Sannidhi is a Hindu linguistic term meaning proximity. It is one of the conditions for the construction of a sentence that can produce verbal knowledge. Sannidhi is also referred to as asatti. It pertains to the physical aspect of the linguistic elements. Generally, it consists in not having any unnecessary interval or intervention between the words of a sentence. The words of a sentence, to be meaningful, must be contiguous. Words uttered at long intervals of time or written by long intervals of space cannot make a sentence.
For instance, a group of words like – he kicked the ball – will not make a sentence, when uttered individually at different intervals of time or written at different places (like, he -kicked – the – ball). To ensure the unbroken apprehension of the meanings of all the words of a sentence, leading to verbal cognition, the words of a sentence must be uttered in quick succession or written in juxtaposition.
Further, sannidhi refers to the absence of any unnecessary intervention of an irrelevant word or words of a sentence. As a counter example that lacks this property, we find a classic example – the hill has eaten has fire Devadatta (parvato bhukto vahniman devadattah) – where no meaning is conveyed. If these words are in their right place in appropriate proximity – the hill has fire, Devadatta has eaten (parvato vahniman, bhukto devadattah) – it makes sense. Thus the comprehension, without an interval, of the meanings of the constituent words of a sentence, connected with one another, is what is known as sannidhi.