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 3.14.263
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.263:
अभाव इति भावस्य प्रतिषेधे विवक्षिते ।
सोपाख्यत्वमनाश्रित्य प्रतिषेधो न कल्पते ॥ २६३ ॥abhāva iti bhāvasya pratiṣedhe vivakṣite |
sopākhyatvamanāśritya pratiṣedho na kalpate || 263 ||263. When, in the compound, abhāvaḥ negation of Existence is intended, negation cannot be brought about except on the basis of something positive (sopākhya).
Commentary
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.
[Read verse 263 above]
[In order to delimit the object of negation, something positive is conceived by the mind and the word bhāva is used. That it is non-existent cannot be understood from that word only because the form of the word is the same in both cases. In order that it may be understood, the negative particle is used. What is nirupākhya = indefinable, non-existent was wrongly thought of as definable and existent. To remove the error the negative particle is used.]
The whole thing is now explained in another way.