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 1.72
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.72:
न वर्णव्यतिरेकेण पदमन्यच्च विद्यते ।
वाक्यं वर्णपदाभ्यां च व्यतिरिक्तं न किश्चन ॥ ७२ ॥na varṇavyatirekeṇa padamanyacca vidyate |
vākyaṃ varṇapadābhyāṃ ca vyatiriktaṃ na kiścana || 72 ||72. There is no word over and above the phonemes nor is there any sentence over and above the phonemes and words.
Commentary
The phonemes which are produced in a sequence, which perish as soon as they are uttered, which do not exist at the sametime and have themselves parts, cannot produce the word as distinct (from themselves); therefore, the word is nothing more than the phonemes. As the phonemes have parts and as that process of division can be continued to the point of impracticability (ā vyavahāravicchedāt) there resluts something which is the fourth of the fourth, unnameable and beyond practicability (vyavahārātīta) but no phoneme or word. And if there is no phoneme or word, there cannot be a sentence as distinct from them. That is why it has been said:
“All this would result in non-eternality,”.1
As there cannot be a collection (of phonemes or of words) there would be no unit associated with a definite meaning (upagṛhītārthaḥ) nor any form fully delimited, (upagṛhītaḥ)2
Notes
1. Cf. M. Bhā. on Vā. 12 on the Sūtra a-i-uṇ (M. Bhā. I., p. 18.)
2. It was said in the previous verse that a phoneme occurring in different words is the same phoneme and that a word occurring in different sentences is the same word. This means that there is no sentence over and above the phonemes and words. The phonemes cannot produce the word because they do not co-exist. Secondly, they themselves can be thought of as having parts and if one goes on dividing these parts, one comes to something which is infinitesimal and unnameable, the fourth of a fourth (turīyaturīya) as it has been called to show that it is something very minute. Such minute parts cannot produce the phoneme and so the phonemes cannot produce the word. If the phonemes and the words cannot be produced, the sen- tence, as something over and above them, does not exist, nor can it be produced by them. It would be something eternal and indivisible. It would also be impossible to conceive of words having fully delimited forms or well-defined meanings.
Another has said—
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