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 3.14.78
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.78:
प्रकृतिप्रत्ययावूह्यौ पदात् ताभ्यां पदं तथा ।
अनुबन्धस्वरादिभ्यः शिष्टैः शास्त्रं न तान् प्रति ॥ ७८ ॥prakṛtipratyayāvūhyau padāt tābhyāṃ padaṃ tathā |
anubandhasvarādibhyaḥ śiṣṭaiḥ śāstraṃ na tān prati || 78 ||78. The cultured infer stem and suffix from the word and the word from them and from the indicatory letters (anubandha), accent etc. The śāstra is not meant for them.
Commentary
[From the indivisible, divisions are fictitiously made by the cultured in order to teach the ignorant. It is the cultured who are the authority in the matter of words. They see the truth and accept as correct whatever leads to merit and accordingly split words into stems and suffixes. From them, the students understand the whole word. Words like Ḍittha are taught as wholes directly (pratyakṣakalpana). Stems and suffixes are inferred. In the case of words like pacati, stems and suffixes are taught and the whole has to be formed (inferred) from them. Thus words are taught in two ways: Through nipātana and vidhi. As for the cultured (śiṣṭas) whose knowledge is without any limitation and who are evolutes from pratibhā = pure knowledge they see the truth of everything and do not depend upon the teaching of others. The very fact that they do not depend upon these artificial divisions for understanding the indivisible whole shows that these divisions are unreal. From their use of the correct forms taught in the Aṣṭādhyāyī, we know that they are cultured.]