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 3.3.31
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.31:
संबन्धशब्दे संबन्धो योग्यतां प्रति योग्यता ।
समयाद्योग्यतासंविन्मातापुत्रादियोगवत् ॥ ३१ ॥saṃbandhaśabde saṃbandho yogyatāṃ prati yogyatā |
samayādyogyatāsaṃvinmātāputrādiyogavat || 31 ||31. The relation which the word relation expresses is this capacity (fitness) and it is through that that the word yogyatā itself conveys the meaning of fitness. This capacity is made known through convention just as the relationship between parent and child.
Commentary
[It was pointed out before that if inherence (samavāya) is postulated as the relation between word and meaning, there would be difficulty of having to postulate another inherence for the word samavāya itself. This difficulty would not arise if fitness is accepted as the relation between word and meaning. The word ‘saṃbandha’ would denote the relation consisting of fitness through its fitness to do so. Simi- larly, the word samavāya. would denote inherence through its fitness. Even the word yogyatā would denote its meaning through its fitness. This eternal fitness of words is made known through usage or convention, the uninterrupted practice of elders (vṛddhavyavahāraparamparā). Mere convention cannot give words that fitness if they did not already have it before, just as usage can only make known the relation of parent and child if it was already there. The sages also do no more than make known which word means what on the basis of this eternal fitness.]
The relation of cause and effect is now being stated.