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 3.7.138
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.138:
द्रव्यत्वभावो न ध्नौव्यमिति सूत्रे प्रतीयते ।
अपायविषयं घ्रौव्यं यत्तु तावद्विवक्षितम् ॥ १३८ ॥dravyatvabhāvo na dhnauvyamiti sūtre pratīyate |
apāyaviṣayaṃ ghrauvyaṃ yattu tāvadvivakṣitam || 138 ||138. Stability (dhrauvyam) is not understood from the sūtra as the property of a thing. What is meant is stability in relation to the particular movement called separation.
Commentary
It is now explained how even that which moves can be a starting-point.
[Read verse 138 above]
[What is meant by dhruva (stable, firm) is not that it is a permanent property of a thing, but only that it is not affected by the movement of that which departs. In the sentence dhāvato'śvāt patati = ‘he falls from the running horse’, even though the horse is presented as moving, it is not affected by the movement of the one who falls. What is called apāya (separation, departure) is accomplished by two things: something which is active and something which is inactive. Here the horse is inactive as far as the falling is concerned. Mere inactivity is not enough, it has to be inactivity in relation to the departure of that which departs. Hence in the sentence: grāmād āgacchati pathā parvatam = ‘from the village he comes along the road to the mountain’, though the road and the mountain are inactive, they are not so in regard to the action of coming and so they are not apādāna. The village is stationary in regard to the action of coming and so it is apādāna.]