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 2.336
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.336:
परार्थ्यस्याविशिष्टत्वान्न शब्दाच्छब्दसन्निधिः ।
नार्थाच्छब्दस्य सान्निध्यं न शब्दादर्थसन्निधिः ॥ ३३६ ॥parārthyasyāviśiṣṭatvānna śabdācchabdasannidhiḥ |
nārthācchabdasya sānnidhyaṃ na śabdādarthasannidhiḥ || 336 ||336. As there is no difference in the matter of being meant for something else, the word (actually uttered) cannot bring another word to the mind, nor can its meaning bring it nor can the uttered word bring the meaning (of the non-uttered word) to the mind.
Commentary
The upholder of indivisibility now criticizes the Mīmāṃsaka.
[Read verse 336 above]
[The word actually uttered cannot bring the word not uttered to the mind, because its function is to convey its own meaning.
Nor can its meaning bring the unuttered word to the mind, because there is no relation between the two. Nor can the uttered word bring the meaning of the non-uttered word to the mind because there is no relation between a word and the meaning of another word. A fourth possibility is that the meaning of the uttered word brings the meaning of the nonuttered word to the mind, but that would be a case of inference. The conclusion is that when a word, noun or verb, is uttered, it brings to the mind without the intervention of any other word but with the help of the context another meaning which is required to complete it. In this way, the Mīmāṃsaka view is rejected.
The Mīmāṃsaka replies:—