Published in Kalakalpa IGNCA Journal of Arts, Vol VI No1, Basant Panchami 2021

Sabda Sakti
Power of Words in India’s Linguistic Tradition

Sunil Sondhi*

Abstract
Language is always cultural, it is shaped by and in turn shapes the cultural context
from which it emerges. To understand the power of words in a country it is essential
to understand the host culture. In Sanskrit, and in Indian languages derived from
Sanskrit, like Hindi and Bengali, the term Sakti has been a cultural concept since the
Vedic age. “There is no word of wider content in any language than this Sanskrit term
meaning ‘Power’” (Woodroffe, p.17). In the Indian conceptualization of Sabda Sakti,
which means the ‘Power of the Word’, language is seen from the earliest times as
creative and mora power both at cosmic and human levels. Modern science sees
energy as the ultimate form of reality. In India language has been worshipped and
used as a manifestation of the creative energy of the goddess Saraswati since the Rg
Veda.

This article traces the evolution of the concept of Sabda Sakti from the time it first
occurs in the Rg Veda. This cultural conceptualization of language continues later in
the Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda in the form of religious and cultural practices. In
later Indian classical texts like the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads,
Sabda Sakti is related to the origin of the universe, and the umbilical relationship of
the cosmic energy and human speech is recognised. These ancient notions of Sabda
Sakti were restated and further developed in Kashmir Shaivism in the 10 th and 11th
centuries. While the Vedas and Upanishads emphasized the contemplative aspect of
Sabda Sakti, the Shaiva texts focused more on language as moralized power which is
active and can be used for action. The study of Indian concept of Sabda Sakti as a
cultural schema can be helpful in a better understanding of cultural roots of language
and communication in India, and can contribute to further research in the field of
cultural linguistics.

Keywords: Veda, Upanishad, Cultural Linguistics, Indian Culture, Intercultural

Communication.
Introduction
In recent years, there has been a trend of scholars’ call, especially from the non-Western
world, against the domination of Western paradigms in social sciences, particularly in
linguistics and communication studies. Recent works in this field have questioned of
appropriateness of the Western social science paradigms for the non-Western societies
(Alatas, 2006; Chen, 2018; Gluck, 2018; Gunaratne, 2010; Li, 2020; Miike, 2019,
2017,2016; Mowlana, 2019). The main concern of these scholars is the unequal
intellectual dominance of the “professional center of gravity in the USA”, and, to a lesser
degree, European academics. As Western theories and concepts do not always reflect the
issues and debates in the developing countries, critics propose an epistemic shift toward
a greater diversity of academic perspectives, leading to a greater diversity of
fundamental theories, approached and concepts worldwide (Gluck, 2018, p.2).

Eurocentrism, a term often used for Westernism, has been defined as the “procrustean
forcing of cultural heritage neatly into a single paradigmatic perspective in which
Europe is seen as the unique source of meaning, as the world’s center of gravity.
Eurocentric thinking attributes to the “West” an almost providential sense of historical
destiny” (Shohat and Stam, 2013, p.2). As another contemporary scholar further
elaborates, “The idea behind Eurocentricity in its most vile form, whatever its
theoretical manifestation, is that Europe is the standard and nothing exists in the same
category anywhere. It is the valorization of Europe above all other cultures and societies
that makes it such a racist system” (Asante, 2014, p.6-7).

In the Indian context, the assault on its cultural traditions was first officially announced
by William Wiberforce in his 1813 speech to the English Parliament in which he argued
that the English must ensure the conversion of the country to Christianity as the most
effective way of bringing it to “civilization”. In 1835, Governor General Macaulay
knocked down the entire intellectual output of India in his absurd statement that, “a
single shelf of good European library was worth the whole native literature of India...”
(Alvares, 2011, p.73). It is distressing that even as India approaches seventy-five years of
independence from British colonialism, so many educated segments and educational
institutions in the country still continue to sustain the “apemanship and parrotry”
knowledge structure of the West (ibid.).

In a recent in-depth study on Eurocentrism, specifically focused on Hegel’s views on

Indian culture and philosophy, Signoracci (2017), observes that Hegel “had more to do
with the suppression or exclusion of the Indian traditions from the history and practice
of philosophy in Europe and elsewhere than may be thought, and there is much to do to
reverse this trend” (p.253). He further observes that Indian philosophy’s “historical
prominence and continuing vitality show its considerable sophistication and render it-
perhaps not solely, but certainly uniquely – capable of posing a challenge to the
assessment Hegel delivers” (ibid. p.233).

J.S. Yadav, former Director of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, has observed
that Western communication models and methodologies do not really help in
understanding and explaining communication events, phenomena and processes in the
context of Indian society and culture. Western models and methodologies are not very
appropriate for Indian conditions. He has emphasized the need to develop and refine
Indian or Eastern way of looking at language and communication and use appropriate
research methods for studying communication events and processing. (Yadava, p. 191).
In Indian culture, saints and sages have traditionally been opinion leaders
communicating the norms and values for righteous social behavior on the part the
individuals. Their role as communicators who influence communication at various levels
is important even today and needs to studied to bring Indian communication model
closer to the lived reality of the people of India (ibid. p. 194).

This article presents a conceptualization of language-culture relation in a combined

cultural-linguistic perspective in the Indian context. The main perspective is cultural
and it draws on the religious and philosophical dimensions of Indian culture. The
secondary perspective is linguistic and it focuses on the linguistic flows as cultural flows
globally. (Palmer, P.87). The Indian concept of Sabda Sakti is a cultural schema which
can be helpful not only in a better understanding of cultural roots of language and in
India and but also in accepting its role in promoting intercultural communication.

Cultured Language
The relationship of language and culture has been at the center of the philosophical and
linguistic conceptualizations in Indian tradition since the ancient times. These
conceptualizations were never organized into a separate discipline and these concepts
were never explicitly formulated. “It was essentially an interdisciplinary scholarship
which either postulated common explanatory categories or developed parallel constructs
with the same significance to make the models functionally optional and efficient”
(Kapoor, DPG, p.4). It is therefore most surprising that we find an almost total
disjunction between the study of classical Indian philosophical and linguistic tradition
and the modern theories of language and communication. Only recently have we seen a
revival of interest in India in the heritage of our traditional knowledge (Kapoor, 2010;
Matilal, 2014; Ram Swaroop, 2011; Tripathi, 2018; Vatsyayan, 2016; Malhotra, 2020).

A strong tradition of linguistic analysis that developed in India in the first millennium
BC and has continued uninterrupted to modern times. Fields of phonetics and grammar
were recognized first. By the early fourth century BC, Pāṇini composed a complete
grammar of Sanskrit that generates utterances from basic elements under semantic and
co-occurrence conditions. The grammar utilizes sophisticated techniques of reference, a
formal meta-language, and abstract principles of rule precedence (Allen, 1953; Vasu,
1988; Kiparsky. 2002; Deshpande 2011). The long tradition of grammatical commentary
that followed Panini’s work investigated subtleties of verbal cognition in discussion with
well-developed philosophical disciplines of logic and ritual exegesis. Sabda became a
unifying term referring to word, sentence, sound, meaning, discourse, and language, all
indicating a way to gain insight into the nature of the Absolute Reality or Brahma.

The study of language and communication in India was never a monopoly of the
logicians or the rhetoricians, as it was in Greece. Almost all schools of thought in India
began their discussions from the fundamental problem of communication (Coward and
Raja, p.3). The scholar-saints of the Vedic age were greatly concerned with the powers
and limitations of language a means of communicating their personal experiences of a
visionary nature to their kinsmen and they tried to exhibit the power of language by
various means. They praised the power of language by identifying it with the powerful
goddess Saraswati ready to give desired results to her devotees. The entire creation was
attributed by some sages to divine language, and it was generally accepted that ordinary
speech of mortals was only a part of that language.

The goal of Indian thought on language and communication is not mere rational
knowledge, but also experience of the Absolute Reality. Knowledge of language resulting
in correct speech not only communicates meaning but also enables one to experience
reality. This is the meaning of the Indian term darsana, which literally means “vision”.
It is this feature that sets Indian linguistics apart from modern western perspectives on
language. From the early Vedas and Upanishads the Indian approach to language and
communication has never been limited to composition and transmission. All aspects of
the mundane world and human experience were regarded as enlightened by language.
Linguistics in India always had and continues to have both phenomenal and
metaphysical dimensions. (Agrawala, 1953, 1963; Jha, 2010).

Interest in studying the relationship between language and culture in the West emerged
three thousand years later, in the eighteenth century. William Jones, Charles Wilkins,
Franz Bopp, and Wilhelm Von Humboldt, were among the early scholars in Europe who
became aware of the relationship of Sanskrit with the languages of Europe (Staal, 1996,
p. 36). They explored the relationship between language, reality and culture and
emphasized that diversity of language was one of the central facts about human
civilization and potentially, at least, had implications for natural and social situations.
In the 19th-century the idea of ‘linguistic relativity’ was first clearly expressed by
German linguists, Humboldt and Herder who saw language as the expression of the
spirit of a nation, and the diversity of languages as diversity of views of the world.

This principle was further developed in the twentieth century with an explicit reference
to Einstein’s theory of relativity. This amounted to maintaining that the differences
between the languages of the speaker and the listener had to be taken in to account in
any analysis of social and cultural life. Just as in Einstein’s theory of relativity the
velocity and the direction of the observer had to be taken into account to determine
those of any other person or object. In neither language nor in physical reality there was
a fixed point or center from where everything else could be judged. (Einstein, 1952;
Heisenberg, 1962; Bohr, 1958; Bohm, 1980; Prigogine, 1977; Rovelli, 2017 ).

Around the same time Franz Boas came up with the idea of cultural relativity, which
holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked as higher or lower, or better or more
correct, but that all humans see the world through the lens of their own culture, and
judge it according to their own culturally acquired norms (Leavitt, 2019). Cultural
relativity stresses the equal worth of all cultures and languages, it sees no such thing as a
primitive language and considers all languages as capable of expressing the same
meaning, through widely differing structures. Boas saw language as an inseparable part
of culture and he was among the first to study and document verbal culture in the
original language.

Different orientations adopted to study the relationship between language and culture
are partly due to the difficulty in defining the terms language and culture. Views of
language have in recent years ranged from language as action, language as social
practice, language as a cognitive system, and language as a complex adaptive system.
Culture has similarly been viewed differently by different schools of thought. It has been
seen as a cognitive system, a symbolic system, as social practice, or as a construct
(Sharifian, 2019, p.3). These orientations are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The
boundaries between theories, and between disciplines of study, are always porous and
dynamic, as indeed all aspects of reality are.

In the West, since the time of Aristotle, a view has been widespread that all humans
think in the same way, and that language merely serves to code and communicate
already formed thoughts. Such a view is fundamental to such philosophical systems as
Cartesian rationalism, Locke’s empiricism and Kant’s idealism. This kind of
universalism is carried on today by the dominant mode of linguistics. People trained in
linguistics and communication studies tend to see culture through the lens of language.

Culture is typically seen by the linguists as a kind of extension of language. Among the
people trained in fields like cultural studies this language determined view of culture is
considered biased. From a cultural studies perspective, many features of human
languages are entrenched in cultural concepts, including cultural frames, models or
schemata (Palmer 1996; Sharifian, 2011). In his path breaking book, Toward a Theory
of Cultural Linguistics, Palmer observed that “ It is likely that all native knowledge of
language and culture belongs to cultural schemas and the living of culture and the
speaking of language consist of schemas in action” (ibid. p. 63).

Absolutely Real
India is the one country in the world, best exemplifying an ageless, unbroken tradition
of speculations about language and communication (Padoux, p.1). This linguistic
tradition includes extensive explorations and rules of phonetics and grammar; diverse
philosophies on the value and nature of language; and the phenomenal and
transcendental power of language and communication. At one level language has been
identified in Indian tradition with the Absolute Reality, the Brahma, and at another
level it has been identified with meaningful and disciplined speech, Sabdanusanam.
Throughout the ages, theories and practice of language have evolved in India, elements
of which can be identified, at different periods in time, in almost all of the thought
systems that arose here (Staal, 1996, p.2).

Conceptualizations about language and communication constitute an intellectual

tradition in India, in which speech, emerging at the time of creation, is seen as creative
and efficient power, an energy (Sakti), which is both cosmic and human. This creative
power can be accessed by human beings through structured language, which serves as a
medium or channel through which knowledgeable and skilled persons can reach the
higher levels of coherence and cohesion of language and reality. These
conceptualizations are present as early as the Vedas and maintain continuity through
texts on phonetics (siksa, and pratisakhya), the epics (Mahabharata), the works of
grammarians (sabdanusanam), the Upanishads, the philosophies (darsanas), and the
texts on the arts (Verma 1961; Sastri 2015; Ranganathananda, 2015; Tagore; 2018;
Tripathi, 2018).

Earliest conceptualization of language as Sakti can be found in the Vedas, where the
notion of creative role of language is present widely, most significantly in Rg Veda Book
X. Hymn X.71 speaks of rare and shining treasures hidden in language which are
disclosed to those who have the insight and affection in their speech. When language is
used with insight and care it wins the cooperation of other persons. (Rg Veda, p.809-
15). But only those who make the effort and have the right intention can speak and
comprehend language in the right way. A person who has not understood the essence of
the spoken word can only use language that is superficial and hollow. Good
communication skill comes to those who words are trustworthy and reflect the integrity
of the person. People have similar sense organs but their comprehension and expression
is not the same. Knowledge and experience enables a person to use the power of words
to understand and conceptualize reality in most beneficial way. An energized, dynamic,
and knowledgeable person is successful in practical life and wins goodwill and
admiration in society. (Sondhi, 2020, p.6).

Hymn X.125 goes further and extols the powers and grandeur of the speech goddess in a
lengthy Vak Sukta. It identifies and glorifies Vak or speech as a supreme power which
supports the gods and the sages, and their position in the cosmic and the phenomenal
world. It gives strength and treasures to the faithful ones who perform their duties. In
this hymn, speech is identified with the cosmic energy and the same time with the voice
of the people of knowledge and action in the human society. While the power of the
speech is considered to be of the nature of cosmic energy, and which resides with the
gods, at the same time this power and energy is within the reach of the people who have
faith and whose knowledge and action makes them trustworthy (Rg Veda, p.1113-1117).

One can see in these two hymns seeds of the later flowering of Indian conceptualizations
of language and communication in connection with both the absolute and the apparent
reality. The integrative and flowing movement of language between the grossest and
subtlest levels of reality is the core of the Indian concept of communication.

The Upanishads continue the Vedic tradition of recognizing the value of language for
human beings for realizing their material and spiritual goals. While references to speech
and language can be found in most of the Upanishads, two representative selections
from Brhad-aranyaka and Katha Upanishad beautifully sum up the conceptualization
of language as cosmic energy in these texts. In Chapter VI.2, speech is considered as the
abode of the Absolute Reality, Brahma. Absolute Reality resides in speech, it is
supported by space, and deserves to be honored as consciousness. By speech alone can
one identify the people with whom one can cooperate, acquire the knowledge that is in
the texts, interpretations, and activities. The Absolute Reality is, in truth, speech. By
recognizing and imbibing the true value and energy of speech one can even become a
god (Radhakrishnan, p.246).

In Katha Upanishad, in Chapter II.16, the essence of all the Vedic texts is said to exist in
the syllable Om. It can be compared with metaphor of seed given in Chandyoga
Upanishad to indicate that the essence of the tree exists inside the invisible depths of
the seed. Similarly, a single syllable, indestructible akshara, is seen as the microcosmic
formless essence of the Absolute Reality. Knowledge of this everlasting spirit gives
capability to a person to achieve all that he desires in life (ibid. p.616). Words are a real
spacetime sample of illimitable and dimensionless cosmic energy, constituted of matter,
radiation, light, consciousness, and action. This text from Katha Upanishad asserts that
there is nothing that an insightful person cannot achieve through the knowledge and use
of proper language, which is a symbol of the divine energy (Padoux, p.18).

From the Vedic times language had a divine and human quality at the same time. There
is no contradiction here. Indian conceptualizations of language and communication are
holistic and practical, and they are far from being mere imaginations unrelated with
objective reality. This is brought out even more clearly in the texts of Bhartrihari and
Abhinavagupta in the later periods (Iyer, 1971, 1992; Pillai, 1971; Furlinger, 2009).
These texts are based on the integral relationship established between language,
Absolute Reality and objective reality. Absolute Reality, or divine energy, or Brahma
and Shiva, in its essential nature, is speech, and activity through speech. Everything
related to language, communication and objective reality has an umbilical relationship
with Absolute Reality. Since Absolute Reality is all pervasive and omnipresent, and since
everything emerges from it, language is a manifestation of the un-manifest supreme
reality.

The ancient Indian notions about the nature and power of the word or speech,
appearing in the Vedas, Upanishads and the Grammatical texts, are further developed,
with identical or very close meanings, in Kashmir Saiva texts (Padoux, p.5). In these
texts the essentially symbolic role of kundalini as an energy that is both cosmic and
present within human beings is repeatedly emphasized to emphasize the
correspondence between human and the cosmic levels (Para-Trisika-Vivarna, 2017; Siva
Sutras, 2017 ). From this energy, which is all pervading and is of the nature of
Sabdabrahma, a familiar concept in Bhartrihari’s Vakyapadia (Iyer 1992; Pillai, 1971),
Sakti, or phenomenal power is generated, which in turn leads to the four levels of
speech: Para, Pasyanti, Madhyama, and Vaikhari. It is in the last stage of Vaikhari,
that human language and communication becomes manifest. Language is made of three
powers of will, cognition, and action, and it is endowed with the properties of created
things, which include the cycle of birth, growth and transformation. Language thus
becomes an integral part of the Absolute Reality, conceptualized as Sabda Sakti.

Sakti is the cosmic energy that manifests the general potential creativity of Siva into
specific names and forms of Sabda or sound. The most pervasive principle that
Abhinavagupta uses in his texts is sarvam savatmakam, variously translated as
“everything is related to the totality”, “every part is related to the whole”, \
“omnifariousness”, and “omnipresence of all in all”, “everything is of the nature of all”.
This doctrine has antecedents going back to Atharva Veda, where Indra's Net
symbolizes the cosmos as a web of connections and interdependences (Malhotra, 2016,
p.4).

Abhinavagupta not only espouses and applies this principle, he goes as well into an
extensive interpretation of a verse from Mahabharata which exemplifies this omni-
pervasiveness (Baumer, p. 270). The Shantiparva verse 47.84 says that “Everything is in
you. Everything is from you. You Yourself are Everything. Everywhere are you. You are
always the All. Salutations to you in your form as Everything” (Mahabharata, Vol 5,
p.146). An earlier verse, 47.47, throws more light on deeper roots of the concept of
Sabda Sakti. It says, “Roots with all kinds of affixes and suffixes are your limbs. The
Sandhis are your joints. The consonants and the vowels are your ornaments. The Vedas
have declared you to be the divine word. Salutations to you in your form as the word”
(ibid. 143).

Sakti, the divine power, is the essential nature of the Absolute Reality itself. It is the
radiating, pulsating, vibrating, brilliant, dynamic and absolute free power, which is
essentially pure light and supreme joy, the core, the heart of Reality, of everything. In its
different forms and stages it is the essential nature of all that exists in the world. Sakti is
in a blade of grass, a dust particle, humans, rocks, water, trees, animals, a spiral nebula
in the sky, an atom, a thought, a sensation, and in Akshara and Sabda- and at the same
time it transcends the world and is in Brahma. In this way the Kashmir Advaita notion
of Sabda Sakti is closer to the Vishishta Adavita of Ramanuja than the Advaita Vedanta
of Shankara (Furlinger, p.249).

Abhinavagupta’s conceptualization of language and reality in Tantraloka makes it

abundantly clear that unity and diversity are the aspects of same integrated wholeness
which is in a state of constant vibration or pulsation (spandan), and change. In verse
III.100 of Tantraloka, Abhinavagupta explicitly says that if the Absolute Reality did not
manifest itself in infinite variety, but remained enclosed in its own singular unity, it
would neither be the supreme power nor awareness. It is the nature of Absolute Reality,
and language, to expand and diversify in infinite forms. Incessant creativity or
consciousness is the essence of its absoluteness, and this is the eternal source of all
linguistic forms and constructions. (Siva Sutras, p. xxi).

This view of language seems somewhat similar to the present day view of language and
reality in quantum physics. Language may be seen as a coherent wave that represents
the potential of all outcomes that exist simultaneously in superposition or overlapping
state, as a field of potentialities (Wendt, p. 217). While language as a whole, with all its
levels from Para to Vaikhari, is in a sort of quantum coherent state, meaning is actually
communicated at the level of its decoherence, or Vaikhari, or speech. What brings about
the transformation in language from a field of potential meanings into actual ones is the
will and act of speech. It is speech as interaction that puts language into a context, with
both other words and particular listener. Words are stored in consciousness not as
isolated entities, but as nodes in a network of connected or entangled words. They
communicate meaning when intentionally and willfully used in a certain chosen order in
particular context.

The vibration, energy, and manifestation of the Sabda or Brahma or Absolute Reality, is
not disorderly or disparate movement of its subtle constituent elements and forms. Both
in thought and language, letters, words, and sentences are not randomly flying off in
different directions, not even in insane beings. There is always a pattern, an order,
which can be identified on closer consideration. The underlying pattern in Indian
languages is integrative and accommodative and the objective is always interaction,
coordination and sustenance. Language is creative and evolving on the hand; on the
other it connects, unifies and upholds. The power of language to connect and
comprehend the incessant flow of our sense perceptions and uphold the Absolute
Reality is nothing short of a miracle, a divine gift, conceptualized in the term Sabda
Sakti.

From the foregoing it is evident that the primary concern of Indian thought on language
and communication has been its efficient and discerning use to support, sustain and
strengthen all existence and this does not exclude divinity. The original word, identical
with the divine energy is seen in this perspective as phonic energy, which is eternal,
indestructible, subtle, and illimitable, which however evolves and unfolds through
different stages and forms, and brings forth, names, or identifies, minutely and
precisely, all the various kinds and dimensions of objects. Language, then, is inherently
endowed with creative energy. The creative energy precedes the object, it is the creative
energy of the Absolute Reality in the form of speech that defines and upholds the
objects, their relations, and the entire order of nature.

Moralized Power
Ethical and practical issues in the process of intercultural communication have received
significant scholarly attention in recent years. From a review of recent works in this
regard Miike (2019) has formulated five principles of communication ethics from a
practical perspective: mutual respect; reaffirmation and renewal; identification and
indebtedness; sustainability; and openness. Indian linguistic and communication
tradition is a testimony of the abiding value of these principles, both in theory and in
practice.

At the outset, we must know that the word Sakti comes from the root Sak which means
“to be able”, “to do”. It indicates both activity and the capacity to do so. In a sense the
world and its each constituent element is Sakti. But this activity is not random,
anarchical or disorderly action. The concept of Rta in Indian tradition stands for order
and coexistence. Everything that exists in the world and beyond is in an order which
sustains the system and its parts at the same time. Power translated to the material
plane is only one and the grossest aspect of Sakti. But all the material aspects are limited
forms of the great creative and sustaining power of the Absolute Reality, the Brahma or
Siva. Sakti is moralized by the essential unity and coexistence of all diverse forms in the
Siva the Absolute Reality, which is inclusive, interconnected and interdependent. Sakti
is therefore always in the service of the right, the good, and the moral (Woodroffe, p.
122).

In the Indian linguistic and cultural tradition, goddess Sarasvati is a symbol of Sakti or
creative energy at both cosmic and human levels. Sarasvati is the most important
cultural symbol and source of all thoughts, insights, speech, and learning. Meanings,
meaningful language, names, forms, and objects are also believed to have originated
from her. She is the creator of all arts and music too. Above all, she is the source of life-
giving perennial rivers which sustain all creation on earth (Ludvik, 2007). This Rg
Vedic ideal of language, thought and action runs through Panini’s Ashtadhyayi,
Patanjali’s Mahabhashya, Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra, Bhartrihari’s Vakyapadia, and
Abhinavagupta’s Tantraloka, to name just a few of classical texts in India’s long and
insightful linguistic tradition which is the core of Indian culture (Agrawal, 1963,1953;
Ghosh, 2016; Iyer, 1971, 1992; Baumer, 2021). This tradition is the reverse of trying to
have control or command over language to “accomplish some tangible business goal” or
change the way others think and feel (Garcia, p.235). Language and communication in
Indian tradition is considered as a divine energy to be used in speech with utmost care
and affection to bring people together for collective good, or Dharma and keep them
away from evil, or Adharma.

This practical and ethical view of language and communication is most clearly brought
out in the concluding verses of the Rg Veda, “The light of lights which illuminates all life
and elements, which enlightens speech in the form of supreme word ‘Om’, may bring
prosperity to all. Let us all walk together, talk together, and think together to acquire
knowledge, and live together like knowledgeable people for the common good. Let our
meetings, thoughts, feelings, and consciousness be for common objectives. Let us all
have the collective determination to bring our hearts and minds together so that we can
live together in harmony” (Rg Veda, p.1265-66). The Sanskrit root Sam, which means
together, or common, is writ large over all the prayers in Rg Veda and other classical
texts and even in modern Indian languages. Two words Sanskriti, and Sanskrit, may be
translated as culture and language. The root for both words is Sam. Both culture and
language are thus understood in India in terms of common creation or heritage. Even
the word Samvad, which means communication, has same root Sam, and the same
essence-togetherness. Indian parliament, Samsad, is again, togetherness. “Sam refers to
the xperience of completetness, totality and perfection, which is cognate with the
English word ‘sum’ (Malhotra, 2020, p.35).

Nirukta, considered the oldest Indian treatise on etymology, philology, and semantics
believed to have been composed around 500 BC (Sarup, 1966, p.54), maintained that
Vedic language was the only language that corresponded very closely to the composite
and dynamic nature of the reality at both absolute and apparent levels. Since the
Absolute Reality is both integrated and dynamic, the Kriya, denoting Karma, or action
is the primary part of the sentence and all other parts of the sentence, - the subject, the
object, etc. - are only modes of the word (Raju, p.66). The words denoting activity are to
be considered as primary and the rest as secondary. Words, sentences and language
asking us to act in order like cosmic energy are important and other sentences are
subsidiary (ibid. p.67).
Paniniya Siksa mentions six merits of a good speech that connects the speaker and the
listener in the right manner: politeness, clarity, distinctive words, right accent, and time
adherence. The six demerits are: singsong manner, nodding of head, too fast speed,
written script, low voice and ignorance of meaning. Speech that is made with defective
accent or pronunciation is considered poor and not capable of connecting with the
listener in right manner. In fact, it may convey a wrong meaning that will do more harm
than good to the speaker. A good and effective speaker should observe proper accent
and places of articulation, use proper gestures, and above all know the meaning of what
he is saying (Ghosh, 1938, p.72-79). These fundamental rules of good speech formulated
by Panini continued to be followed by Patanjali, Bharatmuni, Bhartrihari, and
Abhinavagupta, and are considered crucial for good communication even today.

Mahabharata mentions politeness in language as one thing that can bring glory and
success to a person who practices this communication skill (Mahabharata, Vol.5,
p.271). In Bhagvadgita, which “coined hundreds of the words that we use in daily life”
(Radhakrishnan, p.9), learning from classic texts and practice of disciplined speech is
advocated for communication that is truthful, beneficial, and polite. Indian classical
texts formulated these principles of good communication more than three thousand
years before Dale Carnegie wrote the bestseller, How to Win Friends and Influence
People. Indian view of language and communication is a holistic and dynamic view that
joins, links, coordinates and brings people together. Not in the sense of monotonous
uniformity, and not in the sense of erasing all the differences, but in the sense of unity in
diversity, shared commonalties along with differences. This tradition of insightful,
accommodative, and integrative speech is India’s major contribution towards building
‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam’ or global family (Sondhi, 2017).

In the Upanishads also this practical and ethical aspect of language is re-emphasized.
The Chandogya Upanishad says that “if there was no speech, neither right nor wrong
would be known, neither the true nor the false, neither the good nor the bad, neither the
pleasing nor the unpleasing. Speech, indeed, makes all this known” (Radhakrishnan, p.
470). In Tattiriya Upanishad, after teaching the Veda, the teacher instructs the pupils
to speak the truth, practice virtue, practice welfare, achieve prosperity, continue study
and discussion, and perform duties to gods and parents (ibid. p.537). The importance of
activity is stressed in Isa Upanishad, when it says that one should wish to live a hundred
years always performing works. (ibid. 569). The Upanishads generally conceive the
Absolute Reality as the light of lights. Light is the principle of communication. In this
sense, language is the expression of the character of the Absolute Reality (ibid. p. 62).

One way we can frame an Indian communication model is to describe it as holistic,

innermost and multidimensional coordination through the creative power of language.
That is, language and communication that originates from all dimensions of being –
physical, emotional, rational, cultural, and spiritual, and seeks to reach out to as many
aspects as possible of the listener. Inherently, then, language evolves out of a clear
understanding of the wider social, universal and cosmic context of the speaker and the
listener. A primary assumption of this view is that the coordination we so earnestly seek
does exist in all language. Our ideas, feelings, and language spring from the rich
foundation of our common human and cosmic identity, at the most fundamental level,
we are part of the same fabric of being amidst all existence.

The Saraswati Rahsya Upanishad, which belongs to the category of minor Upanishads,
and which may have been composed around the end of 13th century AD (Warrier, p. vi),
is exclusively devoted to the moralized power of words as symbolized in the image of
goddess Saraswati, a conceptualization that was first seen in the Rg Veda. This short
Upanisad is an invocation to goddess Saraswati to bestow her divine powers to her
worshippers for their well-being and prosperity.

The opening verse of the Saraswati Rahasya Upanisad says that speech is rooted in
thought and thought is rooted in speech. This connectivity and complementarity of
speech and thought has now been scientifically established in neuroscience, as quantum
physics has established the connectivity and complementarity of all existence as known
to us. The same verse further says that we shall speak what is righteous and what is true;
we shall hear what is good, see what is good, and shall have strength to enjoy the divine
gift of human life (Upanisad Ank, p. 666).

Language is considered in this Upanisad as the meaningful essence of all texts, which is
expressed in different ways. Language exists in countless forms in words, sentences and
compositions, and their meanings, and it is without beginning or end. It brings
prosperity to all through meaningful action and helps them achieve clarity of mind.
Language makes knowledgeable and practical people conscious of their obligations, and
motivates them to be polite and truthful in their communications. The meaning of
words is apparent only partially, the complete meaning is not expressible in words and
has to be understood contextually through insights acquired by those who are
knowledgeable and experienced (ibid. p.667).

The Saraswati Rahasya Upanisad explicitly relates the power of language with the
image of the river Goddess Saraswati, which first emerged as a river, and is believed as
manifesting the ocean of cosmic energy in the form of incessant creative activity in its
eternal flow, supporting, sustaining, and strengthening all life on earth. The divine
manifestation in the form of language similarly confers creative thought, speech and
action on everyone who faithfully strives for it (ibid.). It may not be a mere coincidence
that in terms of modern science both river and language exhibit quantum coherence, or
wave function, which provides scientific description of the nature of all reality, material
and spiritual. The apparent connection between the insights of the Indian sages found in
the Upanisads and the insights of modern scientists in quantum theory indicates the
unity rather than opposition of science and philosophy as highest human endeavours.

Conclusion
It is the premise of this article that problems in language and communication within and
between different cultures and societies stem from a complex web of linguistic, social,
and cultural factors that go beyond any individual, or situation. It is argued that to find a
solution to this problem we need to look within a society and examine the disconnect
between its language and culture. India’s rich linguistic heritage is embedded in its
composite and integrated culture. It is therefore imperative that problems in language
proficiency and competence in India should be resolved on the basis of cultural
foundations of Indian languages.

The Indian communication model is based on the structure of language as an ascending

hierarchy of conceptual abstraction between the base level of physical reality, the
materiality of language, through intermediate levels of abstraction, to the highest levels
of abstraction - Sabda Brahman or Paramasiva – where linguistic form merges with
Absolute Reality beyond language and thought. While the connection of the basic
linguistic terms with sense perceptions of everyday experiences is of fundamental
importance, comprehension of the connections between our sense perceptions in their
totality require logically derived concepts at different levels of abstraction. The concept
of Sabda Sakti symbolizes the creative energy of language in Indian tradition that
connects and integrates the highest and lowest levels of abstraction seamlessly,
gracefully, and in holistically, not loosing touch with reality at different levels.

This communication model to a large extent is shaped by the Vedas and Upanishads,
the diverse philosophical schools and traditions, and a treasure of ideas and practices
stemming from India’s composite cultural heritage. This legacy contributes to a diverse
and yet coherent Indian way of communication in a flowing movement. Only a few of
such classical texts have been studied so far with regard to their contribution towards
the evolution of an Indian communication model. Towards this end, Indian classical
texts relating to language need to be explored further and relevant ideas stemming from
them adopted for integrative and accommodative language and communication in India
and the world.

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 Prof. Sunil Sondhi is Project Director, ICSSR-IMPRESS project on ‘Culture and Communication in
India: Contemporary Relevance of Classical Indian Texts”, affiliated with IGNCA, New Delhi.
Financial assistance from ICSSR for the project is gratefully acknowledged.