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 3.11.5
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.11.5:
अस्वतन्त्रे स्वतन्त्रत्वं परधर्मो यथा गुणे ।
अभेद्ये भेद्यभावोऽपि द्रव्यधर्मस्तथा गुणे ॥ ५ ॥asvatantre svatantratvaṃ paradharmo yathā guṇe |
abhedye bhedyabhāvo'pi dravyadharmastathā guṇe || 5 ||5. Just as independence which is a property of substance is attributed to quality which is not independent, in the same way the property of being differentiated which belongs to substance is attributed to quality which is not so.
Commentary
[Elsewhere also one sees that the properties of the substance are attributed to the qualities which reside in them. When we say śuklaḥ paṭaḥ = ‘white cloth’ language presents cloth as the main thing and white as a quality residing in it. This also corresponds to fact. But when we say paṭasya śuklaḥ = ‘the white of the cloth’, language does not present white as a subordinate thing. It presents it as an independent thing. But independence is really a property of substances and not of qualities. Similarly, when we say paṭasya rūpam ekaṃ, dve, bahūni etc. we are differentiating in language a quality by a number. To be differentiated by number is really a property of substance.]