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 2.252
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.252:
यथा सास्नादिमान् पिण्डो गोशब्देनाभिधीयते ।
तथा स एव गोशब्दो बाहीकेऽपि व्यवस्थितः ॥ २५२ ॥yathā sāsnādimān piṇḍo gośabdenābhidhīyate |
tathā sa eva gośabdo bāhīke'pi vyavasthitaḥ || 252 ||252. Just as the word ‘cow’ denotes an object endowed with dewlap etc. so does it denote a vāhīka also.
Commentary
[All this is being said according to ekaśabdadarśana, the view that when a word denotes different things, it is still the same word. The word cow denotes a particular class of animals through its power called abhidhā. When it is applied to a vāhīka who has not the physical characteristics of a cow it denotes that object through the same power and not some other.]