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 1.28
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.28:
नित्यत्वे कृतकत्वे वा तेषामादिर्न विद्यते ।
प्राणिनामिव सा चैषा व्यवस्थानित्यतोच्यते ॥ २८ ॥nityatve kṛtakatve vā teṣāmādirna vidyate |
prāṇināmiva sā caiṣā vyavasthānityatocyate || 28 ||28. Whether words be eternal or otherwise, their beginning is not known. As in the case of living beings, there is what is called continuity (vyavasthānityatā).
Commentary
1Whether one accepts the view that the words are eternal and manifested or the view that they exist beforehand and undergo modifications like birth etc., or the view that they do not exist beforehand but are made audible and become inaudible again (sopākhyanirupākhyatvam), in any case, there was no first stage in which verbal usage did not exist nor will there be a future stage when it will not exist. For those who declare that God, Time, the Puruṣas,2 knowledge, the individual soul (kṣetrajña.) to be different (from the effects and their causes), for those who declare this (universe) to be without God, Time, the Puruṣas, knowledge or the individual soul but entirely based on nescience, for those who maintain that the universe, without a before and after and without going beyond the unity of the ultimate, consists of the manifestation of the different forms due to the combined, mutually opposed and indefinable powers, for all of them, there was no first period of time when there was no activity of the living. This is what is called continuity, without a beginning and without an end. It has been said—
“That is also eternal, in which the identity is not destroyed.”3
Notes
1. According to Vṛṣabha, two views are here expressed in regard to words: (1) that they are eternal and, therefore, already existent and manifested at the time of use, (2) that they are produced at the time of use and disappear again. The first view is associated with the Sāṅkhyas, especially Vārṣagaṇya. The second view seems to be that of the Naiyāyikas. In regard to the universe, the view that it is without God etc., but based entirely on nescience is attributed by Vṛ. to Brahmavādinaḥ [brahmavādin]. Some, however, attribute it to the Buddhists and the view expressed in the latter part of the sentence to the Advaitins.
2. Puruṣa—Puruṣa iti kecit pṛthivyādisaṃghātam āhuḥ (Vṛ.).
3. M.Bhā. I. p. 7, 1. 22.