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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 3.14.264:

अनेकधर्मवचनै� शब्दैः सङ्घाभिधायिभिः �
एकदेशेषु वर्तन्ते तुल्यरूपाः स्वभावतः � २६� �

anekadharmavacanai� śabdai� saṅghābhidhāyibhi� |
ekadeśeṣu vartante tulyarūpā� 屹ٲ� || 264 ||

264. Words which stand for many attributes and denote their collection are sometimes normally (屹ٲ�) applied in the same form, to a part of them.

Commentary

[So far the negative compound 󳾲ṇa was explained on the basis of ܱ貹ٳ. According to that, the negative compound amounts to this: the idea of 󳾲ṇa is first mentally conceived (ܱ貹ٳ) and to deny the actual existence of 󳾲ṇatva in a ṣaٳٰⲹ and others, the word 󳾲ṇa is used in association with a negative particle.

It can be explained in another way. The negative particle in the compound reveals the non-existence of those qualities of a 󳾲ṇa which are naturally absent in a ṣaٳٰⲹ. The existence of the other qualities is implied. In other words the negative particle reveals that in 󳾲ṇa, the word 󳾲ṇa stands only for part of the qualities of a 󳾲ṇa because the negative particle reveals the absence of the other part. The word 󳾲ṇa is applied to one who is so in the full sense of the word as well as to one who has only some of the qualities of a 󳾲ṇa. But as the form of the word is the same in both cases, one does not see the difference. The negative particle helps us to see it.]

If the negative particle denotes the absence of the qualities not conveyed by the second constituent word, how does it become connected with it at all in order to form the compound?

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