the utterance of the words in a sentence should be contiguous in time:
"padānām avilambenocchāraṇaṃ sannidhiḥ,
—(Tarkasaṅgraha, 1971, p.154).
In othr words, this is the uninterrupted utterance of words then they are in juxtaposition. When a person utters words at long intervals of time, they cannot establish any interrelation among them. What is worthy of note here is that the mere immediate sequence of utterance does not give rise to sannidhi. Kumārilabhaṭṭa calls this immediate sequence of utterance as anantaraśruti. He distinguishes sannidhi from anantaraśruti as the continuous apprehension of words or their meaning in the mind (Tantravārtika, 1984, p.455). Prabhākara describes this concept in a different perspective. He believes that sannidhi is only the contiguity of cognition of the sense and not necessarily of words actually uttered (Raja, 1963, p.167). According to the Navya Nyāya School, even if the words are separated, there is sannidhi as in the case of a verse. They hold that the meanings of the words are recollected without any interruption through their expressive power. This recollection is termed as samūhālaṃbanasmṛti or collective cognition.