A centuries-old scroll titled 'Sabda-Pratyaya-Viveka' has been identified in a private collection in Varanasi, shedding new light on 9th-century Philosophy of Language. The text explores the transition from a 'Sabda' (word/sound) to a 'Pratyaya' (mental conviction), detailing the psychological process by which linguistic symbols create a certainty of knowledge in the listener's mind.
The scroll, written in a transitional script, synthesizes the Sphota theories of Bhartrihari with the logical rigor of early Mimamsa. It offers a detailed phenomenology of communication, arguing that the true essence of speech lies in its ability to trigger a direct realization of the speaker's intent within the listener. Scholars are particularly interested in the manuscript's final chapters, which discuss the ethical responsibility of the speaker to maintain the purity of semantic resonance.