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 2.175
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.175:
गौरित्येव स्वरूपाद्वा गौशब्दो गोषु वर्तते ।
व्युत्पाद्यते न वा सर्वं कैश्चिच्चोभयथेष्यते ॥ १७५ ॥gaurityeva svarūpādvā gauśabdo goṣu vartate |
vyutpādyate na vā sarvaṃ kaiściccobhayatheṣyate || 175 ||175. Others have declared that the word gauḥ is applied to a cow because of its form (and not because of any meaning). All words are devoid of any derivation. Others take both (the form as well as the meaning) as the basis.
Commentary
[If the meaning of the root is the basis of the derivation of a word, one can think of several alternative roots as the basis of derivation. But there was another view on the subject, namely, that the form of the word itself is the basis of the derivation. This view is attributed to the Aukthikyas. Words are devoid of any derivation based on meaning. This is the avyutpattipakṣa = the view that words are not made up of smaller meaningful elements. The opposite view is that both form and meaning are the basis of the application of a word to an object. This is the Vyutpattipakṣa.
The text of the Vṛtti is not clear in some places. It also connects the avyutpattipakṣa with the Aukthikyas: Apare cācāryā aukthikyādayo gauḥ kasmād gaur ityeva gaur iti nirvacanam āhuḥ].
The next question is: The same word or sound is found in different contexts in the language. Is it the same everywhere?