Kumārila's Theory on the Meaning of Sentence (vākyārtha) : Preliminary Notes (No. 550 Commemoration Issue)

第五百五十號記念特集號The problem of the meaning of śabda (speech, language) was discussed by many schools in classical India. For the Mïmāṃsakas, who are engaged in the investigation of dharma (religious duties), the śabda with which they are primarily concerned is the injunctive sentences (vākya) of the Vedic texts. The philosophical study of the problems concerning the śabda is found in the Mimāṃsāsūtra (=MS), I. 1. 6-23 and in the Vṛttikāra-grantha cited under the Śabarabhāṣya (=ŚBh) , I. 1. 4-5. However, the śabda treated therein is either the sound (dhvani) or the word (pada), and not the sentence. It is in the MS, I. 1. 24-26 (vākyādhikaraṇa) that the sentence is taken up for the subject of discussion. In his Ślokavārttika, Kumārila (ca. 600-650 A. D.) fully develops the idea set forth in this portion of MS and ŚBh, and expounds the views that bhāvanā is the meaning of a sentence, and that the meaning of a sentence is formed by the construction of the meanings expressed by the component words (abhihitānvaya). The author of this paper intends to make a detailed examination of Kumārila's theory of bhāvanā and that of abhihitānvaya in the main article which will appear later