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 3.14.256
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.256:
वृत्तौ यथा गताद्यर्थमुपादाय निरादयः ।
युज्यन्ते साधनाधारैर्नञ्समासेऽपि स क्रमः ॥ २५६ ॥vṛttau yathā gatādyarthamupādāya nirādayaḥ |
yujyante sādhanādhārairnañsamāse'pi sa kramaḥ || 256 ||256. Just as niḥ etc. combine, in a compound, on the basis of meanings in the form of one who has gone etc. with substrata in the form of accessories (sādhana), such is the process in a negative compound.
Commentary
How the negative particle which is indicative in a sentence becomes expressive in a compound is now explained by means of an analogy.
[Read verse 256 above]
[The compound niṣkauśāmbiḥ is formed in the sense of niṣkrāntaḥ Kauśāmbyāḥ = ‘one who has come out of the city of Kaujāmbī. Here niṣkrāntaḥ expresses an action together with its agent. Such a word combines, in a compound, with a word like Kauśāmbī, which denotes the starting point (apādāna) of the action of coming out. It is niḥ, having the meaning niṣkrāntaḥ which actually combines with Kauśāmbī by P. 2.2.18, vā 4. Its meaning is the same as that of niṣkrāntaḥ.
In a compound niḥ does not denote mere asattva. If it were so, it could not combine with Kauśāmbī whose meaning is in the nature of sattva. So it denotes a substance to which the action of coming out is subordinate. In other words, primarily it denotes the agent of the action of coming out, though outside the compound, theoretically, it is supposed to convey asattva = non-substance. In the same way, in a negative compound, the negative particle is deemed to be expressive of nonexistence in general as otherwise its connection with the meaning of the second constituent would remain inexplicable.]