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 1.82
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.82:
यथानुवाकः श्लोको वा सोढत्वमुपगच्छति ।
आवृत्त्या न तु स ग्रन्थः प्रत्यावृत्ति निरूप्यते ॥ ८२ ॥yathānuvākaḥ śloko vā soḍhatvamupagacchati |
āvṛttyā na tu sa granthaḥ pratyāvṛtti nirūpyate || 82 ||82. Just as a Vedic passage (anuvāka) or a verse is well-fixed in the mind1 after the (last) repetition and is not fully grasped in each repetition,
Commentary
The sounds relating to the phonemes, words and sentence, produced by special efforts, manifest the sphoṭa of the phonemes, words and sentence and superimpose them on the cognitions. If the ultimate parts of the phonemes2 are perceived gradually, could be no collection of them and the final cognition would be devoid of an object. This point has been discussed in many ways in the commentary3 on the Bhāṣya on the sūtra which defines connected text (saṃhitā). Even when the form of the whole word is manifested, as long as it has no definite form and special features, it is as good as unperceived and no usage can be made of it.
Notes
1. Soḍhatvam [soḍhatva]. This is an unusual word. Vṛ. explains it as becoming the objects of one act of remembrance: smṛtibuddher ekasyā viṣayabhāvam. It amounts to becoming well fixed in the mind.
2. Krameṇa tu varṇaturīyagrahaṇe. What is pointed out here is that if it is held that the parts of a sphoṭa are gradually manifested, it cannot be manifested at all. Each sound manifests the whole of the sphoṭa. Thus it is manifested again and again.
3. Saṃhitāsūtrabhāṣyavivaraṇe. The sūtra is P. 1.4.109. The Vivaraṇa is obviously a commentary on the Bhāṣya on this sūtra, written probably by Bhartṛhari himself. See p. 9 of Pt. Charu Deva Shastri’s Sanskrit Introduction to his edition of Vākyapadīya, Kaṇḍa I.