Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c19.10.3

c19.10.3

The several steps in the physiological process of speech have been thus explained:—(1) The speaker puts forth an Effort, (2) this Effort brings the Speaker's Soul into contact with the Air enclosed within his lungs, (3) in obedience to the impulse imparted by the Effort, the Air in the lungs is expelled outwards, (4) in its upward progress, it comes into contact with the vocal chords, (5) these contacts modify the character of the said Air, (6) on issuing from the mouth, the Air passes onwards and reaches the auditory organs of the persons standing near enough to be reached by the Air-waves,—the extent of the reach of this Air depends upon the greater or less degree of the initial Effort of the Speaker; (7) on reaching the said Auditory Organs, the Air-waves produce in those organs a certain change that is conducive to its power of making the Sound audible. Thus it is this faculty of the Auditory Organ that is the direct Agent manifesting the Word to the Consciousness of the Persons to whom the Auditory Organs belong. As the Air-current is endowed with a certain momentum, by virtue of which it keeps moving onwards—when it has passed out of the Auditory Organ, the Sound also passes out and the audition ceases, the person hears the Sound no longer.