The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c6.5

c6.5

Others, including the teachers of the Śikṣâ (Vedic chanting), hold that the physical basis of sound is a series of air movements (वायुसन्तान, *cf.* Udyotakara's and Vâchaspati's reports); in other words, the air-particles themselves flow in a current in all directions, being obstructed in their path by the impact of tangible objects (*i.e.* material bodies), and the movement ceases, as in the arrow, when the moving force is thus exhausted (*e.g.* स गच्छन्सर्वतोदिक्षु उद्दामवेगाहितक्रियः शरवत् वेगक्षान्नेव न दूरं गन्तुमर्हति . . . शिक्षाविदस्तु पवनात्मकमेव शब्दमाचक्षते—Jayanta, Nyâya-Manjarî). But the orthodox Mîmâmsâ view is that of the Mîmâmsâ doctor, Śabara Svâmi, who holds that Nâda (the physical basis of sound) is a wave-motion of air, being the transmission of conjunctions and disjunctions in the minute particles of air, the wave originating in the first impact, and being continued by the successive impacts of the minute particles (*e.g.* संयोगविभागानैरन्तर्येण क्रियमाणाः शब्दमभिव्यञ्जन्तो नादशब्दवाच्याः (17-1-1) अभिघातेन हि प्रेरिता वायवः स्तिमित्तानि वाय्वन्तराणि प्रतिबाधमानाः सर्वतो दिक्कान् संयोगविभागान् उत्पादयन्ति यावद्वेगं अभिप्रतिष्ठन्ते । ते च वायोरप्रत्यक्षत्वात् संयोगविभागा नोपलभ्यन्ते । अनुपरतेषु एव तेषु शब्द उपलभ्यते । नोपरतेषु अतएव च अनुवातं दूरात् उपलभ्यते शब्दः—Śabara-Bhâṣya, Sûtra 13, Pâda 1, Adhyâya 1). In this view, the particles of air (वाय्ववयवाः) are subject to a vibratory motion (a sort of *parispanda*) in the production of sound (परिस्पन्दाविलक्षण —Jayanta, Nyâya-Manjarî). The Vâkyapadîya describes articulate sounds (*varnas*), and indeed all sounds (*sabdas*), as only forms of air set in motion, with rarefaction and condensation (प्रचय), and capable of variations of velocity and configuration (लब्धक्रियः प्रयत्नेन वक्त्रेरव्यानु- वर्त्तिना स्थानेष्वभिहतो वायुः शब्दत्वं प्रतिपद्यते । तस्य कारणसामर्थ्यात् वेगप्रचयधर्म्मिणः संनिपातात् विभज्यन्ते सारवत्योऽपि मूर्त्तयः । Vâkyapadîya, Kâṇḍa 1, Śloka 109).