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 1.149
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.149:
ते साधुष्वनुमानेन प्रत्ययोत्पत्तिहेतवः ।
तादात्म्यमुपगम्येव शब्दार्थस्य प्रकाशकाः ॥ १४९ ॥te sādhuṣvanumānena pratyayotpattihetavaḥ |
tādātmyamupagamyeva śabdārthasya prakāśakāḥ || 149 ||149. They (the incorrect words) are the cause of the correct words (figuring in the mind) by inference. By identifying themselves, as it were, with them, they convey the meaning of the correct words.
Commentary
When corrupt forms are used to denote objects which are the sphere of the correct forms, they convey the meaning through the correct words, just as winking etc. are, through familiarity, well known to appear as having taken on the form (of the words which express the same idea).
The purpose of another verse1 on the subject is to say that corrupt forms do not convey the meaning directly.
Notes
1. That corrupt forms do convey a meaning was already stated in Vāk. I. 147. Viśiṣṭārthaniveśinam.
Why is it that goṇī etc. are not considered to be synonyms of gauḥ? In regard to such matters which are embodied in the written Tradition, no other cause other than being well-known in the practice of the cultured can be adduced. If gāvī etc. were synonyms, they would also have been included in their rules and actually used. That word is correct which is used, like perception, to convey the thing which cause its use. The correct words convey that meaning which directly prompt their use. Therefore, it is being said—