How to Do Things with Sanskrit: Speech Act Theory and the Oral Performance of Sacred Texts

Abstract

It is now half a century since J. L. Austin published his seminal workHow to Do Things with Words, in which he first articulated his theory of speech acts. Since thenhis core idea that verbal utterances convey more than what is simply implied by the words alone has become axiomatic. In this paperI will describe the use of Sanskrit verses in an oral tradition known in Hindi as aBhāgavata-kathā(“Divine narrative” or “Stories about God”)as practiced by teachers in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (iskcon)popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement. Verses drawn from the important Hindu texttheBhāgavata-purāṇaform a key component of these eventsyet few if any in the audience are able to understand them directly. As part of an ongoing inquiry into power and authority within a Hindu epistemeI use speech act theory to explore the function of these verses. Bhāgavata performances are compared with qur’anic recitation in the Comoros and the recitation of certain Buddhist texts in MustangNepal. I argue that Sanskrit verses in this event have what Austin terms “perlocutionary” significance: that isthey have a meaning and a function other than that conveyed by the words alone. They enable the exponent to demonstrate publicly his statusto establish his authorityand prove his direct access to the text. The performance of Sanskrit verseseven though it may be semantically inaccessible to the audiencevalidates the oral discourse by tying it directly back to the authority of the original source text. Herespeech act theory is applied not to the semantic content of the utterancebut to the choice of language in which the utterance is made.

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