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 3.12.21
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.12.21:
संविधातुश्च सान्निध्यात् दासे धर्मोऽनुषज्यते ।
प्लक्षशब्दस्य सान्निध्यान्न्यग्रोधे प्लक्षता यथा ॥ २१ ॥saṃvidhātuśca sānnidhyāt dāse dharmo'nuṣajyate |
plakṣaśabdasya sānnidhyānnyagrodhe plakṣatā yathā || 21 ||21. On account of the presence of the master, his property is attributed to the servant also. Just as, due to proximity, plakṣatā = the tact of being a plakṣa tree is attributed to the nyagrodha tree.
Commentary
[The question is whether to use the ātmanepada or the parasmaipada after the root ‘√pac’ = ‘to cook’ when both the agents, master and servant, are expressed by the same noun in the form of the dvandva compound: svāmidāsau. According to grammatical tradition, the dvandva-compound is taught in the sense of yugapad-adhikaraṇa-vacanatā = ‘the fact of each term of the compound expressing the group in which the parts are manifest. So the term dāsa also expresses the idea of saṃvidhāna which is the meaning of the term svāmī. Thus both the terms express saṃvidhāna and so the ātmanepada is added to the root and we get the expression svāmidāsau pacete = ‘the master and servant cook (together)’. It is like what happens in the compound plakṣa-nyagrodhau, the plakṣa and nyagrodha trees. As they are both intended to be talked about at the same time, one is imposed on the other. The compound expresses the collection in which the parts also figure and so the dual number is added to the compound.]