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 2.429
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.429:
पचिक्रिया करोमीति कर्मत्वेनाभिधीयते ।
पक्तिः करणरूपं तु साध्यत्वेन प्रतीयते ॥ ४२९ ॥pacikriyā karomīti karmatvenābhidhīyate |
paktiḥ karaṇarūpaṃ tu sādhyatvena pratīyate || 429 ||429. The action of cooking is expressed as the object in the sentence: I do the act of cooking (pacikriyāṃ karomi). But the actual doing (of the act of cooking) is understood as a process (sādhyatvena).
Commentary
[The point here is that the action of cooking, taken as an example, is presented now as a process and now as the accessory (sādhana) called karma=object of action, according to the wish of the speaker. There is no pre-determined fixity in this matter. The Vṛtti also emphasises this very point: Pacikriyāṃ karotītyubhayor aviśiṣṭe sādhyātmakatve paktiḥ sādhyatvena vīvakṣitā siddharūpeṇa sādhyarūpeṇa vābhidhīyate. It is not clear what is meant by ubhayoḥ. The reference may be to the two actions mentioned in pacikriyāṃ karoti: (1) The action of cooking expressed by the noun pacikriyām and (2) the action of doing expressed by the verb karoti. The former is presented by the noun as a thing (siddha) and the latter as a process (sādhya) by the verb. Apart from presentation by words, an action is really a process and it is so meant in karoti,: As the Vṛtti puts it: karaṇaṃ tu sādhyatvenaiva vivakṣitatvād (vi?) prakṛtāvasthāṃ na jahāti.]