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 2.157
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.157:
संस्कारादिपरिच्छिन्ने तैलादौ यो व्यवस्थितः ।
आहैकदेशं तत्त्वेन तस्यावयववर्तिता ॥ १५७ ॥saṃskārādiparicchinne tailādau yo vyavasthitaḥ |
āhaikadeśaṃ tattvena tasyāvayavavartitā || 157 ||157. A word (like taila or ghṛta) applied to oil etc, particularised through improvement etc. really denotes a part of it, identified with the whole. It is, therefore, really a word expressive of a part.
Commentary
[Both improvement and pollution of substances like oil mean their particularisation. Still, we use the general word to denote the improved or polluted substance. Thus used, it denotes a part of it only, but a part identified with the whole. This is a reference to M. Bhā. I. p.12, 1.18-20. The context is the explanation of the vārttika which says that Vyākaraṇa stands for both the forms to be explained (lakṣya) and the rules which explain them (lakṣaṇa). And yet, sometimes, we apply the word to the rules only. In the world also, a word which means the whole is sometimes applied to the part. Pañcāla is the name of the whole country but when we say: pūrve pañcālāḥ, it is applied only to its eastern region. When we say tailaṃ bhuktam, though the word taila stands for all the oil that has been medicated, here it means only the dose which has been taken. In other words, the word for the whole has been used for a part.]