Vyadi and Vajapyayana

Summary

Examining the ideas of two pre‑Katyayana grammarians, the article focuses on Vyadi and Vajapyayana, whose works survive only through later references. Vyadi authored a comprehensive grammar called Vyadi‑sabda, while Vajapyayana is known through Katyayana’s Vartika. Both grammarians were concerned with semantic issues, and their views diverged in key respects. Vyadi apparently held that words have both denotative and connotative power, and that the meaning of a sentence arises from the syntactic combination of words. Vajapyayana seems to have emphasised that words primarily denote their core meanings and that combination plays a lesser role. The article highlights the famous disagreement over whether words should be understood by extension (class concept) or intension (attribute concept), drawing parallels with modern logical theories of class and attribute. It then introduces a second, lesser‑known divergence regarding the import of propositions, i.e., whether the meaning of a proposition resides in individual terms or in their syntactic union. Subsequent writers repeatedly alluded to these differences, indicating a vibrant intellectual debate on semantics and logic in ancient India. Through this discussion, the article sheds light on early Indian linguistic philosophy and the foundations of later schools.