अभिधान रहस्य – VEDIC NOMENCLATURE

by Basudeba Mishra

What is the necessity of nomenclature? It is necessary because we perceive objects only after identifying it with a “speech form” – वाक्, whose means of expression is equivalent to the written or spoken words. Such speech form can be of two types: व्युत्पन्न – expressed and understood and अव्युत्पन्न – unexpressed, but understood. The first category is the cause for the use of languages. Language is the transposition of one’s desire/command on another person/system’s brain/CPU. These are broadly divided into two categories – naturally precise, unambiguous and scientific (वैदिक) and popular usage (लौकिक) – not so precise or scientific. The second category of speech form, i.e., अव्युत्पन्न is of three types as follows:

1. जातिप्रवृत्ति-निमित्तक – operation that is the cause for expressing the idea of a class of objects, such as man, car, star, hydrogen etc. These terms do not have competitive excellence as they represent a class, the individual members of which cannot be differentiated from each other through such definition. For example, let us take the example of two atoms of Hydrogen. One cannot be a better atom of hydrogen than the other.
2. गुणप्रवृत्ति-निमित्तक – operation that is the cause for expressing the idea of a property of objects, such as salty, white, fragrant, hot etc. These terms have competitive excellence as they do not represent a class of objects, but properties of individual members of a class, which can be differentiated from each other by their degree of excellence. For example, the total positive charge in the nucleus and negative charge in the electron shells of a Helium atom is higher than that of a Hydrogen atom.
3. शब्दप्रवृत्ति-निमित्तक – operation that is the cause for expressing a class of sounds, which do not have any meaning by themselves, but have a contextual meaning.

शब्देनोच्चारितेनेह येन द्रव्यं प्रतीयते।
तदक्षरविधौ युक्तं नामेत्याहुर्मनीषिणः।

The general principle of nomenclature is that whenever we perceive any object after hearing a sound or a signal, if such sound or signal is व्युत्पन्न – expressed and understood through the letters of the alphabet and regulated by the rules of grammar or otherwise through a system, such sound or signal is termed as a name. The Vaidic system of letters of the alphabet (अक्षर) follows a natural course; hence they literally mean “non-perishing” and always carry the same meaning. Their mechanism of generation is as follows:

आत्मा बुद्ध्या समेत्यार्थान्मनो युक्ते विवक्षया।
मनः कायाग्निमाहन्ति स प्रेरयति मारुतम्।

When the necessity for using some sound or signal to express the need of something is felt (इच्छा) in the conscious mind (or the CPU gets a command), the mind (RAM) gets activated to determine the ways and means of fulfilling such need/command (ज्ञानम्). This activity (क्रिया) of the mind then propels the body’s internal heat from the bottom of the trunk due to reasons and through a mechanism that is not being discussed at present (those interested may refer to व्यासशिक्षा or शम्भुशिक्षा). This raises the intensity of temperature (sends signals) according to the need for such expression. The internal energy of the body thus gets activated and is propelled in the upward direction. Such energy comes out at the mouth through different processes due to its inherent force after touching various parts inside the body and the mouth cavity. The musical tones deviate slightly as they go up to the thalamus and cerebral cortex, and then returns before coming out of the mouth. Hence they touch the heart more. Depending upon such interaction, which leads to vibrations at different points and their transmission outwards, different sounds are produced. These sounds have been categorized by the knowledgeable. These categorized sounds are the letters of Vaidic language (ऐन्द्रव्याकरण). Since they can be repeated in the same process, they are called natural letters. These natural letters evolve in the same process as the rest of the world evolves. Thus, they carry a fixed meaning, which makes them non-changing (अक्षर). Local or popular languages (प्राकृत) were evolved to broadly follow the same principle (विपर्यस्त संस्कार), but are not fully structured as the Vaidic language. Many modern Indian languages including Odia and Tolkappiyam, evolved this way. Thus, they are not capable of expressing the same meaning every time equally well. Hence they are periodically reformed by grammarians. Due to one such reform, Sanskrit was evolved (अपर संस्कार) followed by Tamil (by Agasti) about 5000 years ago. Hence the word Sanskrit means reformed (The name Tamil comes from the first word uttered by Agasti “Tamilam Tamilam” meaning sweet, sweet, after he left the conference where Sanskrit was being formulated, due to differences with others.). These are the world’s oldest scientific languages.

The perception of objects from such sound of languages relate to four different aspects of objects: existence, material content, number and charge (सत्त्व-द्रव्य-सङ्ख्या-लिङ्ग). However, existence overrides all other perceptions. Hence, nomenclature basically refers to the existence of something that is described through language (यदर्थज्ञानाच्छब्दप्रवृत्तिस्तत्प्रवृत्तिनिमित्तम्). Sequential displacement of substances (गुणभूतैरवयवैः समूहः क्रमजन्मनाम्) in a base, when differentiated from its earlier state, is described as action (बुद्ध्या प्रकल्पिताभेदः क्रियेति व्यपदिश्यते). Since such displacement at the fundamental level is a continuous process in all particles, it has to be differentiated from others through the essential characteristics of such actions. Like the perception of objects, such actions also are perceived in different ways: sequential displacements within the base which are repetatitive in nature, time, the operator and the base in which such displacement takes place (क्रियाया आधारः कारकमधिकरणम्). Since these describe the properties of the action relating to charge (this will be explained later), it is also known as the effect (भाव-काल-कारक-सङ्ख्या). Based on the above reasons, the Vaidic nomenclature system was devised. Modern Physics does not have a well defined system of nomenclature, even though chemistry and biology have some broad guidelines in this regard. However, the Vaidic nomenclature system is universally applicable. Different authorities on Vaidic science have adopted different systems of nomenclatures. However, they are not mutually contradictory, but inclusive. For easy comprehension, we are quoting modern examples of nomenclature based on the Vaidic principle. मधुक, श्वेतकेतु and गालव describe a nomenclature system based on nine parameters as follows:

निवासात् कर्मणो रूपान् मङ्गलाद् वाच आशिषः।
यदृच्छयोपवसनात् तथामुष्यायणाच्च यत्।

प्रजाः कर्म समुत्था हि कर्मतः सत्त्वसङ्गतिः।
क्वचित्संजायते सच्च निवासात्तत् प्रजायते।

यादृच्छिकं तु नामाभिधीयते यत्र कुत्र चित्।
औपम्यादपि तद् विद्याद् भावस्यैवेह कस्यचित्।

नाकर्मकोऽस्ति भावो हि न नामास्ति निरर्थकम्।
नान्यत्र भावन्नामानि तस्मात् सर्वाणि कर्मतः।

यास्क, गार्ग्य and रथीतर limit these classifications to four only. According to them, the classifications are based on आशिषोथाऽर्थवैरूप्याद्वाचः कर्मणः एव च. Here, the 6th, 5th and 2nd properties of the above list have been retained along with deformation – अर्थवैरूप्य. The last term implies changes in the physical properties in the formative process. Others like पिप्पलाद also adopt four classifications, but use a different nomenclature as: यशोभिधान (4th and 2nd), यदृच्छाभिधान (7th and 3rd), गोत्राभिधान (9th), and अभिजनाभिधान (8th) of the above list. However, शौनक gives only one all encompassing rule: only interactive properties – कर्म – should be considered as it encompasses all the other characteristics listed above.