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 3.1.105
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.1.105:
घटज्ञानमिति ज्ञानं घटज्ञानविलक्षणम् ।
घट इत्यापि यज्ज्ञानं विषयोपनिपाति तत् ॥ १०५ ॥ghaṭajñānamiti jñānaṃ ghaṭajñānavilakṣaṇam |
ghaṭa ityāpi yajjñānaṃ viṣayopanipāti tat || 105 ||105. The knowledge “this is a knowledge of the jar” is different from the knowledge “this is a jar”. The knowledge “this is a jar” refers to an external object.
Commentary
The author now points out the difference between the knowledge of an object and the knowledge of a knowledge.
[Read verse 105 above]
[Here a doubt arises: We can have two cognitions taking the forms ‘this is a jar’ and ‘this is a knowledge of the jar.’ In the former, the jar is the thing known. In the latter, however, the knowledge of the jar is not the thing known, because no knowledge can become the thing known. Knowledge illuminates something else and is self-luminous, but never the thing illuminated. This argument is not valid, because knowledge is not self-luminous. It has to be illumi- nated by another knowledge. Nor need this lead to regres-sus ad infinitum.
The above doubt is answered as follows—The knowledge ‘this is a knowledge of the jar’ is different from the knowledge “this is a jar”, because the former is not produced directly by an external object. The jar which seems to figure in it has no reference to an external object. In other words, no object, different from external object, figures in it. Knowledge itself does not figure as an object.]