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 3.1.6
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.6:
स्वा जातिः प्रथमं शब्दैः सर्वैरेवाभिधीयते ।
ततोऽर्थजातिरूपेषु तदध्यारोपकल्पना ॥ ६ ॥svā jātiḥ prathamaṃ śabdaiḥ sarvairevābhidhīyate |
tato'rthajātirūpeṣu tadadhyāropakalpanā || 6 ||6. All words first express their own universal which is then thought of as being superimposed on the universals of the meanings.
Commentary
[When we hear a word, it is its own form which we understand first. And we do so, no matter who utters it. The form remains the same in all utterances. This form is, therefore, a universal (jāti) and it is this which we understand invariably. This invariable cognition of the uni- versal of the word is what is meant by the word ‘first’ (prathamam). See Vāk I. 66. After this is understood, or while it is being understood, the meaning which is also a universal, is understood. The two appear to be one. The form of the word is understood by us as having been superimposed on the meaning. We take the two as one. To understand the one as being superimposed on the other implies that we consider the two to be different. We do, but this is only a fiction (kalpanā) on our part, because the meaning (the object), according to Grammar, is only an unreal manifestation (vivarta) of the word. Therefore, the two are not really different from each other. This superimposition of the word on the meaning is the basis of convention and also of the relation of expression and expressed (vācyavācakabhāva) between the two. This universal of the word is progressively clearly revealed by each sound of the word, just as each moment of a movement like the lifting of the arm reveals it fully and progressively more clearly, or just as a passage of a text, not fully learnt by heart at the first reading is gradually memorised by repeated reading or just as the genuineness of a precious stone, not fully clear at the first gaze, becomes so progressively.]
The author now says how the universal of the word, existing in the word, can convey the universal of the object as identical with itself.