L’origine del linguaggio nella Letteratura antico-indiana: breve panorama di studi e prospettive di ricerca

The ancient Indian tradition devotes some attention to origin of language, aiming to discover the trascendental or arbitrary nature of relation between sabda- and artha-. The divine vaµc- is available only to the priests-poets which reveal her meaning, endeavouring to distinguish the various names of Gods and to find their common reference. Both the exegetical and ritualistic substitutions and the grammatical method of anvaya- and vyatireka- agree to seek the one into the manifold appearance of reality, observing the concurrent occurrence (or the absence) of a certain linguistic item and a certain meaning or its significance upon the sacrifice. Verbs and actions became a basic topic for these speculations because of recursiveness of the roots and of the ritual injunctions, but also the nouns could represent a stage in the development of language from the naming as necessity to its creative power.