Hi Jim,

The older Vedic references to चत्वारि वाक् परिमिता पदानि have been continuously reinterpreted. चत्वारि पदजातानि नामाख्यातोपसर्गनिपाता: is an explanation that we see in pre-Bhartr̥hari sources. With Bhartr̥hari begins the expansion into पश्यन्ती, मध्यमा and वैखरी to which परा gets added at some point. You have raised an interesting question about the origin of the word वैखरी, if it is a Sanskritized Prakrit word. The Sanskrit verb विकिरति seems to appear as बिखरना in Hindi and विखरणे in Marathi. I don't know how far back in Prakrit this can be attested. But looking at the word वैखरी, I would not be surprised if it has a Prakrit origin.

Madhav

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Sat, Oct 23, 2021 at 5:12 PM Jim Ryan via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Hi,

I’m curious about the term Vaikharī for articulated speech. In the Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies volume on the Grammarians, judging from the index, it seems this term was first used by Bhartṛhari (at least in a grammatical context.) V. S. Apte cites the Mallinatha commentary on Kumārasaṃbhava for an authoritative reference of the word, but that is quite late (15th century.) Firstly, are there instances of this word used with any frequency before Bhartṛhari? Secondly, the lexicons give no good verbal root or root word for it. I note that the word vaikṛtī as “alteration” has a similar shape (and wouldn’t fit badly in the “articulated speech” category of Vāc), but I’m presuming that the word vaikharī is not a Prakrit-derived form. So… where and how do we get to this important term in language theory in India, which seems unrelated to any other common root or word?

Jim Ryan
Asian Philosophies and Cultures (Emeritus)
California Institute of Integral Studies

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