본고는 인도 산스크리트 문법학 전통을 대표하는 철학자인 바르뜨르하리(Bhartṛhari, 450-510 CE)의 대표작 『문장과 단어에 관한 책』(Vākyapadīya)의 제 1장 「브라흐만에 관한 챕터」(Brahmakaṇḍa)에 나타난 ‘말’(śabda 혹은 vāc) 개념을 분석하고 해당 개념의 인식론적, 존재론적 함의를 세 가지 측면에서 살펴본다. 바르뜨르하리에게 있어 ‘말’이란 의식적･무의식적인 정신적 활동을 관통하는 원리이다. 그는 말이 가진 세 가지 층위를 구분한 후 그것이 단순히 물리적인 실체로서 구체화된 음성에 국한된 것이 아니라 인간 인식 전반을 꿰뚫고 있다고 주장한다. 하지만 그의 ‘말’ 개념은 인식 주체를 규율하는 기제를 넘어선다. 그는 ‘말’을 구체적으로 ‘베다’와 등치시키며 베다로부터 모든 사물이 창조되었다는 브라흐마나(Brāhmaṇa)군의 텍스트에 보이는 사고방식을 적용하여 모든 사물이 ‘말’의 힘에 의해 산출된 것이라 주장한다. 이와 같이 인식의 주체와 객체 모두를 ‘말’의 원리로 환원시킨 후, 바르뜨르하리는 인식 주체와 객체가 관계 맺는 방식인 인간의 지식체계 역시 태초의 ‘말’인 ‘베다’로부터 기인하기에 인도의 모든—비-베다 혹은 반-베다적 전통을 포함한—종교적 그리고 철학적 학문 전통은 베다로 구체화된 ‘말’이라는 공통의 기원을 가지고 있다는 세계관을 도출한다.
This paper analyses Bhartṛhari’s (c. 450-510 CE) notion of ‘speech’ (expressed in the word of ‘śabda’ or ‘vāc’) and examines its epistemological and ontological implications focusing on the first chapter, Brahmakāṇḍa, of his Vākyapadīya. For Bhartṛhari, ‘speech’ is the principle that penetrates through conscious and unconscious mental activities of creatures. Having divided three levels of speech, he argues that speech is not restricted to signify physical entities articulated by speakers; it is rather the principle that governs the entire dimensions of mental activities. His notion of speech, however, is more than the mechanism that rules cognitive subjects. Equating ‘speech’ with the word ‘Veda’ and applying the mode of thought typically demonstrated in the Brāhmaṇas, Bhartṛhari locates the origin of cognitive objects also in ‘speech.’ Moreover, the manners in which cognitive subjects and objects interact with each other is again determined by speech. All the scholarly traditions—regardless of their non-Vedic or anti-Vedic tendencies—in India, for Bhartṛhari, have their origins in speech materialized in the Veda. In this manner, Bhartṛhari, as Halbfass (1991, 65) once put it, “succeeded in developing an exemplary orthodox, Veda-oriented model for dealing with the problem of religious plurality.”
This paper analyses Bhartṛhari’s (c. 450-510 CE) notion of ‘speech’ (expressed in the word of ‘śabda’ or ‘vāc’) and examines its epistemological and ontological implications focusing on the first chapter, Brahmakāṇḍa, of his Vākyapadīya. For Bhartṛhari, ‘speech’ is the principle that penetrates through conscious and unconscious mental activities of creatures. Having divided three levels of speech, he argues that speech is not restricted to signify physical entities articulated by speakers; it is rather the principle that governs the entire dimensions of mental activities. His notion of speech, however, is more than the mechanism that rules cognitive subjects. Equating ‘speech’ with the word ‘Veda’ and applying the mode of thought typically demonstrated in the Brāhmaṇas, Bhartṛhari locates the origin of cognitive objects also in ‘speech.’ Moreover, the manners in which cognitive subjects and objects interact with each other is again determined by speech. All the scholarly traditions—regardless of their non-Vedic or anti-Vedic tendencies—in India, for Bhartṛhari, have their origins in speech materialized in the Veda. In this manner, Bhartṛhari, as Halbfass (1991, 65) once put it, “succeeded in developing an exemplary orthodox, Veda-oriented model for dealing with the problem of religious plurality.”