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 3.13.10
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.13.10:
व्यक्तेषु व्यक्तरूपाणां स्तनादीनां तु दर्शनात् ।
अव्यक्तव्यञ्जनाव्यक्तेर्जातिर्न परिकल्प्यते ॥ १० ॥vyakteṣu vyaktarūpāṇāṃ stanādīnāṃ tu darśanāt |
avyaktavyañjanāvyakterjātirna parikalpyate || 10 ||10. Because one can see signs of sex like breasts in living things, one cannot therefore, assume the existence of the universal of sex in objects which have no such signs because it is never manifested by them.
Commentary
[One can see in living things signs like breasts etc. which manifest the sex which exists in them. In inanimate things, we see no such signs at any time. So nothing manifests sex in them at any time. So one cannot infer its existence in them. To infer something one must have some proof. One can infer that the sun moves when one sees it occupying another point of space. One may not see an object hidden by a piece of cloth but one does see it when the cloth is removed. That is not the case with liṅga in objects like khaṭvā. But the word khaṭvā has the power of presenting it as having liṅga.]