Bhartṛhari
Indian linguist, philosopher, and poet (around 5th century CE)
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Bhartṛhari (Devanagari: भर्तृहरि; Bhartrhari; fl. c. 5th to 6th century CE[1]), was an Indian grammarian (Vyākaraṇa) and philosopher of language. In his principal treatise, the Vākyapadīya, he systematized the philosophy of the Sanskrit grammatical tradition and formulated the metaphysics of Śabdādvaita (linguistic monism).[2] His work is known for developing the theory of sphoṭa (the semantic unit of speech) and the concept of Śabda-Brahman, that identifies ultimate reality with the principle of language.[3] Although traditional accounts identify him as the author of the poetic collection Śatakatraya, modern scholars generally treat the grammarian and the poet as distinct figures.[4]
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Bhartṛhari | |
|---|---|
| भर्तृहरि | |
| |
| Born | |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 5th – 6th century CE |
| Region | Madhya Pradesh, India |
| Language | Sanskrit |
Main interests | Grammar, linguistics |
Notable works | Vākyapadīya |
Notable ideas | Sphota |
Besides Vākyapadīya, he is also best known for his works, Mahābhāṣyatikā (a commentary on Patanjali's Mahabhashya), Vākyapadīyavṛtti (a commentary on Vākyapadīya kāṇḍas 1 and 2), and Śabdadhātusamīkṣā.
Bhartrhari's linguistic theories influenced subsequent Indian philosophical traditions, notably Advaita Vedanta, Mīmāṃsā, and Pratyabhijñā (Kashmir Shaivism), where his holistic model of meaning and Śabda-Brahman doctrine were debated extensively.[5][6]
Life and background
Bhartrhari is believed to have been born in Ujjain, Malwa, India and lived in the 5th century.[7][8][9] Details of his personal life are not known, but it is assumed, and accepted by scholars, that he lived between 485 and 540 CE.[7][9][10] He was associated with the court of Valabhi (modern Vala, Gujarat) but decided to follow the path of Indian sages and renounced a sensual life to find higher meaning.[8] He attempted to live a monastic life but was unable to successfully detach from worldly pleasures. After some time, he lived a life as a yogi in Ujjain till his death.[8]
Siṃhasūrigaṇi, a 6th-century Jain writer, states that Bhartrhari studied under a grammarian named Vasurāta.[10] Bhartrhari credits some of his theories to Vasurāta in his work the Vakyapadiya.[7][11]
The Chinese traveller Yi-Jing (635-713 CE) mentions Bhartrhari in his travel notes. He claims that Bhartrhari was a Buddhist and wrote the works Vakyapadiya, Peina, and a commentary on Patanjali's Mahabhashya. Researchers have found some of the details given by Yi-Jing to be erroneous, specifically the time period that he was alive and that he was a Buddhist.[12] Bhartrhari's philosophical position is widely held to be an offshoot of the Vyākaraṇa or grammarian school, closely allied to the realism of the Nyayas and distinctly opposed to Buddhist positions such as those of Dignaga, who was closer to phenomenalism.[13][14]
According to Aitihyamala (ഐതിഹ്യമാല), the celebrated collection of Kerala legends by Kottarathil Sankunni, first published in 1909, Bhartrhari is portrayed as one of four highly learned brothers who studied the Mahābhāṣya under their father, Govindaswamikal. After completing their studies, the brothers became eager to meet Patañjali, the author of the Mahābhāṣya, personally. However, when they went in search of him, they discovered that he had already passed away. The text preserves a Sanskrit verse attributed to Bhartrhari expressing his sorrow at having missed Patañjali.[15] A separate chapter of Aitihyamala recounts the popular legendary tale of Bhartrhari's renunciation of worldly life. In the story, a magical fruit conferring immortality passes, unbeknownst to Bhartrhari, through a chain of unfaithful lovers. Eventually, he discovers his wife's infidelity, leading him to renounce worldly pleasures and embrace an ascetic life.[15] This narrative should be understood as part of Kerala's oral and legendary tradition rather than as established historical scholarship.
Distinction between Grammarian and Poet
Indian traditional stories and literary works have long linked the grammarian Bhartrhari to the King Bharthari, the elder brother of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. The king Bharthari who composed the poetical treatise Śatakatraya, switched from pleasure-seeking activities at the royal court to complete renunciation. This legend was popularized in Indology by accounts such as that of a 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Yi-Jing, who stated that Bharthari wavered seven times between opting to join the Buddhist orders and living the life of a layman.[16]
However, modern scholars including K. A. Subramania Iyer and Bimal Krishna Matilal delineate the poet-king Bharthari from the philosopher Bhartrhari.[17] The latter's works show a rigorous philosophical background. His non-buddhist, monistic epistemology (Śabdādvaita), and his grammatical works in Vākyapadīya are in stark contrast with the conventional and devotional subjects of the Śatakas. While some scholars leave the issue of identity unresolved, others believe that the philosopher Bhartrhari was a specialized scholar who lived around 450–510 CE.[18]
Śatakatraya
The Śatakatraya ("Three Centuries": śataka, "century"; traya, "three") consists of three collections of 100 verses each. The collections are Niti Śataka (Ethics, which details principles of righteous living), Śringara Śataka (Love, which details the complexities of love and relationships), and Vairagya Śataka (Detachment, a reflection of Bharthari's renunciation). The date of composition is unknown but it is believed to have been written over the course of Bharthari's life. He uses various poetic devices including metaphors, similes, and paradoxes to convey complex ideas.[9][19]
Philosophical contributions
Bhartrhari is known for his work in the philosophy of language, particularly his theories articulated in the Vākyapadīya ("Treatise on Sentences and Words"). This text is a comprehensive study of grammar and its metaphysical foundations. A foundational pillar of Bhartrhari's philosophy is the non-dual doctrine of Shabda-Brahman (the Word-Absolute). Dualistic philosophical models state that language simply represents an independent, external reality. But, Bhartrhari states in his opening verses of the Vākyapadīya that the ultimate metaphysical principle (Brahman) is itself of the nature of the word (śabda-tattva). Without beginning or end, it unfolds into the universe as objects (artha) and expressions (śabda).[20]
Anādinidhanaṁ brahma śabdatattvaṁ yad akṣaram
Vivartate 'rthabhāvena prakriyā jagato yataḥ
— (Vākyapadīya 1.1)
('The Brahman who is without beginning or end, whose very essence is the Word, who is the cause of the manifested phonemes, who appears as the objects, from whom the creation of the world proceeds.')[21]
Bhartrhari asserts that cognition and consciousness are intertwined with language inextricably (na so 'sti pratyayo loke yaḥ śabdānugamād ṛte: "There is no cognition in the world that is not permeated by the word").[22] He also emphasises that, correct grammatical usage (sādhu-śabda) eliminates cognitive distortion and aligns the mind with primal speech. Hence, grammar (Vyākaraṇa) is celebrated not just as an auxiliary science (Vedāṅga), but as a direct spiritual path to liberation (mokṣa).[23]
In the Vākyapadīya, Bhartṛhari writes regarding svasamvedana, arguing that a cognition cannot be the content of another cognition. In verse 3.1.106 he explains why a cognition cannot be objectified using an example of light: "as a source of light is never illuminated by another one, likewise a cognition is never cognised by another one." He also writes that a cognition is always perceived at the same time of the cognition of its content. This explanation avoids infinite regress caused if a second order cognition was needed for the first cognition.[24]
The three levels of speech (Trividhā vāk)
To demonstrate how the undifferentiated Ultimate Reality appears in tangible communication, Bhartrihari presents a hierarchy of language (vāk):[25][26]
- Paśyantī (the intuitive/seeing level): This is an inseperable, undifferentiated, pre-linguistic state of communication. At this stage, there is no distinction between sound and meaning; both are seen as whole in the speaker's mid. It is characterized by sudden intuitive understanding (pratibhā).
- Madhyamā (the intermediate level): It is an internal cognitive process. It is within this stage that the sequence of events begin to come into existence, and the idea is organized mentally into grammatical structures including words and images. But it does not yet exist outside of the mind.
- Vaikharī (the articulate/manifest level): This is the production of sound. The speaker produces physical sound (dhvani) using the vocal organs and gets the sequence of sounds heard by the listener. The listener then activates the language element in him/her to understand the meaning of the sequence of sounds as a whole.
Subsequent authors, especially in Kashmir Shaivism and Tantric linguists (like Abhinavagupta), improved Bhartṛhari's model by adding the fourth level of Para Vāk, although Bhartṛhari himself identifies Paśyantī as the Supreme (Word-Absolute).[27]
Works
Bhartrhari is best known for his work in the philosophy of language. He wrote four books on grammar (vyākaraṇa): Vākyapadīya, Mahābhāṣyatikā (an early sub-commentary on Patanjali's Vyākaraṇa-Mahābhāṣya), Vākyapadīyavṛtti (commentary on Vākyapadīya kāṇḍas 1 and 2), and Śabdadhātusamīkṣā.[7][12][28][29] As a poet, he also wrote the Śatakatraya, or Śataka, a three-part collection of 300 verses.[19][9] According to Bhartrhari, a grammarian should deal with a language used in lokavyavahāra, meaning '(social) activities of the people’.[1]
Vākyapadīya
The Vākyapadīya, also known as Trikāṇḍī (three books), is an Indian linguistic treatise on the philosophy of language, grammar, and semantics. It is divided into 3 main sections (or kāṇḍa): Brahma-kāṇḍa (Book of Brahman), Vākya-kāṇḍa (Book of Sentences), and Pada-kāṇḍa (Book of Words), and contains about 635 verses. The Brahma-kāṇḍa treats the metaphysical aspects of language. The Vākya-kāṇḍa deals with sentence structure and the relationship between its components. The Pada-kāṇḍa focuses on the meaning of words, phonetics, morphology, and semantics.[30][9][7]
Bhartrhari's philosophy of language is based on the idea of sphoṭa—the ultimate, complete meaning that comes to the mind of the listener when listening to the speaker. The term sphoṭa originiates from the root verb sphuṭ (to burst forth or to become clear). Sphoṭa is defined as from which the meaning bursts forth, or something that is understood through the sequential hearing of the sound (dhvani).[31]
Bhartṛhari does agree with the classifications used by the grammarians which consists of letter-sphoṭa (varṇa-sphoṭa), word-sphoṭa (pada-sphoṭa), and sentence-sphoṭa (vākya-sphoṭa). But he states that the only real ontological (vastusat) unit is akhaṇḍa-vākya-sphoṭa—the whole, indivisible statement.[32] Letters and individual words do not have semantic existence of their own; they are just heuristic means used by grammarians to analyze speech. When a word is spoken, the sequentially heard sound enables the listener to understand the holistic meaning in a flash known as pratibhā. This allows the listener to understand the meaning of the whole sentence at once, analogous to seeing the whole image in a painting rather than analyzing individual brush strokes.[30][33]
Mahābhāṣyatikā
The Mahābhāṣyatikā, also known as Tripadi or Mahabhashyadipika, is a commentary on Patanjali's Mahabhashya, which itself is a commentary on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī. Bhartrhari analyses grammatical rules and explores the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of language. Within this text, Bhartrhari also discusses the connection between words and their meanings, which is further elaborated in the Vākyapadīya. This text is studied by Sanskrit grammarians and philosophers.[30][34]
Influence and legacy
Bhartrhari's works have been studied in various Indian philosophical traditions, including Vedanta and Mimamsa. Islamic and Western scholars have also shown interest through various translations and commentaries.[28][9]
In the field of Indian poetics, Bhartrhari's Śatakatraya continues to be revered and studied.[19] The Śatakatraya has been translated into many languages, affording access to a global audience.[9] According to Mangat Bhardwaj, a modern linguist who has a similar approach to Bhartrhari's is Daniel Everett (2013).[1]
Further reading
- B. K. Matilal, 1990, The Word and the World: India's Contribution to the Study of Language. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 129-130.
- Hemanta Kumar Ganguli, "Theory of Logical Construction and Solution of some Logical Paradoxes", appendix to Philosophy of Logical Construction: An Examination of Logical Atomism and Logical Positivism in the light of the Philosophies of Bhartrhari, Dharmakirti and Prajnakaragupta, Calcutta, 1963.
- Jan E.M. Houben, The Sambandha-samuddeśa (chapter on relation) and Bhartrhari's philosophy of language, Gonda Indological Series, 2. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995, pp. 213–219.
