BEING AND LANGUAGE

Meeting ground for Bhartrhari and Heidegger

Abstract

Man speaks. It is his speech, language that makes him a distinct being. The fascination for language has lead man, both in the East and West to the philosophical speculation of his capacity to speak. In India speculations on the notion of Sabda, speech or language originated in the Vedic times. The Indian seers were interested in the problems of language just as they were pre-occupied with their search for the meaning of the various realities of the universe. Their discussions included many subtle problems related to the origin of a word, different forms of speech, relation of a word to its meaning, speech and its nature, etc. The Vedic Samhit Os, Briihmanas, and the Upanisads as well as Niruktas (etymology), the Prdtisdkhyas (phonology) and the extensive grammatical literature all offer us valuable information about all these problems. This fact, no doubt, points to the keen interest and assiduity of Indian teachers concerning their interest for the study of the phenomena of Sabda 'or viik.