Bhartrihari, aka: Bhartṛhari, Bhartri-hari; 7 Definition(s)

Introduction

Bhartrihari means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.

The Sanskrit term Bhartṛhari can be transliterated into English as Bhartrhari or Bhartrihari, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).

In Hinduism

Purana and Itihasa (epic history)

Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि).—A famous Sanskrit poet. Birth. He was the son of Vidyāsāgara, a great brahmin scholar, who lived in Pāṭalīputra. There is a legend about the birth of Bhartṛhari in Uttara Bhārata. (See full article at Story of Bhartṛhari from the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani)

context information

The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences. The eighteen mahapuranas total over 400,000 shlokas (metrical couplets) and date to at least several centuries BCE.

Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar)

Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि).—A very distinguished Grammarian who lived in the seventh century A. D. He was a senior contemporary of the authors of the Kasika, who have mentioned his famous work viz. The Vakyapadiya in the Kasika. cf. शब्दार्थसंबन्धोयं प्रकरणम् । वाक्यपदीयम् (śabdārthasaṃbandhoyaṃ prakaraṇam | vākyapadīyam) Kas. on P. IV.3.88. His Vyakarana work "the Vakyapadiya" has occupied a very prominent position in Grammatical Literature. The work is divided into three sections known by the name 'Kanda' and it has discussed so thoroughly the problem of the relation of word to its sense that subsequent grammarians have looked upon his view as an authority. The work is well-known for expounding also the Philosophy of Grammar. His another work " the Mahabhasya-Dipika " is a scholarly commentary on Patanjali's Mahabhasya. The Commentary is not published as yet, and its solitary manuscript is very carelessly written. Nothing is known about the birth-place or nationality of Bhartrhari. It is also doubtful whether he was the same person as king Bhartrhari who wrote the 'Satakatraya'.

Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि) (5th century CE) is the name of an author of grammatical works, following in succession of Pāṇini (7th century BCE): author of the Aṣṭādhyāyī dealing with vyākaraṇa (grammar): the science of analysis of sentences and words. After Pāini, there was a succession of thinkers of language, grammar and philosophy of language, viz., Bhartṛhari, whose Vākyapadīya is a celebrated work of philosophy of language and grammar.

General definition (in Hinduism)

1) Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि; also Bhartrihari; fl. c. 5th century CE) is a Sanskrit author who is likely to have written two influential Sanskrit texts:

1. the Vākyapadīya, on Sanskrit grammar and linguistic philosophy, a foundational text of the Sphoṭa theory in the Indian grammatical tradition, and
2. the Śatakatraya, a work of Sanskrit poetry, comprising three collections of about 100 stanzas each.

Bhartṛhari is of the śabda-advaita "speech monistic" school which identifies language and cognition. According to George Cardona, "Vākyapadīya is considered to be the major Indian work of its time on grammar, semantics and philosophy."

2) The name Bhrartrihari is also sometimes associated with Bhartrihari traya Shataka, the legendary king of Ujjaini in the 1st century.

Bhartrihari wrote three collections or shatakas of poems. The Srngara gives us little pictures of love and love-making. The Vairagya describes a gradual withdrawal from worldly matters, and the Niti deals with ethical conduct. Topics not very conducive to poetry, perhaps, yet Bhartrihari shows Sanskrit at its best: profound, pithy and beautifully clear. Each of the shatakahs contains one hundred poems, generally just of four lines, sometimes two. But the content of each poem may be as wide as that of fourteen lines in the English sonnet, and can print out in more when all nuances are translated. The poems are entertaining, observant, wry and often deeply reflective. Kalidasa is the greater artist, but epic poetry is not dramatic in a western sense: stereotyped characters, unlikely plots, long digressions that hold up the story, verbal cleverness, and a jewelled and increasingly elaborate style, with sentences that sometime stretch over several pages.

In the history of the Indian grammatical tradition, Bhartṛhari (about fifth century C.E.) is the fourth great grammarian - after Pāṇini, Kātyāyana and Patañjali - and the first to make the philosophical aspects of language and grammar the main subject of an independent work.

Languages of India and abroad

Sanskrit-English dictionary

Bhartṛhari (भर्तृहरि).—Name of a celebrated author to whom are ascribed the three Śatakas (śṛṅgāra, nīti and vairāgya) and also वाक्यपदीय (vākyapadīya) and भट्टि- काव्य (bhaṭṭi- kāvya).

Derivable forms: bhartṛhariḥ (भर्तृहरिः).

Bhartṛhari is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms bhartṛ and hari (हरि).

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