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 3.3.3
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.3:
अस्यायं वाचको वाच्य इति षष्ठ्या प्रतीयते ।
योगः शब्दार्थयोस्तत्त्वमित्यतो व्यपदिश्यते ॥ ३ ॥asyāyaṃ vācako vācya iti ṣaṣṭhyā pratīyate |
yogaḥ śabdārthayostattvamityato vyapadiśyate || 3 ||3. That this word is expressive of that meaning, that this meaning is the expressed meaning of that word, such a relation between word and meaning is understood from the genitive suffix. That is why they are understood as identical.
Commentary
The author now says what the indication is of the existence of the fixed (samavasthita) relation between -word and meaning.
[Read verse 3 above]
[That the relation between the word and the meaning is a natural one and not a mere matter of convention is inferred by us in the following way. We use such expressions as: This word is expressive of that meaning; that meaning is the expressed sense of this word. Here the use of the ‘of’ (ṣaṣṭhī vibhakti) can be explained only on the assumption that there is a natural relation between the word and the meaning. We never connect two such totally unconnected things as the jar and the cloth by means of the genitive suffix. Because of this natural connection it is that we identify the two in such expressions as ayaṃ gauḥ where the word gauḥ and its meaning are identified.]