Atomism in Phonic Constructions of Indian Tantra

Abstract

Tantric ontology shares the general phonocentric characteristic of Indian cultural mainstream. Tantric traditions of the monistic Shaivism gave birth to the model of the ‘phonematic emanation’ of the indivisible universal consciousness (saṃvid) that results in the emergence of the multiplicity of things. The paramount importance of this model is determined by the necessity to overcome the logical paradox of the coexistence of the mutually opposed principles of oneness and the multitude of phenomenological existence. This collision is resolved in the tradition (in the theory and in the religious practice) by the accepting of the ontological status of such reality as Speech (vāc), for the very core of this two-sided entity is the superimposition of the two principles – unity and diversity, presented in the unity of meaning and multiplicity of means that manifest it (words, phonemes). Sanskrit phonemes (varṇa) that function as elementary entities in the system) could be compared to the atomistic-constructive approaches of other schools

of thought.