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 3.8.29
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.8.29:
आख्यातशब्दैरर्थोऽसावेवंभूतोऽभिधीयते ।
नामशब्दाः प्रवर्तन्ते संहरन्त इति क्रमम् ॥ २९ ॥ākhyātaśabdairartho'sāvevaṃbhūto'bhidhīyate |
nāmaśabdāḥ pravartante saṃharanta iti kramam || 29 ||29. Verbs express things in that condition, (that is, as having sequence.) Nouns, on the other hand, operate as though suppressing this sequence.
Commentary
[The stage called birth which precedes the one called born is the causal stage. It has really no sequence within it but when expressed by a verb like jāyate, it assumes sequence. Hence this stage has the characteristic of action. But when this very stage is expressed by a noun like janma, it appears as a thing without any sequence within. What is expressed by the noun is identified by us with what is expressed by the verb and that is why it appears to us that the noun suppresses the sequence which we experience in a verb. This is the force of iva in samharanta iva kramam.]
According to some, destruction is the later stage of what is, just as birth is its earlier stage.