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 2.187
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.187:
क्वचित् संभविनो मेदाः केवलैरनिदर्शिताः ।
उपसर्गेण सम्बन्धे व्यज्यन्ते प्रपरादिना ॥ १८७ ॥kvacit saṃbhavino medāḥ kevalairanidarśitāḥ |
upasargeṇa sambandhe vyajyante praparādinā || 187 ||187. Distinctions already existing in some (roots) but not expressed (by them) are brought out when they come into contact with preposition like pra and parā.
Commentary
The author now proceeds to speak about the other parts of speech, now that something has been said about the noun and the verb (nāma and ākhyāta).
[Read verse 187 above]
[The view about prepositions mentioned here is that they only reveal (dyotaka) a meaning and are not expressive of it.
The Vṛtti refers to the author of the Saṅgraha in support of this view, namely, that the preposition reveals a meaning already present in it and is, therefore, not expressive of it. As the Vṛtti puts it:—Śabdāntaropagraham antareṇa sambhavī sannalabdhaniyamo yo'rthas taṃ dyotako niyamayan vācakatām atikrāmatīti Saṃgrahakāra āha. According to the author of the Saṅgraha, the function of the preposition is to specify one of the peculiarities or modifications which are all potentially present in the action denoted by the root. Because it specifies (niyamayan) it is called dyotaka, revealer, manifestor and so it is far from being expressive (vācakatām atikrāmati.)
Are prepositions only dyotaka or are they vācaka also?