Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s7: Violence of Speech
Vāda in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s7
- Language
- English
Violence of Speech
c5.s7.1
The history of debates also comprises narratives of very tense moments and violent designs. The very titles of several works composed as debates are suggestive of the acts of smashing, breaking, uprooting, condemning or crushing.
c5.s7.2
*Stuti* (praise) and *nindā* (abuse) are necessary ingredients of the discourses that were delivered in Vedic sacrifices. In Vedic sacrifices such as the Aśvamedha, the priest functions both as an *apagara* (reviler) and *abhigara* (praiser).
c5.s7.3
Debates involve violence in various ways. In one of the most profound and prolonged debates described in the Upaniṣads, Gārgī challenges Yājñavalkya with an attacking stance. She compares her pair of questions with two fatal arrows. Commenting on the episode relating to the debate between Janaka and Sulabhā (which is being discussed in the next chapter), Nīlakaṇṭha, a commentator par excellence on *Mahābhārata*, also uses the metaphor of a battle, where both discussants (Janaka and Sulabhā) fought with *buddhyastra* (the weapon of intelligence) with each other.
c5.s7.4
The law books of Manu, Yājñavalkya, Nārada and others define *vāk-pāruṣya* (harshness of speech) as one of the sins and also prescribe punishment for it. The concept of *vāk-pāruṣya* involves shouting, calling names and throwing abuses. According to Nārada, a statement made out of malice towards a country, a nation or a kin makes a person inflicted with the sin of *vāk-pāruṣya*. Both Manu³⁹ and Yājñavalkya⁴⁰ prescribe penalty for a man who uses humiliating terms for physically disabled persons (Manu prescribes only less than a *kārṣāpaṇa* but Yājñavalkya makes it thirteen and a half *paṇas*).⁴¹ There are severe penalties for a man who speaks dirty words for anyone’s mother, sister or wife. Kauṭilya defines the following categories of *vāk-pāruṣya* — attributing physical deficiency (calling someone blind, deaf, etc.), use of filthy language and condemnation.⁴²
c5.s7.5
Vātsyāyana in his *Kāmasūtra* has discussed *samāja*, *kathā* and *goṣṭhī*.
c5.s7.6
*Samāja* is a community hall. *Kathā* is a discussion which is taken up when a *goṣṭhī* (group, circle) meets. *Kathās* and *goṣṭhīs* could be held in *samāja* or during a trip outside the town. Vātsyāyana has laid down the norms with a view to avoid unsavoury episodes and violence in *kathās* and *goṣṭhīs*. He says:
c5.s7.7
The citizen attains utmost honour in the community by carrying on discussion (on poetry and art) neither very much through Sanskrit nor very much through *deśabhāṣā* (regional language). A wise man should not join circles (*goṣṭhīs*) not liked by the community, and carried on arbitrarily, and which are violent to others. The learned man attains success in the world by joining a circle which is run in accordance with the notions of the community, and which is essentially sportive in nature.⁴³
c5.s7.8
*Nāṭyaśāstra* of Bharata Muni is a text against violence of speech. The very first performance of the play *Samudramanthana* (churning of the ocean) generated controversy and debates, and was attacked by demons called *vighnas*, who created a pandemonium when his repertoire was giving a show. They alleged that the performance is humiliating to them. But Bharata Muni was able to calm down the protestors and mischief-mongers to their senses and to see reason by carrying out a *vāda* with them.⁴⁴
c5.s7.9
The devastating nature of the violence of speech is brought in the last chapter of *Nāṭyaśāstra*. Bharata’s sons, trained by him in Nāṭyaveda later on began to perform the *śilpakas* of rustic nature (*grāmyadharmaka*) and presented the life and deeds of the sages residing in the vicinity of Himalayas by the way of *viḍambana* (caricature) and *vyaṅgyakaraṇa* (satire). The sages being laughed at in this way got infuriated and cursed the actors to be expelled from the divine region of the Himalayas and to become *śūdras*. But again Bharata Muni gets his sons reconciled to their predicament through discussion.