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 3.13.3
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.13.3:
उपादानविकल्पाश्च लिङ्गानां सप्त वर्णिताः ।
विकल्पसंनियोगाभ्यां ये शब्देषु व्यवस्थिताः ॥ ३ ॥upādānavikalpāśca liṅgānāṃ sapta varṇitāḥ |
vikalpasaṃniyogābhyāṃ ye śabdeṣu vyavasthitāḥ || 3 ||3. Seven different ways in which gender is conveyed by words have been described and they are associated with words as alternatives or as restrictions.
Commentary
[Words have their own special capacity to convey meanings and gender is understood as attributes of these meanings. That is done in seven ways. Even though the genders are nothing more than the conditions of the three guṇas which are everywhere, still no confusion takes place because of the regulation of the power of the words which manifest gender. Of the seven ways, four give alternatives and the remaining three are restrictions: (1) Some words are masculine or neuter: śaṅkhaḥ, padmaḥ, śaṅkhaṃ, padmam, (2) Others are feminine or neuter: bhāgadheyī, bhāgadeyam, bheṣajī, bheṣajam, (3) Others are masculine or feminine, iṣuḥ, aśaniḥ, (4) Others have all the three taṭaḥ, taṭī, taṭam, (5) Some are masculine only: vṛkṣaḥ, prakāśaḥ, Others are feminine only khaṭvā, strī and (7) Others are neuter only: dadhi, vanam.]