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...
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Verse 1.53
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.53:
यथा प्रयोक्तुः प्राग् बुद्धिः शब्देष्वेव प्रवर्तते ।
व्यवसायो ग्रहीतृणामेवं तेष्वेव जायते ॥ ५३ ॥yathā prayoktuḥ prāg buddhiḥ śabdeṣveva pravartate |
vyavasāyo grahītṛṇāmevaṃ teṣveva jāyate || 53 ||53. Just as the mind of the speaker first turns towards the words, in the same way, the attention of the hearers also is first directed towards them.
Commentary
Just as the speaker, wishing to make an effort to utter a particular word, concentrates his mind on it, isolating it, as it were, in each case, from all the other words around it,1 in the same way, the hearer also, knowing that the understanding of the meaning depends upon a clear grasp of the form of the word, ascertains it as associated with all its attributes.2 This stage consisting in grasping the form of the word, is not thought of as a separate thing because of one’s habit of concentrating on the understanding of the meaning.3 Therefore, all words capable of conveying all meaning, first attain supreme importance (śeṣibhāvakāṣṭhām) and then become secondary to the conveying of the meaning.
Notes
1. Pratiśabdaṃ paritaḥ paricchinnān śabdātmanaḥ saṃspṛśanniva— When one wants to utter a particular word, one has to grasp its form clearly, i.e., one has to separate it, as it were, from the other words which are also lying dormant in one’s mind. But the other words cannot all come up in his mind at that time. His mind does not touch them at that time (saṃspṛś). That is why the word iva is used: saṃspṛśann iva. At the most, the speaker would think of the other words in the sentence which he is about to utter, but not to the same extent as the word which he is actually pronouncing. In either case, the word iva is significant.
2. Taṃ śabdaṃ sarvaiḥ saṃbandhibhir viśeṣaṇair āśritasaṃsargānugraham. What the author means is: taṃ śabdam āśritasarvasaṃbandhiviśeṣaṇasaṃsargānugraham.
3. Arthapratipattibhāvanābhyāsāt. According to Vṛ. this means: on account of one’s habit of understanding the meaning and acting accordingly. Bhāvanā kriyānuṣṭhānam.