Sphota ("disclosure").
Bhartrhari's language
theory is incomplete without this component (7th c.).
Bhartrhari founded the Grammarians, a philo sophical school
that believed that Brahman, the Supreme Reality, showed itself in sound,
especially the sound of the spoken word.
A verbal utterance had three elements, according to this
theory: the sound or sounds produced by the speaker and heard by the listener;
a phonological pattern, of which that utterance is an example; and finally, the
sphota, which was expressed by the sounds and signified the object of that
utterance.
Sphota had to be proposed, according to Bhartrhari, to
explain how words may contain meaning.
They do so because they are linked to the sphota, which
designates a certain item, and the speaker articulated that sphota by creating
the noises.
