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 1.54
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.54:
अर्थोपसर्जनीभूतानभिधेयेषु केषुचित् ।
चरितार्थान् परार्थत्वान्न लोकः प्रतिपद्यते ॥ ५४ ॥arthopasarjanībhūtānabhidheyeṣu keṣucit |
caritārthān parārthatvānna lokaḥ pratipadyate || 54 ||54. Being meant for something else, the world does not pay attention to the forms of the words which, being primary in some cases only, are ordinarily secondary to the meaning.
Commentary
Just as, in an expression like ‘this is a white one (ayaṃ śuklaḥ) where something having a quality is understood, connection of the quality with a particular action takes place only sometimes as taught elsewhere, in the same way, when the identification with the form of the word takes place as in the expression: ‘this thing which is the word gauḥ’ and when action is meant to be connected with it, its purpose is fulfilled and when, therefore, it becomes secondary to the object, people do not connect it with action as they do connect the object with it.1
Notes
1. In order to show that the form of the word becomes connected with action only sometimes, the analogy of action is given statements present a quality as connected with action only sometimes. There is a difference between śuklāṃ gāṃ paśya and śuklāṃ gāṃ bhojaya. The former sentence presents the quality white also as connected with the action of seeing, śuklām is a viśeṣaṇa of gām. But in the latter sentence, it is the object cow which is to be fed. It happens to be white, so the white cow is fed. But the quality ‘white’ is not connected with the action of feeding. It is only upalakṣaṇa and not viśeṣaṇa. Similarly, where actions are performed on objects conveyed by words, as usually happens in the world, the form of the word is not so connected. But a word conveys its form also and it must also have its scope for being connected with action. It is in the science of Grammar that the form of a word finds its full scope for being connected with action. Where the form is secondary to the object which it coveys, people do not connect it with action.