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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.

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.279:

गोयुष्मन्महतां च्व्यर्थ� स्वार्थादर्थान्तरे स्थितौ �
अर्थान्तरस्य तद्भावस्तत्र मुख्योऽप� दृश्यत� � २७� �

goyuṣmanmahatā� cvyarthe svārthādarthāntare sthitau |
arthāntarasya tadbhāvastatra mukhyo'pi dṛśyate || 279 ||

279. When the words go, ۳ṣm and mahat have the suffix cvi at the end and are used in a meaning other than their own, what was not so becomes so secondarily and sometimes also primarily.

Commentary

[In the expressions: agaur gau� sampadyate, go'bhavat, ٱ� tva� sampadyate, tvad bhavati, the quality of being a cow and of being ‘thou� is superimposed on what is not a cow and what is not thou. What is not a cow does not really become a cow. It is only a superimposition. In amahān mahān ūٲ�, mahadbhūtaś Ի�, what was not big does actually become big. This case is therefore different from the two previous cases. The word mahat is used in its primary meaning in 󲹻ū�, but in go'bhavat, go is used in a secondary sense, because it is applied to something which does not really become a cow. Being used in a secondary sense, the o in go is not considered to be ṛhⲹ. For the same reason, there is no second person suffix in tvadbhavati. There is no real ṣm here. It only exists secondarily. In the words of the ṛtپ—aܰ gaur abhavat, go'bhavat iti ṛhⲹsaṃjñā na bhavati. Atva� tva� sampadyate, tvad bhavati madhyamo na bhavati.]

But, says the objector, this is alright in such expressions as go'bhavat and tvadbhavati. But in mahadbhūtaś Ի�, the use cannot be called a secondary one as the moon does really become big (mahat) on full-moon day. That being so, the long ā, taught in P. 6.3.46, at the end of mahat should come in. To show that even in mahadbhūtaś Ի�, the use is a secondary one, the author says�

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