Philosopher
Bhartṛhari
c. 450 – c. 510 CE
Also known as Bhartrhari, Bhartrihari
Grammarian-philosopher who held that reality is Brahman, whose essence is the Word, and that the meaning of a sentence is grasped as one indivisible whole.
Little is known of Bhartṛhari’s life; the stories told about him are not supported by historical evidence. The dates given here follow T. R. V. Murti’s chronology, which places him after his teacher Vasurata and before the Buddhist logician Dignāga. His work was so widely known that the Chinese traveller Yijing mentioned him in the seventh century, mistaking him for a Buddhist.
Known chiefly as a grammarian, Bhartṛhari turned the analysis of Sanskrit grammar into philosophy. His Vākyapadīya explores the connections between grammar, logic, meaning and reality, and argues that language is the medium of all knowledge and of ultimate truth. His ideas were taken up and answered by Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta and Buddhist thinkers alike.
Key ideas
- The Word as ultimate reality (śabda-brahman)
- Brahman, the one reality without beginning or end, has the Word as its essence and appears as all objects. Language is not a tool invented by gods or people but the ground of consciousness and of the world itself.
- Sphoṭa, the sentence as a whole
- The unit of meaning is the sentence, which is single and indivisible. Its meaning bursts forth in the hearer as a flash of intuition (pratibhā); the words, roots and suffixes we pick out are abstractions from it.
- All cognition is verbal
- Against the Buddhists, who held that pure perception is free of concepts, Bhartṛhari argued that even the most immediate awareness is shaped by language. Without names, objects could not be identified or known.
- Grammar as a path to liberation
- Bhartṛhari made grammar a philosophical view in its own right. Understanding language correctly leads not only to clear communication but to knowledge of the ultimate reality and the liberation that follows.
- Tradition
- Indian
- Region
- India
Influences
Where these links come from
- Somānanda argued against Bhartṛhari. Source: David Peter Lawrence, Kashmiri Shaiva Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- On Sentences and Words (Vākyapadīya)
Terms on this page
- śabda-brahman
- The Word as brahman: Bhartṛhari’s view that cognition and language are at the ultimate level one reality, brahman, the foundation of everything that language names.
- sphoṭa
- Bhartṛhari’s theory that the unit of meaning is the sentence, a single entity that cannot be accounted for by the sounds and words we hear.
- pratibhā
- Intuition: in Bhartṛhari, the instantaneous flash of recognition in which a hearer becomes conscious of the meaning of what is said.
Sources
- Stephanie Theodorou, Bhartrihari, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy