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 3.14.491
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.491:
अध्येतरि यदा वृत्तिरुच्यते ब्राह्मणश्रुतेः ।
निमित्तत्वं तदोपैति क्रियैवाध्येतरि स्थिता ॥ ४९१ ॥adhyetari yadā vṛttirucyate brāhmaṇaśruteḥ |
nimittatvaṃ tadopaiti kriyaivādhyetari sthitā || 491 ||491. When it is held that the word brāhmaṇa denotes one who studies, then the action which exists in such a person who studies, becomes the basis (of the comparison).
Commentary
[As it is not possible to have a pure action-word ending in the third case-affix a word expressive of substance, qualified by action, is understood as the stem. The word brāhmaṇa, though expressive of a combination, is here understood as standing for substance (that is, a person) characterised by the act of studying, a part of that combination. So the suffix vati is added to the word brāhmaṇa ending in the third case-affix and denoting a person qualified by the act of studying and we get the expression: brāhmaṇavad adhīte (kṣattriyaḥ) from which we understand the relation of upamāna and upameya between brāhmaṇa and kṣattriya on the basis of the act of studying actually mentioned.]
Somebody points out the difficulty in another way.