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 3.13.7
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.13.7:
बुद्ध्या कल्पितरूपेषु लिङ्गेष्वपि च संभवः ।
स्त्रीत्वादीनां व्यवस्था हि सा लिङ्गैर्व्यपदिश्यते ॥ ७ ॥buddhyā kalpitarūpeṣu liṅgeṣvapi ca saṃbhavaḥ |
strītvādīnāṃ vyavasthā hi sā liṅgairvyapadiśyate || 7 ||7. Even where the sex is clearly understood by the mind, it is possible to have all the genders like femininity. It is the word having different genders which bring about this state of things.
Commentary
[Even in regard to external objects whose sex is understood by the mind, it is possible to have the cognition of the other genders. This is due to words having different genders that present these objects. For example, objects like femininity are presented by words like strītvam, strītā and strībhāvaḥ as having all the three genders. That is how any gender can have the other genders.]