Coward. Sphota PDF
Coward. Sphota PDF
Coward. Sphota PDF
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SPHOTA THEORY; APHILOSOPHIC~~D~SYCHOLOGICAL
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ANALYSIS
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A PHILOSOPHICAL AND PSCYHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS,
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OF
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By
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HAROLD GEORGE. COWARD, B.A" B.D., -M.A.
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A Thesis
Doctor of Philosophy
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November, 1973
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SCOPE AND CONTE~~S:
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me.taphysical background
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In Chapte~
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itself' 'into the two aspects of uttered sounds and inner meaning.
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the 'mind of the hearer in his c~gnition of the uttered sounds and
found that ,PatanJali 's Yo~a when taken 'up to. the nirvicara stage'of
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samprajnata samadhi (but not beyond since Bhartrhari's sphota, by de-
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,ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
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Grant, I want to thank~,for his penetrating insight into the ~roblems of'
,and for his patient' endurance 1,n readi'ng a manuscript filled with
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the kindness oj; "the, staff me;m,ers of, the Advanced Center for tpe Study
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of Philosophy, Banaras Hindu University" for receiving. me a~ a 'visiting
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researCh schdlar during the sunnner of 1972. I 'must also express my.
( for allowi~g me' to search. the litera'tur~ cif the Central . Library and
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for assisting me wi,th the photocopy.i~g of relevant articles .
which 'made .pC)Ssible my tr;l11 to India, and for the ~IcMaster Graduate
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; Fellowship which made the writing 'of this thesis possible •
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1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM. ... .. 1
The Pro1>.iem,
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Language in tl1e'Br;fuiii.iillcal'Schools. .. .
siitikhya •• .37
YOg~·•• ( . ..: .40
Mimiimsa.:..
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Vedanta.' - ~ '".. .. .54
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The Naturalistic' Tradition ~ 63
Carvaka.. .. .. ". .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. - 64
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LA..~GUAGJ:: AS REVElATION ••••••••••••• ~88
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III. . THE SPHOTA',THEORY:OF
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Spho~a•••••••'•• '• • ~ ~-• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 88
De'flnition of
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v:J:. CONCLUsi-oN ,
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CHAPTER" I.
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his Mahabhasya, eomments on these eariier iueas establishing the.
lations are given further develop~ent' by both the Mimamsa and the'
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Grammar schools, with the latter producing the Spho:a theory., Al~
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though these schools differ wit~ regard to the exact way in.which
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words re~eal meaning, they both hold t~at.the capacity of words to
" .denote objects is ·inherent and given (with the exception of technical
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words and proper names). In the case of.objects ~tich as' table or
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'chair, .experience is" necessary to enable one to use the denot:ative )
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word correct{y, but the capacity of "a word to signify a particular
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indications as to the pature of reality, it is only through the ,reve-
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latory power of words (sabda) that ultima~eknowl~dge of rea11ty can
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,:,ords ,or l;abda may give knowledge only so lang as they are cases "of
view by maintaining\
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~abda is not an independent \
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source of knowledge but a case o,f perception or inference. The"
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Vaisesikas, 'too, include sabda wi thin inference since the ground of
and· omniscient finite ~elf. Both San~ya and Yoga accept ;abda as
pramana but, as will be shown in Chapter Two, with the latter sch8P~
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gi~ng it more ,weight than the former. For both, however, sabda is
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,impersonal and 'therefore possesses self-eviden~ validity. The Nyaya,
on the other hand, hold that the Vedas have'been created by God, arid,
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Mimamsa though t; although c'ontaining diffex:ences of opinion on the '
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~e'a~ove s~iy .statlements introduCing, t~ll different
stands taken on sabda 'by the various Indian s.chools of thought is ,
,ma'1ply based'~pon Satischandra'Chatter~ee, The NyBya'Theory of Know-
, ledge, Calcutta: 'University of Calcutta, 1965, pp. -319+321; and'S.
C. Catterjee and D. M. Datta, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy,.
Calctitta:
.:. tJnivers~ty
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Calcutta,
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.position •.
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I. THE fROBLEM
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. Statement of the: problem. I t was the purpose of this
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study (1) to clearly set forth the Sphota theory of language showing
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",~entences,and the reality to which they refer ,-;:has been one of the
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oldest preoccupations' of the human mind. Urban clearly eXpresses
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W. M.' Urban, Language and Reality. London: George Allen,
, & Unwin Ltd., 1939, p. 21.
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Ibid., p. 22.
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~ee, for example, Chapter 13, "The Word Unit: The Incor-'
porative'Capacityof Language" in Wilhelm, von Humboldt's Linguistic
Va?lability and Intellectual Development, trans. by G. C. Buck and
F. A. Raven. Florida;: University of Miami Press, 1971 (originally
published in Ge,rman in 1836).
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, E~ Cassirer,
,Language and Myth. New York: Dover Pub. Inc.,
English trans. by S. Langer published in 1946. This work, which
evidences considerable ~fluence f~m the Indian concept of speech
(vSk), formed the basis ~ of the thinking upon which his
Philosophy of Symbolic Forms dep'tllds. "(See .·~Translator's Preface",
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as first systematized by Bhartrhari and as later defended by Mandana
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Misra, has remained one of ' the pivotal points in ,the debates between