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 2.4
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.4:
साकाङ्क्षावयवं भेदे पारानाकाङ्क्षशब्दकम् ।
कर्मप्रधानं गुणवदेकार्थं वाक्यमिष्यते ॥ ४ ॥sākāṅkṣāvayavaṃ bhede pārānākāṅkṣaśabdakam |
karmapradhānaṃ guṇavadekārthaṃ vākyamiṣyate || 4 ||4. A sentence is a collection of words which in isolation require one another for particularisation, which, as a whole, do not require an outside word, in which the verb is the predominant word, which has qualifying words and which serve one purpose.
Commentary
The Mīmāṃsaka definition is now referred to.
[Read verse 4 above]
[In this definition, the verb is said to be the most important word, but not the only word. That is why the sentence is said to be guṇavat. The verb is also essential. Otherwise, nīlo ghaṭaḥ would also be a sentence. Unless the words require one another, they would not form a sentence. All this is an elaboration of the idea contained in Mī.Sū. II.1.42.]