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 3.10.5
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.10.5:
संबोधनं न लोकेऽस्ति विधातव्येन वस्तुना ।
स्वाहेन्द्रशत्रुर्वर्धस्व यथा राजा भवेति च ॥ ५ ॥saṃbodhanaṃ na loke'sti vidhātavyena vastunā |
svāhendraśatrurvardhasva yathā rājā bhaveti ca || 5 ||5. Attention is never drawn in this world with the predicative portion of a sentence as in svāhā indraśatrur vardhasva ‘Hail! as Indraśatru prosper!’ or in rājā bhava = Become King!
Commentary
[Wherever, however, the word ending in the nominative case is part of the predicative portion of a sentence, it cannot express the idea of the vocative as in svāhā indraśatrur vardhasva and rājā bhava. Here indraśatruḥ and rājā, though ending in the nominative case, belong to the predicative portion of the sentence. Therefore, they cannot express the vocative idea. Drawing the attention of something which is already there is the vocative idea. The predicative portion of a sentence, on the other hand, is something which is not known to the hearer and, therefore, not taken for granted by him. Therefore, in these two sentences, though there is command, there is no sambodhana, the vocative idea.]