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 2.17
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.17:
विशेषशब्दाः केषाञ्चित् सामान्यप्रतिरूपाकाः ।
शब्दान्तराभिसम्बन्धाद् व्यज्यन्ते प्रतिपत्तृषु ॥ १७ ॥viśeṣaśabdāḥ keṣāñcit sāmānyapratirūpākāḥ |
śabdāntarābhisambandhād vyajyante pratipattṛṣu || 17 ||17. According to some, words expressive of the particular (viśeṣa), resembling those which are expressive of the general, become clear to listeners when they are (later) connected with the other words in the sentence.
Commentary
[When a sentence is uttered, it is done in order to express a particularised meaning. So the very first word, even when it seems to be the same as in some other sentence, expresses, not a general meaning, but a particularised one. This becomes clearer when each succeeding word is heard. So the meaning of the sentence is the meaning of each word as connected with the meanings of the other words. No word conveys an unconnected meaning. It conveys an idea with its connection with other words implied. This is an explanation of the two views regarding a sentence, referred to as padam ādyam and pṛthak sarvapadaṃ sākāṅkṣam.
The Vṛtti explains this verse in one long and rather obscure sentence. It seems to say this: The very first word of a sentence denotes its meaning as qualified and delimited by the meanings of the other words of the sentence which are yet to come and when they do come, they do not say anything new, they only make clear and patent what is already latent in the meaning of the first word. The very first word is as good as the sentence.]