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In the last chapter we have seen that sabda as a pramana consists in sentences or propositions put forth by some trustworthy person. Now a sentence is a group of words (pada) arranged in a certain way. To understand a sentence (vakya) we have to understand its constituent words. Hence we propose to consider here the nature and meaning of words, as well as other questions in connection with the understanding of words. Sabda literally means sound. In linguistics it means also words or sentences. A word is a particular kind of sound. So also a sentence is a group of sounds arranged in a certain order. How then is a word related to ordinary sounds? According to the Nyaya, sound is a physical phenomenon. It is the attribute of an intangible and all-pervading substance called akasa or the ether. Air is not the substratum of the quality of sound, but the medium of its transmission from one place to another. Sound is a product of the conjunction of two bodies or of the disjunction of the parts of one composite body. It is therefore non-eternal or subject to origin and cessation in time. ' The Mimarisakas here controvert the Nyaya position and hold that sound is eternal, since it is not produced, but only manifested by the contact of two bodies. It is unnecessary for our present purpose to enter upon the long controversy between the Nyaya and the Mimamsa on this point.² 1 1 Vide Tarkabhasa, pp. 26-27. 2 Vide Nyayamanjari, pp. 205-32.

ound is of two kinds, namely, dhvani and varna.' A dhvani is an inarticulate sound, e.g. the sound of a bell or a drum. It is a confused mass of sound-sensations having no order or arrangement of its parts. It has no fixed nature of its own, nor any fixed relation to other like sounds. Dhvani is thus incapable of forming parts of any language. On the other hand, a varna is a sound produced by the action of the vocal organ of human beings, e.g. the alphabet. A varna is a letter which has a fixed character and a definite place in the alphabet of any language. All varnas or letters are constituents of human speech. They may be either spoken or written. Spoken letters are auditory sensations of significant sounds, while written letters are visual sensations of coloured figures. From the standpoint of linguistics, the cries of birds and beasts, and even of newborn babies are dumb and marticulate. They are as variable and disorderly as sounds produced by physical things. These do not lend themselves to any use as parts of any language. Hence they are included within dhvani and not made a separate class. A word is a group of varnas or letters arranged in a certain fixed order. The order of the letters in a word cannot be changed or reversed in any way without altering its meaning. Thus the word 'cow' is a grouping of the letters c-o-w in the given order. If we change this order we destroy the word itself. Similarly, the words 'won' and 'own,' which contain the same letters, become different because the fixed order of the letters is different in the two cases. While a letter is a significant sound, a word is a symbolic sound of a higher order. A letter signifies only a part of the alphabet, but a word stands for some thing or some idea. Like letters, words may be either spoken or written. A spoken word is the object of auditory perception and a written word that of visual perception. Thus words are symbolic sounds constituted by letters arranged in a definite order. A word is not a mere collection of letters, but a definite whole of letters or syllables which are 1 Sabdo dhuanisca varnasca, etc., Bhasapariccheda, 164-65.

its parts and have a fixed order in the whole. It is a unity of the parts in so far as it is the object of a single cognition. The question as to how the constituents of a word are synthesised so as to form one whole, will be considered later on.