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 3.3.45-46
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.45-46:
उपचर्य तु कर्तारमभिधानप्रवृत्तये ।
पुनश्च कर्मभावेन तां क्रियां च तदाश्रयाम् ॥ ४५ ॥
अथोपचारसत्तैवं विधेयास्तत्र लादयः ।
जन्मना तु विरोधित्वात् मुख्या सत्ता न विद्यते ॥ ४६ ॥upacarya tu kartāramabhidhānapravṛttaye |
punaśca karmabhāvena tāṃ kriyāṃ ca tadāśrayām || 45 ||
athopacārasattaivaṃ vidheyāstatra lādayaḥ |
janmanā tu virodhitvāt mukhyā sattā na vidyate || 46 ||45-46. By conceiving it as agent in order that the name (sprout) may be given to it, by further conceiving it as the object and by postulating the action (of being born) based on it there results the secondary Being. The suffixes ‘la’ etc. (the verbal suffixes) can be applied to it. But there is no primary Being here because it would conflict with the idea of birth.
Commentary
It is now stated that the difficulties are removed on the basis of secondary Being.
[Read verse 45-46 above]
[The secondary ‘Being’ is capable of assuming all forms. What already exists in its finished form cannot be said to be born, nor what is totally non-existent. About something which neither is nor is not, which participates in the former and later condition and is about to attain a Being, one can say that it is being born. When one says that ‘the sprout comes out’, what one means is that when the causes are about to produce their effect, what is yet to be is thought of as being already there and to that we give the name of sprout and it is presented as the agent of the action of being born. There is further secondary usage when the agent becomes the object of the action of attaining one’s form which is the meaning of being born. The agent which thus becomes the object through secondary usage is said to be born, that is, it is the agent of a process the parts of which are arranged in a sequence. Explained in this way, the expression aṅkuro jāyate is seen to rest in secondary Being. The agent, the object and the action are all the result of upacāra: There is kartṛkalpanā, karmakalpanā and kriyākalpanā.]
It is now pointed out that the expression ‘asti’ which expresses the state coming after being born, is also based on secondary Being.