In both Eastern and Western thought the study of language has a long and respected parentage. The Sphota Theory of Language is one of the most significant attempts to understand language from within in the history of human thought.
While modern Western linguistic philosophy devotes considerable effort to understanding language, it tends to see the word only as a carrier of information and basically studies those aspects of language that a computer can store and retrieve. However the spoken words especially the great words of scripture, poetry and prose-contain many dimensions that are inaccessible to the computer. It is these deeper dimensions of language that Bhartṛhari's Sphoța Theory explores and illuminates, and it is precisely the awareness of these deeper levels that so needs to be recovered by modern man, be he Eastern or Western.
Dr. Coward has described the complex and often intuitive aspect of Sphoța Theory in clear English. He has placed the technical arguments of the Sphoța Theorists within the proper context of the philosophical schools of thought current in classical India. But he has also related the sphota view of language to modern life, and especially to the function of words and scripture in contemporary experience.
HAROLD G. COWARD was Director, The Calgary Institute for the Humanities and Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies, the University of Calgary.
Dr. Coward is the author of Bharthari (Twayne, 1976 and editor of Revelation In Indian Thought (Dharma, 1977), Mystics and Scholars (WLU Press, 1977), "Language" in Indian Philosophy and Religion (WLU Press, 1978), Religion and Ethnicity (WLU Press, 1978) and Humanities in the Present Day (WLU Press, 1979), His articles have appeared in numerous journals.
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