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 2.40
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.40:
सोऽयमित्यभिसम्बन्धो बुद्ध्या प्रकम्यते यदा ।
वाक्यार्थस्य तदैकोऽपि वर्णः प्रत्यायकः क्वचित् ॥ ४० ॥so'yamityabhisambandho buddhyā prakamyate yadā |
vākyārthasya tadaiko'pi varṇaḥ pratyāyakaḥ kvacit || 40 ||40. Sometimes, when the relation of identity in the form ‘it is this’ is understood, then even a single phoneme can be expressive of the meaning of the whole sentence.
Commentary
It is now stated that the sentence-meaning can sometimes be understood even from a single phoneme.
[Read verse 40 above]
[When the identity of the sentence and the sentence-meaning is already in the mind of the speaker, then it is not necessary that the sentence-meaning should be understood after the wordmeanings have been understood in the sequence in which the words have been uttered. A mere phoneme without any inner sequence ṛnay sometimes be able to convey it. Punyarāja does not give any example. The Vṛtti does and ends by referring to the way in which the sages, those who are experts in Vāgyoga, grasp the integrated Word-Principle within.]
Now the view of the sentence referred to by the word saṅghāta in the very first verse is being explained.