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 3.14.177
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.177:
संस्त्यानं प्रत्ययस्यार्थः शुद्धमाश्रीयते यदा ।
तदा द्विवचनानेकप्रत्ययत्वं न सिध्यति ॥ १७७ ॥saṃstyānaṃ pratyayasyārthaḥ śuddhamāśrīyate yadā |
tadā dvivacanānekapratyayatvaṃ na sidhyati || 177 ||177. If bare femininity is taken as the meaning of the suffix, then the dual (and the plural) and the presence of more than one feminine suffix (in some words) cannot be explained.
Commentary
[If bare femininity (saṃstyāna) is the meaning of the suffix, the dual and the plural endings in words like kumāryau, kumāryaḥ cannot be explained, because femininity is one and the singular number would do. Nor can one explain the presence of two feminine suffixes in words like gārgyāyaṇī, kārīṣagandhyā and kālitarā. In gārgyāyaṇī, there is ṣpha first by P. 4.1.17 and then ṅīp by P. 4.1.41; in kārīṣagandhyā, there is first ṣyaṅ after karīṣagandhiḥ by P. 4.1.78 and then cāp by P. 4.1.74.; in kālitarā, there is first ṅīṣ after kāla by P. 4.1.42 and to the word kālī thus formed, tarap is added in the sense of higher degree and after tarap come ṭāp by P. 4.1.4.]