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 2.405
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.405:
तेषामत्यन्तनानात्वं नानात्वव्यवहारिणः ।
अक्षादीनामिव प्राहुरेकजातिसमन्वयात् ॥ ४०५ ॥teṣāmatyantanānātvaṃ nānātvavyavahāriṇaḥ |
akṣādīnāmiva prāhurekajātisamanvayāt || 405 ||405. Those who believe in difference declare that the word is absolutely different in each case, like the words akṣa etc. though it appears to be the same because of the presence of sameness (that is, the same sequence of phonemes.).
Commentary
Something is now being said according to the other view, namely, that the word is not the same. There are as many words as there are meanings.
[Read verse 405 above]
[The word akṣa can mean a kind of fruit, or playing dice, or the axle of a cart and so on; but it is a different word in each case, according to this view.]