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 3.1.67
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.67:
अन्वयव्यतिरेकाभ्यां सङ्ख्याभ्युपगमे सति ।
युक्तं यत्साधनत्वं स्यान्न त्वन्यार्थोपलक्षणम् ॥ ६७ ॥anvayavyatirekābhyāṃ saṅkhyābhyupagame sati |
yuktaṃ yatsādhanatvaṃ syānna tvanyārthopalakṣaṇam || 67 ||67. If, on the basis of agreement and difference, number is actually understood from the text, it is right that it should also become an accessory and not merely be secondary to the meaning of something else.
Commentary
The view expressed in verses 65 and 66 was that of ‘some’ (kecit). It is now criticized.
[Read verse 67 above]
[This is not the right way of looking at it. The real position is that the singular number ds understood only if the suffix of the singular is present and not otherwise. If it is thus understood, what is the reason for abandoning it? It should also be considered a sādhana, accessory to action. It is not there merely to give a certain completeness to the meaning of the stem. The word paśunā expresses two ideas, one through the stem and the other through the suffix, and they stand in the relation of primary and secondary to each other. To accept one and reject the other is not right. Secondly, unless the singular number is taken as actually taught, it would not be possible to substitute clarified butter when, for some reason or other, one of the avadānas is lost. One can use another animal, because there would be no obligation to stick to one animal. But if the singular number is openly taught one cannot resort to another animal and so one can take clarified butter as a substitute.