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 3.1.45
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.45:
चित्रादिष्वप्यभिव्यक्तिर्जातीनां कैश्चीदिष्यते ।
प्राण्याश्रितास्तु ताः प्राप्तौ निमित्तं पुण्यपापयोः ॥ ४५ ॥citrādiṣvapyabhivyaktirjātīnāṃ kaiścīdiṣyate |
prāṇyāśritāstu tāḥ prāptau nimittaṃ puṇyapāpayoḥ || 45 ||45. Some declare that the universals are manifested in pictures etc. But they become the cause of the attainment of merit and demerit only when they have living beings as substrata.
Commentary
[Some go to the extent of saying that the universals of sentient things exist in their non-sentient images. But this is not correct. All that happens is that, due to similarity between the original and the image, similarity of cognition takes place. That does not prove the presence of the universal.]
The author now states how the omniscients acquire their knowledge of the universals.