Vak (वाक्)
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Vak (Samskrit: वाक्) means speech. Language study has early been considered vital in India to understand knowledge and consciousness, which is considered one with the Supreme Being in many schools of Indian philosophy. Language has come down in an oral tradition.
Kapil Kapoor summarizes the three words used for language, bhasha, vak and vani.
Introduction
Pratibha Pingle writes that after going through all the passages referring to vak, it is possible to reduce the main shades of meaning to six:[1]
- Vak as devata,
- Vak as a stuti (Prayer)
- Vak as human, everyday speech
- Sound of the non-human beings as of cattle, frogs, birds
- Sound of inanimate objects like dundubhi, aksa, etc.,
- Natural sound of water, thunder, etc.
There are many quotations from the Vedic literature that amply illustrate the high regard that vdk was held in.
The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad has equated speech with Brahman.
वाग्वै सम्राट्परमं ब्रह्म । (Brhd. Upan. 4.1.2)[2]
In Rigveda (also in Atharvaveda, Taittriya Aranyaka and Shatapatha Brahmana) we come across the four fold division of Vak (वाक्) an important aspect of Vyakarana.[3]
चत्वारि वाक्परिमिता पदानि तानि विदुर्ब्राह्मणा ये मनीषिणः ।
गुहा त्रीणि निहिता नेङ्गयन्ति तुरीयं वाचो मनुष्या वदन्ति ॥४५॥ (Rig. Veda. 1.164.45)
- ↑ Narayanan, Sharda. (2012) Vakyapadiya, Sphota, Jati and Dravya. New Delhi : D. K Printworld (P) Ltd.
- ↑ Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (Adhyaya 4)
- ↑ Subramanya Sharma. V. M. (2012) Ph.D Thesis: The Notion of Word in Vakyapadiyam. Hyderabad : University of Hyderabad