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 2.417
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.417:
啶呧ざ啶啶︵ぎ啶ぐ啷囙そ啶班啶ムじ啷嵿く 啶班啶え啶苦ぐ啷嵿ぇ啶距ぐ啶｀ 啶掂た啶︵啶� 啷�
啶多ぐ啷嵿ぅ啶距さ啶ぞ啶膏ぐ啷傕お啶� 啶灌た 啶多が啷嵿う啷囙き啷嵿く啷� 啶溹ぞ啶い啷� 啶膏啶啶むた啶� 啷� 啷ェ啷� 啷�a艣abdamapare'rthasya r奴panirdh膩ra峁嘺峁� vidu岣� |
艣arth膩vabh膩sar奴p膩 hi 艣abdebhyo j膩yate sm峁泃i岣� || 417 ||417. Others think that the meaning (of a sentence) cannot be determined through the word. A remembrance resembling the experience of the object takes place through the words.
Commentary
[Some think that words are not the means of understand-ing the meaning of a sentence which is in the nature of an interconnection (蝉补峁僺补谤驳补). According to them, this interconnection is understood by means of an integral cognition by the mind, (nirvikalpakaikasamadhigamyam鈥�笔耻峁噛补谤腻箩补) and not through the meaning of individual words. Individual words do no more than cause a remembrance similar to the experience of objects. Thus they are too far away from the sentence-meaning. This is the gist of 笔耻峁噛补谤腻箩补鈥檚 commentary.
The 痴峁泃迟颈 comments on this and the next verse together, more on the next verse than on this one. The only point which it mentions relating to this verse is that the idea which we get of an object from its word is far removed from the real nature of that object. The next verse explains this very point by means of an example: Sarvatr膩艣abdam arth膩n膩峁� svabh膩v膩vadh膩ra峁嘺峁�, 艣abdav峁泃ta峁� tvanupatad d奴r墨bhavati tasm膩d ityeke峁Ｄ佱箖 dar艣anam = The understanding of the nature of an object takes place everywhere through other means than the word, what the word brings is far removed from them, such is the view of some. ]