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 3.14.262
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.262:
क्षत्रियादौ पदं कृत्वा बुद्धिः सत्तान्तराश्रया ।
जात्या भिन्नां ततः सत्तां प्रसक्तामपकर्षति ॥ २६२ ॥kṣatriyādau padaṃ kṛtvā buddhiḥ sattāntarāśrayā |
jātyā bhinnāṃ tataḥ sattāṃ prasaktāmapakarṣati || 262 ||262. An idea based on some other Existence is first applied (by mistake) to kṣattriya and the like and (when the negative particle is used) it takes away the Existence based on one universal from something else to which it was wrongly applied.
Commentary
How something similar to what is negated is understood from a negative compound is now explained.
[Read verse 262 above]
[The negative compound is used when something is first mistaken for something else, and later, the mistake is discovered. The initial mistake and its later removal can be seen in expressions like abrāhmaṇo'yaṃ kṣattriyaḥ. Here the negative particle removes the idea of brāhmaṇa wrongly applied to a kṣattriya and says: this is not a brāhmaṇa, he was wrongly so understood, he is similar to a brāhmaṇa. Similar to a brāhmaṇa is necessarily the meaning of ‘not a abrāhmaṇa. It cannot mean something totally different from a brāhmaṇa but that would not explain how the mistake took place.]
But how to explain the negative compound abhāvaḥ? Here nothing similar to the meaning of the second constituent word is understood. Its negation is understood.