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.

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.229:

शास्त्रे क्कचित् प्रकृत्यर्थः प्रत्ययेनाभिधीयते ।
प्रकृतौ विनिवृत्तायां प्रत्ययार्थश्च धातुभिः ॥ २२९ ॥

śāstre kvacit prakṛtyarthaḥ pratyayenābhidhīyate |
prakṛtau vinivṛttāyāṃ pratyayārthaśca dhātubhiḥ || 229 ||

229. In Grammar, sometimes, the meaning of a stem is expressed by a suffix when the former is absent while the meaning of a suffix is expressed by the root when the former is absent.

Commentary

[The author wants to show that individual words and their meanings are a fiction and exist only for the sake of grammatical derivation. Iyān is a word where the suffix alone is seen and it expresses the meaning of the stem. The word means ‘so much’. As taught by Pāṇini, only the suffix is left here, as the stem has been elided. Ahan = ‘he killed’ is an instance where the suffix has disappeared, its meaning being expressed by the root.

The Vṛtti says the same thing with the help of other examples, some of which are taken from the Veda.]

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