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 1.86
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.86:
啶啶︵ぞ啶ㄠ啶曕ぞ啶班 啶溹啶炧ぞ啶ㄠじ啷嵿く 啶掂ぞ啶氞ざ啷嵿啷嬥お啶啶侧さ啷� 啶о啶班啶掂 啷�
啶曕啶班ぎ啷嬥お啶膏啶粪啶熰ぐ啷傕お啶� 啶掂ぞ啶椸 啶溹啶炧ぞ啶ㄠ 啶溹啶炧啶さ啷嵿く啶ぞ啶多啶班く啶 啷� 啷ガ 啷�bhed膩nuk膩ro j帽膩nasya v膩ca艣copaplavo dhruva岣� |
kramopas峁涐梗峁璦r奴p膩 v膩g j帽膩na峁� j帽eyavyap膩艣rayam || 86 ||86. The appearance of diversity in knowledge and the Word is surely an illusion. The word is coloured by sequence and knowledge is coloured by the known.
Commentary
Even though knowledge is undifferentiated and formless, it appears to be differentiated because it takes on the form of all the things which are to be known, as when one says five trees, twenty cows. The inner word in which, all the seeds are merged, appears, at the time of its manifestation, to follow the differentiation and sequence of the manifesting sounds. Therefore, the indivisible word-principle, called Word-Mind, being affected by the appearance of difference belonging to something else, is understood differently from what it is. It has been said:鈥�
鈥淜nowledge, without the thing to be known, does not enter into usage. And nothing can be expressed through the word which has not assumed sequence.鈥�