Speech and sound / Vākyapadīya / Four levels of speech
Four levels of speech
Two lists travel under the name of four, and they are not the same four. The Ṛgveda (ऋग्वेद), at 1.164.45, speaks of four measured feet of speech, three kept hidden and a fourth that people speak. That four is not this list. This page is the grammarian's list, and the later list set above it.
What the kārikā (कारिका) verses name
Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि)'s kārikā (कारिका) verses name three. 1.159 says trayyāḥ vācaḥ (त्रय्याः वाचः), of the threefold speech, and names vaikharī (वैखरी), madhyamā (मध्यमा), and paśyantī (पश्यन्ती). Etat (एतत्) in that verse points at grammar in 1.158, which is not sat. 1.165, 1.166, and 1.167 say what each of the three is. Those numbers are Iyer's. Rau numbers 1.159 as 142. In his view the three definitions are verses quoted in the vṛtti (वृत्ति). The vṛtti (वृत्ति) stays with those three. Paśyantī (पश्यन्ती) is the highest of them.
यी अङ्क अय्यरका हुन्। राउले १.१५९ लाई १४२ गन्छन्। उनका विचारमा तीन परिभाषा वृत्तिले उद्धृत गरेका श्लोक हुन्।
Some readers in Kaśmīr (कश्मीर्) said 1.159 already contained a fourth. The kārikā (कारिका) says threefold, and it names the three. The vṛtti (वृत्ति) does not add a fourth name.
The later fourth
Later grammarians add parā (परा) above paśyantī (पश्यन्ती). Nāgeśa (नागेश) and Kauṇḍabhaṭṭa (कौण्डभट्ट) are two who teach that fourth. The Tantra (तन्त्र) books and the Pratyabhijñā (प्रत्यभिज्ञा), including Abhinavagupta (अभिनवगुप्त), teach it as well. Parā (परा) is speech not yet turned into the seeing of a meaning: undifferentiated, not yet a sequence. The word parā (परा) is not in the kārikā (कारिका) verses sat here.
From the uttered word back
| Speech | What these pages say | Where |
|---|---|---|
| vaikharī (वैखरी) | The speakers' speech. Air is open in the places, and the phonemes are taken up. This is the audible end. | 1.165. The audible nāda (नाद) of the Saṅgītaratnākara (सङ्गीतरत्नाकर) is this end of the path. |
| madhyamā (मध्यमा) | She has gone past the movement of breath. She follows the sequence the intellect has taken up. | 1.166 |
| paśyantī (पश्यन्ती) | Undivided. Her sequence is drawn in. She is the light of her own form, within. Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि)'s highest of the three. | 1.167 |
| parā (परा) | A later name, set above paśyantī (पश्यन्ती). Not yet the seeing of a meaning, and not yet a sequence. | Named on this page. Not a word in these kārikā (कारिका) verses. |
शब्द-ब्रह्मन् Śabda-brahman
1.1 calls Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) the śabda-tattva (शब्द-तत्त्व), the word-principle, and says the world unfolds from it. Readers call that teaching śabda-brahman (शब्द-ब्रह्मन्), Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) as the word. The verse's own words are brahma (ब्रह्म) and śabda-tattvam (शब्द-तत्त्वम्), set side by side. The compound śabda-brahman (शब्द-ब्रह्मन्) is the name of the teaching. It is not a compound in the mūla (मूल). The levels are how that principle is said to show as speech.
Sphoṭa (स्फोट) is the word grasped as one. Nāda (नाद) in 1.50, and dhvani (ध्वनि) in 1.78, are the sounding that carries it. 1.44 sets the two words. 1.79 says the sphoṭa (स्फोट) itself is not divided by the secondary dhvani (ध्वनि) sounds. The Saṅgītaratnākara (सङ्गीतरत्नाकर) has its own compound, nāda-brahman (नाद-ब्रह्मन्), at 1.3.1. That verse is his. It is not this kārikā (कारिका).
Later yoga books and music books seat these speeches in the body. The kārikā (कारिका) verses sat here do not. Śārṅgadeva (शार्ङ्गदेव) 1.3.4 names five places of nāda (नाद): navel, heart, throat, head, and mouth. That list is his path of sound. It is not an assignment of parā (परा), paśyantī (पश्यन्ती), madhyamā (मध्यमा), and vaikharī (वैखरी) to those places.