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 2.273
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.273:
जातिशब्दोऽन्तरेणापि जातिं यत्र प्रयुज्यते ।
सम्बन्धिसदृशाद्धर्मात् तं गौणमपरे विदुः ॥ २७३ ॥jātiśabdo'ntareṇāpi jātiṃ yatra prayujyate |
sambandhisadṛśāddharmāt taṃ gauṇamapare viduḥ || 273 ||273. When a word expressive of the universal is applied to something in which the universal is absent but a similar attribute is present, that word is said to be used in a secondary sense.
Commentary
[According to this view, the word cow denotes the universal ‘cowness’ (gotva). It exists only in the cow. But when the word is applied to a vāhīka, it is not because there is gotva in him, but because he resembles the cow in being dull. Resemblance in some attribute is, therefore, the cause of the secondary application of the word.
As the Vṛtti puts it:—tatra rūḍhasambandhasya prasiddhasāhacaryasya dharmāntarasya darśanād atajjātīyeṣu jātiśabdaḥ prayujyamāno gauṇa ityucyate.]
The author now speaks about viparyāsa, misapprehension on the basis of the distinction between primary and secondary.