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.

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.65:

कुतश्चिदाहृत्य पदमेवं च परिकल्पने ।
कर्मस्थभावकत्वं स्पाद्दर्शनाद्यभिधायिनाम् ॥ ६५ ॥

kutaścidāhṛtya padamevaṃ ca parikalpane |
karmasthabhāvakatvaṃ spāddarśanādyabhidhāyinām || 65 ||

65. If one explains by bringing some extraneous word from somewhere, even roots, having the meaning of ‘seeing’ would become karmasthabhāvaka (that is, roots the action denoted by which resides in the object).

Commentary

It is now being shown that this way of explaining it is not right.

[Read verse 65 above]

[This way of explaining tādṛk.’ is not right, because the root √dṛś does not involve ‘becoming’ and ‘causing to become’. All that it means is: Knowledge of one who sees (kartṛsthaṃ darśanamātram). One does not think of something becoming the object of seeing. If one begins to analyse the meaning of roots in this way, all roots would become karmasthabhāvaka or karmasthakriya and there would be no kartṛsthabhāvaka or kartṛsthakriya roots at all and that is against facts.]

The author now draws a line of demarcation between these two kinds of roots.

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