(The Metaphysics of the Sanskrit Alphabet)

by Ravi Khanna
gee_kay@vsnl.com

 The Circle of Life
by M. C. Escher

Paper presented at the International Seminar on

SABDA: TEXT AND INTERPRETATION IN INDIAN THOUGHT

2-4 February 2004

Organized by Centre of Linguistics and English, Jawaharlal Nehru University

vaNa- iva&anaBaaYyaM

(The Metaphysics of the Sanskrit Alphabet)

I commence my talk with a quote from Dr. Kapil Kapoor’s paper – “Vivarta & Parināma – Bhartriharī`s Theory of Language” – 1996. He cites Rig Veda I.164.41 as follows …

gaurih mimāya salilāni takśati ekpadī dwipadī sā catuspadī
astāpadī navpadī babhūvusī sahasrāksarā parme vyöman

“ Gauri is the symbol of vāk or speech, according to the shrutīs …. the real significance is that the principle of vāk creates or fashions out the manifold forms out of the waters of the infinite ‘ocean of reality’ … the parme vyöman. You cannot cut forms or draw lines in water, you can do that only in space but ; but reality like water is continuous, indivisible…”