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 3.1.15
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.15:
संयोगिधर्मभेदेन देशे च परिकल्पिते ।
तेषु देशेषु सामान्यमाकाशस्यापि विद्यते ॥ १५ ॥saṃyogidharmabhedena deśe ca parikalpite |
teṣu deśeṣu sāmānyamākāśasyāpi vidyate || 15 ||15. Once parts are postulated on the basis of the properties of the different objects (with which space (ākāśa) is) in contact, the universal of space also is found in these parts.
Commentary
The author now explains how words like ākāśa, kāla and dik, which stand for things which are one and eternal, denote the universal.
[Read verse 15 above]
[Words like ākāśa, kāla, dik, stand for that common feature which is present in all the contingent divisions which we make in these things. For instance, ākāśa is one, but we artificially divide it into localities according to the different objects which exist in space. The space occupied by a jar is ākāśa just as the space occupied by a piece of cloth is ākāśa. In regard to all these divisions, we have the cognition that they are ākāśa and that is what the word stands for. The same thing can be said about time, direction, soul and the relation called samavāya. Soul is one, but it can be looked upon as different in each person with whom it is associated. We can say also that there are as many samavāyas as there are pairs of things united by samavāya; but everywhere there is ihabuddhiḥ: which is the connecting link.]
It is also possible to look upon these divisions of ākāśa as real ones and not merely as contingent ones.