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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 1.46:

अरणिस्थं यथ� ज्योति� प्रकाशान्तरकारणम� �
तद्वच्छब्दोऽपि बुद्धिस्थः श्रुतीना� कारण� पृथक� � ४६ �

araṇistha� yathā jyoti� prakāśāntarakāraṇam |
tadvacchabdo'pi buddhistha� śrutīnā� kāraṇa� pṛthak || 46 ||

46. Just as the fire which is within the churnsticks is the cause of the other fire (which is kindled), similarly, the word which is in the mind (of the speaker) becomes the cause of the different expressive words.

Commentary

Just as one sees that, both according to the doctrine of identity and that of difference,1 the fire, at first in the form of seed and unmanifested is later kindled into a flame and its capacity to illuminate itself and others, previously imperceptible, becomes later perceptible, in the same way, the word in the mind which has the seeds of differentiation in it, comes near to manifestation when the seeds become mature and is manifested by the movements of the articulatory organs and due to differentiation in the manifesting sounds, appears to have divisions and is perceived as having inner sequence and illuminates its own form and others.2

Notes

1. 첹ٱ貹ṣa and ٱ貹ṣa stand for ٰⲹ岹 and aٰⲹ岹 respectively.

2. The word exists in the mind of the speaker as a unity. When he utters it and produces the different sounds by the movements of the articulatory organs, it appears to have differentiation. But the listener ultimately perceives it as a unity and it is then that it conveys the meaning. In this verse, the word which exists in the speaker’s mind as a unity is described as the nimitta. As V�. puts it: Sa eva vaktṛbuddhistho'nābhivyakto nimittam.

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