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 3.14.415
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.415:
द्रव्यमात्रेऽपि निर्दिष्टे चन्द्रवक्त्रेऽनुगम्यते ।
विशिष्ट एव चन्द्रस्थो गुणो नोपप्लवादयः ॥ ४१५ ॥dravyamātre'pi nirdiṣṭe candravaktre'nugamyate |
viśiṣṭa eva candrastho guṇo nopaplavādayaḥ || 415 ||415. Though only two substances the moon and the face may be mentioned, a particular quality existing in the moon is understood and not the others like spots (upaplava).
Commentary
[M. Bhā. I. p. 397, I. 20 gives an illustration. When one says: candramukhī Devadattā = ‘Devadattā, the moon-faced’, one hears only two substances, the moon and the face, mentioned. No quality is mentioned. And yet people do understand the quality of being pleasant to look at as existing in both the substances and as being the basis of a comparison between the two. When this is the case when no quality is mentioned at all, what to say of a case like śastrīśyāmā where a quality is actually mentioned as existing in the object of comparison the hearer would have no difficulty at all in understanding that quality as existing in the standard of comparison also and as the basis of the comparison between the two objects.]