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 2.339
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.339:
न चापि रूपात् सन्देहे वाचकत्वं निवर्तते ।
अर्धं पशोरिव यथा समर्थ्यात् तद्विकल्प्यते ॥ ३३९ ॥na cāpi rūpāt sandehe vācakatvaṃ nivartate |
ardhaṃ paśoriva yathā samarthyāt tadvikalpyate || 339 ||339. Even though doubt arises on account of (similarity) of form, still its expressive power does not disappear as in the case of the expression ardhaṃ paśoḥ (= half of the sacrificial animal) where competence decides what the meaning is.
Commentary
Here the Mīmāṃsaka asks a question: If the word dvāram denotes more than one thing, is not its expressive power thereby lost as there might be a doubt as to which meaning to take? The grammarian answers—
[Read verse 339 above]
[In ardhaṃ paśor iva, because of the word iva, a doubt arises as to whose half is meant, of the animal or of Devadatta, but the doubt is resolved with the help of context and appropriateness. Similarly, where only the word dvāram is used, context and appropriateness would help one to decide whether it should be taken as a noun or as a verb.]
Mīmāṃsaka objection:—
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