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 1.48
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.48:
नादस्य क्रमजन्मत्वान्न पूर्वो न परश्च सः ।
अक्रमः क्रमरूपेण भेदवानिव जायते ॥ ४८ ॥nādasya kramajanmatvānna pūrvo na paraśca saḥ |
akramaḥ kramarūpeṇa bhedavāniva jāyate || 48 ||48. Because the gross sound (nāda) is produced in a sequence, the word which is neither prior nor posterior nor has any sequence, is manifested as having sequence and parts.
Commentary
The gross sound (nāda) which is in the form of an accumulation on account of the sequential activity (of the articulatory organs) suggests the word (sphoṭa) by means of the functions of prevention and permission.1 Though the word (sphoṭa) is one, it appears to have different parts. It has neither sequence nor simultaneity, both being opposed to its one-ness and eternality. Therefore without giving up its oneness, it appears to have differentiation which is a property of the gross sound associated with it. Such is the nature of what is associated with it. It is like the whole (avayavī) which is an absolute unity appearing to be differentiated because of the differentiation of its parts.
Notes
1. Sapratibandhābhyanujñayā vṛttyā. Pratibandha (prevention) and abhyanujñā (permission) are usually given as the two functions of time, by virtue of which everything happens at its proper time, neither before nor later. Growth, for instance, means that at any of its stages, the later stages cannot appear. Similarly, when a word is uttered, the manifesting sounds can only appear in a sequence. When one appears, the later ones cannot. This is abhyanujñā for what appears and pratibandha for what does not.