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 3.14.297
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.297:
श्यामेव शस्त्री कन्येति यथान्यद् व्यपदिश्यते ।
असन् ब्राह्मण इत्याभ्यां तथान्यं क्षत्रियादयः ॥ २९७ ॥śyāmeva śastrī kanyeti yathānyad vyapadiśyate |
asan brāhmaṇa ityābhyāṃ tathānyaṃ kṣatriyādayaḥ || 297 ||297. Just as in śastrīva śyāmā kanyā = ‘the girl is dark like a dagger’, something external is referred to, in the same way, the two words asan and brāhmaṇa convey outside objects like a kṣattriya.
Commentary
To show that even if the meaning of the outside word is predominant in a negative compound, it is not a bahuvrīhi but a tatpuruṣa, an illustration is given.
[Read verse 297 above]
Remark. Though all the manuscripts and the two previous editions have śyāmeva śastrī kanyeti, the correct reading should perhaps be śastrīva śyāmā kanyeti in the first pāda of this stanza.
[According to the view that it is the second constituent which is the predominant one, the meaning of the compound rests within the compound itself. But it may be looked upon as being similar to the compound śastrīsyāmā = ‘dark like a dagger’. This compound refers to something outside itself like kanyā = girl. In that sense, though it is a tatpuruṣa, it has been formed in the sense of something external. Abrāhmaṇa is in the same position.]