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 3.14.570
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.570:
बुद्ध्यवस्थाविभागेन भेदकार्यं प्रतीयते ।
जन्यन्त इव शब्दानामर्थाः सर्वे विवक्षया ॥ ५७० ॥buddhyavasthāvibhāgena bhedakāryaṃ pratīyate |
janyanta iva śabdānāmarthāḥ sarve vivakṣayā || 570 ||570. Operations based on difference are understood through difference made by the mind. All meanings of words seem to be created by the intention of the speaker.
Commentary
[It is now stated that everywhere it is artificial difference which is useful. In Grammar, whatever operation is based on difference is carried out on the basis of difference created by the mind. The treatment of something as a particular kāraka is based on the intention of the speaker. The fact is that words take their form on the basis of notions brought by the intention of the speaker irrespective of whether there is anything corresponding to it outside or not. Words mean what the speaker intends them to mean. Though Kaṃsa and others have been dead and gone, they acquire a kind of present existence when they are pictured in the mind and what is pictured in the mind is further thought of as the agent (prayojaka) and the object of action (prayojya), one gets expressions like: Kaṃsaṃ ghātayati = ‘he is getting Kaṃsa killed’, Balim Bandhayati = ‘he is getting Bali bound’.]