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 3.3.19
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.3.19:
啶啶班ぞ啶啶むた啶� 啶む 啶膏ぎ啶掂ぞ啶ぞ啶栢啶ぞ啶� 啶掂ぞ啶氞啶ぇ啶班啶ぞ啶むた啶掂ぐ啷嵿い啶苦え啷�啶 啷�
啶啶班く啷嬥啷嵿い啶� 啶啶班い啶苦お啶む啶むぞ 啶掂ぞ 啶� 啶多が啷嵿う啷堗ぐ啶ㄠ啶椸啷嵿啶むた 啷� 啷оク 啷�辫谤腻辫迟颈峁� tu samav膩y膩khy膩峁� 惫腻肠测补dharm膩tivartin墨m |
prayokt膩 pratipatt膩 v膩 na 艣abdairanugacchati || 19 ||19. Neither the speaker nor the hearer can reach through words that juxtaposition (辫谤腻辫迟颈) called inherence which is beyond the attributes which things expressed have.
Commentary
The author really holds that inherence is not the expressed meaning of any word.
[Read verse 19 above]
[All things like a cow which are expressed by words are characterised by some properties and are mixed up with them. These two things are their limiting factor. But for them, they could not be expressed by words. Inherence has no quality or universal as its limiting factor, according to the Vai艣e峁kas. Thus, it is beyond the range of what is characteristic of all that is expressible (惫腻肠测补). The capacity to be referred to by a pronoun as 鈥榯his鈥� or 鈥榯hat鈥� is the sign that something can be expressed by words. This is also absent in the case of inherence. It cannot be understood even from the word 蝉补尘补惫腻测补 by the speaker or by the hearer. There is no word which can touch its essence. The word 蝉补尘补惫腻测补 is not such a one, because it is also used to denote an assembly of men. It is only among the Vai艣e峁kas that it is used to denote this category].
Now the Naiy膩yika indulges in some casuistry.