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 3.3.29
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.29:
इन्द्रियाणां स्वविषयेष्वनादिर्योग्यता यथा ।
अनादिरर्थैः शब्दानां संबन्धो योग्यता तथा ॥ २९ ॥indriyāṇāṃ svaviṣayeṣvanādiryogyatā yathā |
anādirarthaiḥ śabdānāṃ saṃbandho yogyatā tathā || 29 ||29. Just as the senses have an eternal fitness to perceive their objects, in the same way, the relation of words with their meanings is an eternal fitness in regard to them.
Commentary
The author now proceeds to explain relation as accepted in his own circle.
[Read verse 29 above]
[Because we understand a meaning as soon as we hear words, a natural capacity in the words to convey the meaning must be presumed. This natural capacity is made known through convention (saṅketa). This capacity is as natural as that of the eye to perceive form and colour. This capacity has to be understood by us on the basis of the meaning which we understand from words. As words and their meanings are understood as one, there is a kind of mutual superimposition (adhyāsa): the word is understood as the meaning and the meaning is understood as the word. Adhyāsa or superimposition is the main relation between word and meaning. The senses are causes (kāraka) in the process of the production of the cognition of objects. The word, on the other hand, makes known (jñāpaka) the meaning. Being so, it. must itself be known before it can cause the meaning to be known. The resemblance between the senses and the word is that their power or fitness is natural, not due to human effort.]
The author now points out that the meaning is not related to the corrupt form of a word.