hindu-mindWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.
Audible Speech (Vaikharī)
The spoken word: language at its most outward, the audible tip of a much deeper descent.
Vaikharī is ordinary spoken speech — the fully formed, audible word as it leaves the mouth and reaches another's ear. It is the most external and concrete of the four levels, the surface that everyone recognizes as 'language.' In this scheme it is only the final, outermost expression of a much deeper process that began in the silent creative pulse of consciousness and descended through vision and inner thought into sound.
Key passages(7)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 58↗explains
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
High
High
High
Moderate
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1,3.2↗explains
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Moderate
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 5,8.1↗explains
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Moderate
Moderate