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 2.340-341
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.340-341:
सर्वं सत्त्वपदं शुद्धं यदि भावनिबन्धनम् ।
संसर्गे च विभक्तोऽस्य तस्यार्थो न पृथग्यदि ॥ ३४० ॥
क्रियाप्रधानमाख्यातं नाम्नां सत्त्वप्रधानता ।
चत्वारि पदजातानि सर्वमेतद्विरुध्यते ॥ ३४१ ॥sarvaṃ sattvapadaṃ śuddhaṃ yadi bhāvanibandhanam |
saṃsarge ca vibhakto'sya tasyārtho na pṛthagyadi || 340 ||
kriyāpradhānamākhyātaṃ nāmnāṃ sattvapradhānatā |
catvāri padajātāni sarvametadvirudhyate || 341 ||340. If, when a word expressive of sattva (concrete object) stands by itself it is to be considered as being expressive of a process ( bhāva), if, when they come together the word expressing sattva is considered to have a different meaning and if the verb does not have its own separate meaning, (341) then, the statement (of old thinkers like Yāska) that a verb expresses chiefly a process whereas a noun denotes a concrete thing (sattva) and that there are four parts of speech would be contradicted.
Commentary
Mīmāṃsaka objection:—
[Read verse 340-341 above]
[There is a reference here to Yāska’s definition in his Nirukta of the verb and the noun: bhāvapradhānam ākhyātam sattva-pradhānāni nāmāni. It is also in the Nirukta that one finds the earliest mention of the four parts of speech: nāmākhyātopasarganipātāḥ. See Yāska—Nirukta I.1]
The Grammarian answers—