Sphota
It is the ceaseless flow of the sounds of a word, which is indivisible in nature. This is known as sphota. Sphota addresses the meaning that the word stands for. The hearer obtains the meaning of a word by virtue of the sequential process as arranged in the diagram below.
The hearer obtains the meaning of the word
↑
Artha
↑
Sphota
↑
Prākŗtadhvani
↑
Vaikratadhvani
↑
A speaker utters a word
We have mentioned on the above that sphota manifests itself but the question arises how is it so? By answering this question, Bhartŗhari expressed that the manifestation of the sphota passes through the following three stages (Potter, 1990, 68). These are;
- Pasyanti
- Madhyamā
- Vikharia
It is the non-verbal stage where the sphota is identical with its meaning. There is no distinction found between the sphota and its meaning. However, one can say that meaning exists in the word in a potential form, as Sānkhya philosophy argues that the effect exists in the material cause prior to its production in a potential form.
It is the pre-verbal stage. In this stage although the speaker can't dissociate sphota from its artha but very well visualize the differences between them. We can attribute this stage as a psychological stage where 'intellect' plays the vital role to differentiate one from the other. "All the elements linguistically relevant to utter a word or a sentence are present in a latent form at this stage" (Raja, 1963, 148). "The speaker is able to recognize the verbal part, which (s)he is about to speak out as distinct from sphota" (Pathiraj, 1995, 71).
It is the verbal stage, where the listener hears the sounds in exact form as the speaker uttered it. At this stage, sphota is differentiated from the words, and is sounded by the speaker.