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 3.1.12
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.12:
जातौ पदार्थे जातिर्वा विशेषो वापि जातिवत् ।
शब्दैरपेक्ष्यते यस्मादतस्ते जातिवाचिनः ॥ १२ ॥jātau padārthe jātirvā viśeṣo vāpi jātivat |
śabdairapekṣyate yasmādataste jātivācinaḥ || 12 ||12. In the view that the universal is the meaning of words, the universal or even the particular becomes the meaning of words in the same way as (the well-known) universals; therefore, they (the words) denote the universal.
Commentary
[Read verse 12 above]
The author now makes clear the function called abhidhā of words.
[The peculiar features of an object, not found in any other object in the world, cannot be expressed by words at all. At the time of learning the convention about words, it is with the common characteristics of objects that we connect the words. Thus the words become expressive of them. The universals may really differ from one another, but words cannot express them. Even proper names denote universals. The name of a person stands for that unchanging recognisable element which persists in all the changes which he undergoes.]
The author now states that even the other view, namely, that words denote substance (dravya) depends on the function of words.