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 3.3.30
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.30:
असाधुरनुमानेन वाचकः कैश्चिदिष्यते ।
वाचकत्वाविशेषे वा नियमः पुण्यपापयोः ॥ ३० ॥asādhuranumānena vācakaḥ kaiścidiṣyate |
vācakatvāviśeṣe vā niyamaḥ puṇyapāpayoḥ || 30 ||30. The corrupt form, according to some, is expressive only through the inference (of its correct form). Even if its expressivity is equal (to that of the correct form) the śāstra makes a restriction in regard to usage keeping merit and demerit in view.
Commentary
The author now points out that the meaning is not related to the corrupt form of a word.
[Read verse 29 above]
[This capacity belongs to the correct forms of words and not to their corrupt forms. People who know do not understand the meaning directly from the corrupt forms of words which have, therefore, no connection with meaning. They are not expressive (vācaka). They cause us to infer the correct words from which the meaning is understood. But corrupt forms of words have become current and ignorant people understand meanings directly from them. But merit comes only from the use of the correct forms. The correct form of a word is only one while its corruptions may be many. Just as Brahman is One and stands for vidyā and the multiplicity of the world for avidyā, in the same way, the correct word stands for vidyā and its corruptions for avidyā.]