The denial of semantic relation in Indian classical culture

The existence of semantic relation was postulated in Katyayana’s Varttika (3 B.C.E.), which served a key-stone for the further development of Indian language philosophy. However in different Sanskrit texts (Tantras, the Nirukta, works on ritual and poetics) the existence of semantic relation had been denied explicitly. This paper considers specific characteristics of extralinguistic kinds of activities that stipulated the genesis of these texts and elicits the reasons why their authors rejected to use ordinary language, for the sake of establishing new semantic relations.

Indian language philosophy, samdha-bhasha, Nirukta, Tantra, Indian poetic