20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Śabdasaṃskāra, a mere grammatical technique? 499Before taking the final leap to the last relevant place where the wordpurification process is labelled or expressed in another particular way, letus now stop at the only place in the kārikās where the expression śabdapūrvayoga occurs, that is the kārikā 20.That [the grammar] in which causes of memory of phonemes imprintsappear by word yoga is as if the image reflected. 26A great deal of talking has been done also around this verse. Since thereis no Vṛtti available from verse 15 up to verse 22, according to numberingchosen by both K.A. Subramanya Iyer and M. Biardeau, many timesit has been discussed whether these verses can be treated as independentkārikas, thus, a part of Bhartṛhari’s text, or should be rather used as merequotations. 27Yet, since quotations are preceded by constructions such as “tad yathā”or “evam hyāha” and nothing of the sort can be seen here, one wouldassume that these verses represent a part of the text, for otherwise, taken asquotations the source, however, would remain unidentified.The presence of the preposition “before” (pūrva) is a detail that shouldnot, by any means, be neglected. The meaning of the whole expressionis given by how we read it. It thus, might go as previously translated:“union with the word previously [purified, cleansed]”, or as it has beeninterestingly pointed out 28 : “union (yoga) that was before the word”. Thislatest reading can open the discussion into analysis of what śabda mightstand for. We have thus to account for śabda in its both meanings: the soundas well as the signified unity in its conceptual form, before its utterance.Nevertheless, this interpretation goes well indeed with the commentary ofverse 14, as shown above.However, the scarcity of expression occurrence in the rest of the texthas brought scholars like Jan E.M. Houben to moderate conclusions that,for the time being, as the text supports no further evidences, have to be thebest way to envisage the matter. 29I subscribe to agreeing that perhaps a special yoga technique, calledword yoga, “did not appeal much to Bhartṛhari, preferring to it a more26VP I.20: yatra vāco nimittani cihnānīvākṣarasmṛteḥ / śabdapūrveṇa yogenabhāsante pratibimbavat // śabda-pūrva yogena can be also read as: “by union with previousknown [correct, purified] word.”27Vide S.Iyer 1995: 23, note 1.28This suggestion was made to me some times ago by professor Peter Schreiner,while discussing the above matter.29Vide Jan E.M. Houben 1995: 281, note 439.