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 3.10.8-9
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.10.8-9:
यथानिर्देशमर्थाः स्युर्येसां शास्त्रं विधायकम् ।
किं चित् सामान्यमाश्रित्य स्थिते तु प्रतिपादनम् ॥ ८ ॥
योऽश्वे यः पीठ इत्यत्र भूतयोरश्वपीठयोः ।
यथोपलक्षणार्थत्वं तथार्थेष्वनुशासनम् ॥ ९ ॥yathānirdeśamarthāḥ syuryesāṃ śāstraṃ vidhāyakam |
kiṃ cit sāmānyamāśritya sthite tu pratipādanam || 8 ||
yo'śve yaḥ pīṭha ityatra bhūtayoraśvapīṭhayoḥ |
yathopalakṣaṇārthatvaṃ tathārtheṣvanuśāsanam || 9 ||8. If the śāstra were to create words, meaning would be as given in the śāstra. But in it, there is only exposition on the basis of something general.
9. Just as the settled things the horse and the seat, in the sentences ‘the one who sits on a horse’ and ‘the one who sits on a seat’ are only meant to be indications, so is the case with the abstracted meanings used for teaching.
Commentary
[But that must not be taken too seriously. It is something like this: Somebody asks “who among these is Devadatta? He is told: ‘the one who is sitting on a horse’ or ‘the one who is sitting on a seat.’ The fact of sitting on a horse or on a chair is only used here as a means of pointing out who Devadatta is. That must not be taken as part of Devadatta.]