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 3.3.26
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.26:
न च वाचकरूपेण प्रवृत्तस्यास्ति वाच्यता ।
प्रतिपाद्यं न तत्तत्र येनान्यत् प्रतिपाद्यते ॥ २६ ॥na ca vācakarūpeṇa pravṛttasyāsti vācyatā |
pratipādyaṃ na tattatra yenānyat pratipādyate || 26 ||26. What is expressive cannot at the same time be the expressed. What conveys something else cannot at the same time be conveyed by something else.
Commentary
[What is engaged in conveying something else cannot turn back and become the object of the expressive activity of something else. What is acting as the agent cannot at that very moment become the object. What is expressive cannot at that very moment be the expressed.
The following syllogism expresses the idea well.
yat pratipādakam na tat pratipādyam, yathā saṃśayajñānaṃ nirṇayajñānam vā pratipādakam cābhidhānam, ato naitat pratipādyam.
“What conveys something else cannot itself be conveyed by something else.
As, for example, a doubt or a decisive cognition.
The word conveys something else,
And so it cannot itself be conveyed (by something else).]