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 3.7.4
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.4:
बुद्धया समाहितैकत्वान् पञ्चालान् कुरुभिर्यदा ।
पुनर्विभजते वक्ता तदाऽपायः प्रतीयते ॥ ४ ॥buddhayā samāhitaikatvān pañcālān kurubhiryadā |
punarvibhajate vaktā tadā'pāyaḥ pratīyate || 4 ||4. When the speaker first unites the Pāñcālas and Kurus mentally and then divides them, we understand what separation is.
Commentary
That the ‘means’ is something essentially mental is now confirmed.
[Read verse 4 above]
[It is because everything is a matter of cognition and intention that separation can be purely mental. Separation is taking apart preceded by joining (saṃśleṣapūrvako viśleṣaḥ).
In Kurubhyaḥ pāñcālā abhirūpatarāḥ’, there is, first of all, a bringing together (saṃśleṣa) of Kurus and Pāñcālās mentally on the basis of their resemblance in good looks and then their separation (viśleṣa) on account of the superiority of one over the other. The whole thing is mental. Even what is purely mental is quite enough to explain verbal usage. In the section dealing with the cases (kāraka), maximum degree is not ordinarily very important, because where it is important, Panini tells us so in some way, as by the use of the suffix ‘tamap’ in the sūtra: sādhakatamaṃ karaṇam (P. 1.4.42) ]
Another confirmation of the M. Bhā. view follows.