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 2.363
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.363:
गोत्रण्येव तु तान्याहुः संज्ञाशक्तिसमन्वयात् ।
निमित्तापेक्षणं तेषु स्वार्थे नावश्यमिष्यते ॥ ३६३ ॥gotraṇyeva tu tānyāhuḥ saṃjñāśaktisamanvayāt |
nimittāpekṣaṇaṃ teṣu svārthe nāvaśyamiṣyate || 363 ||363. These words (like kharaṇasa) are names of individuals because the power to be a name inheres in them. In such cases one does not necessarily look for the presence of the corresponding characteristic (nimitta) in the named.
Commentary
[What is meant here is that even though the word kharaṇasa means ‘one who has a sharp nose’, one does not look for a sharp nose in a person before giving him that name. It can be applied to any body. The power to be a name exists in that word because of the ṇ in it. A word having a particular form is given as a name to an object irrespective of whether that object has any feature corresponding to the meaning of the name: Kānicit tu nimittasyābhāve viparyayeṇa svarūpamātranibandhanāni sannipatanti says the Vṛtti.
The fact that names are given to objects by persons according to their wish does not mean that the relation between the names and the named is not eternal.