Vakyapadiya of Bhartrihari
by K. A. Subramania Iyer | 1965 | 391,768 words
The English translation of the Vakyapadiya by Bhartrihari including commentary extracts and notes. The Vakyapadiya is an ancient Sanskrit text dealing with the philosophy of language. Bhartrhari authored this book in three parts and propounds his theory of Sphotavada (sphota-vada) which understands language as consisting of bursts of sounds conveyi...
This book contains Sanskrit text which you should never take for granted as transcription mistakes are always possible. Always confer with the final source and/or manuscript.
Verse 2.240
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.240:
उपात्ता बहवोऽप्यर्था येष्वन्ते प्रतिषेधनम् ।
क्रियते ते निवर्तन्ते तस्मात् तांस्तत्र नाश्रयेत् ॥ २४० ॥upāttā bahavo'pyarthā yeṣvante pratiṣedhanam |
kriyate te nivartante tasmāt tāṃstatra nāśrayet || 240 ||240. Those sentences in which, after many meanings (are conveyed by the individual words) a negation follows, (in these sentences) these meanings are discarded and should not be taken as real.
Commentary
[In the sentence dhava-khadira-palāsāś chedanīyā na, the meaning understood until the last word is heard is that the trees dhava, khadira and palāśa should be cut. But as soon as the last word is heard just the opposite meaning is understood which shows that the meaning of the individual word is unreal. It is better not to take it seriously even before the last word is heard.]