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 3.7.71
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.71:
प्रधानकर्म कथितं यत् क्रियायाः प्रयोजकम् ।
तत्सिद्धये क्रियायुक्तमन्यत्त्वकथितं स्मृतम् ॥ ७१ ॥pradhānakarma kathitaṃ yat kriyāyāḥ prayojakam |
tatsiddhaye kriyāyuktamanyattvakathitaṃ smṛtam || 71 ||71. That which causes the action to be done is said to be the main object (pradhānakarma). That which becomes connected with the action in order that it (the main object) may be attained is something else and has been called ‘that which has not been declared to be anything else’ (akathita).
Commentary
This point is now further clarified.
[Read verse 71 above]
[The difference in status is due to difference in importance. That to attain which all the accessories are set in motion and after attaining which relax is the main object, that which is most desired to be attained by the agent. In the sentence gāṃ dogdhi payaḥ, it is milk which is in this position. The cow is resorted to only as a means. It is therefore, relatively unimportant. Where milk is not the objective and the milking is done only to prevent the cow from drying up we say gāṃ dogdhi and here gām is the main object. In gāṃ dogdhi payaḥ, there is the relation of nimitta and nimitti between the cow and the milk. Therefore, they belong to two different categories. There the cow cannot become the object according to P. 1.4.49. It does so according to P. 1.4.51.]
The author now says something about the objects of the roots ‘nī’ and ‘vah’.