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 2.239
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.239:
अन्यथा प्रतिपद्यार्थं पदग्रहणपूर्वकम् ।
पुनर्वाक्ये तमेवार्थमन्यथा प्रतिपद्यते ॥ २३९ ॥anyathā pratipadyārthaṃ padagrahaṇapūrvakam |
punarvākye tamevārthamanyathā pratipadyate || 239 ||239. As the words are (gradually) grasped, one understands the meaning in one particular way but when the whole sentence is grasped the same meaning appears to be quite different.
Commentary
The author again denies the reality of the individual word and its meaning.
[Read verse 239 above]
[The Vṛtti points out that this verse only states a general idea and that its illustrations are given in the following verses. The general idea is that one sets aside at the sentence stage a meaning understood at the stage of the individual word. If the latter were real, that could not happen, the relation between the word and the meaning being eternal : nityatvācca śabdārthasambandhasya yadupāttaṃ śabdena tasya punaraśakyaḥ parityāgaḥ kartum itiś]