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 3.14.55
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.55:
सप्तपर्णादिवद् भेदो न वृत्तौ विद्यते क्वचित् ।
रूढयरूढिविभागोऽपि क्रियते प्रतिपत्तये ॥ ५५ ॥saptaparṇādivad bhedo na vṛttau vidyate kvacit |
rūḍhayarūḍhivibhāgo'pi kriyate pratipattaye || 55 ||55. In a compound, sometimes there is no difference as there is in the case of the compound saptaparṇa. The distinction between purely conventional words and others is made only for the sake of explanation.
Commentary
[The compound saptaparṇa is usually analysed as : parvaṇi parvaṇi sapta parṇāny asya = ‘that which has seven leaves at every joint.’ The word parvan is not found in the compound at all, though the repetition of it in the analytic sentence shows that it is an important element in the meaning. It is because of this that such a compound is said to be a rūḍhi, a mere conventional word whereas compounds like rājapuruṣa are said to be yaugika words, that is words having meaningful parts. The conclusion from all this is that compounds are indivisible units. They are artificially analysed into parts for the sake of explanation. They are quite different from the corresponding sentences.]
It is now stated why in a bahuvrīhi comprising more than two constituents, intermediate compounding of two constituents does not take place.