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 2.114
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.114:
तत्र क्रियापदान्येव व्यपेक्षन्ते परस्परम् ।
क्रियापदानुषक्तस्तु सम्बन्धोऽतः प्रतीयते ॥ ११४ ॥tatra kriyāpadānyeva vyapekṣante parasparam |
kriyāpadānuṣaktastu sambandho'taḥ pratīyate || 114 ||114. It is only verbs which have mutual requirement and a relation based on such verbs is understood between sentences (even if purpose is taken to be the meaning of a sentence).
Commentary
[According to anvitābhidhāna, the verb which expresses action brings the means (sādhana) to the mind. Words expressive of the means do not bring action to the mind in the same manner. As between action and the means, the former is primary and the latter secondary. In this view, the verb brings the means to the mind and the relation between the two is the expressed meaning of the sentence (abhidheya). Thus sentences are not devoid of abhidheya and so there can be connection between them.]
It might be said against the anvitābhidhāna that, if the very. first word expresses the particularised meaning, the remaining words would be useless. This is answered as follows—