Sundar Sarukkai Explores Sound’s Foundations in Indian Metaphysics

Sundar Sarukkai says that many Indian thinkers viewed sound as much more than ordinary noise.

They believed the universe and language were deeply connected to sound.

A sound begins inside the body and becomes clearer as it moves through the throat, mouth, and other speech organs.

The sound we hear is only the visible or audible part of a deeper sound.

Meaning is also partly “unheard” because we understand what words point to rather than hearing their meaning directly.

Music is described as a search for the deeper sound behind the notes we sing.

Bhartrihari explained speech as moving through stages from an unformed sound to a spoken sentence.

In Indian classical music, each singer chooses their own starting note, called “Sa.”