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 3.12.7
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.12.7:
क्रीणीष्� वपते धत्त� चिनोति चिनुतेऽप� � �
आप्तप्रयोग� दृश्यन्त� येषु ण्यर्थोऽभिधीयत� � � �krīṇīṣva vapate dhatte cinoti cinute'pi ca |
āptaprayogā dṛśyante yeṣu ṇyartho'bhidhīyate || 7 ||7. There are expressions used by men who know such as īṇīṣ, vapate, dhatte, cinoti, cinute. In these, the meaning of ṇi is understood (that is, inferred.)
Commentary
[How the illusion arises that the ٳԱ貹岹 and the causative are alternate ways of saying the same thing is now explained. Kadrū tells վԲ who has been enslaved: ātmāna� krīṇīṣva—‘buy yourself�. վԲ, not being able to do so by herself, tells her sons : Krīṇīta mām: ‘purchase me�. Here Kadrū prompts վԲ to do something. So there is prompting (ṣa) and yet the Ա貹岹 is used in īṇīṣ. So the illusion arises that ṇi and ٳԱ貹岹 have the same scope. But it is only an illusion because the idea that վԲ has to make her sons purchase her freedom (貹ⲹ) is understood not from the word used but from the context. Similarly, the expression Keśaśmaśru Vapate = ‘he shaves his head and beard� is a cause of illusion because ‘he shaves� means that he prompts the barber to shave. So there is prompting and yet the ٳԱ貹岹 is used. But here also, really speaking, the ٳԱ貹岹 comes because the result of the shaving goes to the person shaved, namely, the agent of the verb vapate. It is from the context or from the nature of things that one understands that one gets the barber to do the shaving. So the scope of the two is not the same.]