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 3.11.7
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.11.7:
परोपकारतत्त्वानां स्वातन्त्र्येणाभिधायकः ।
शब्दः सर्वपदार्थानां स्वधर्माद् विप्रकृष्यते ॥ ७ ॥paropakāratattvānāṃ svātantryeṇābhidhāyakaḥ |
śabdaḥ sarvapadārthānāṃ svadharmād viprakṛṣyate || 7 ||7. The word which conveys as being independent of all things whose nature is determined by extraneous things is removed from its own function.
Commentary
[Words express things only in terms of some property which exists in them and not distinctly. This is as true of substances as of qualities. Things do not enter into the field of communication in their own nature. When colour is presented as something independent as in paṭasya śuklaḥ, it is presented as being served by number etc. which exist in it, just as substance would be. In other words, a word is not directly expressive of anything. It is expressive of it only in terms of some property which exists in it. When a thing is called ‘cow’, the word describes it in terms of the universal gotva which exists in it. Everywhere the word refers to what is pointed out by something extraneous. In the case of all words, there is a little falling off from its own capacity to express an object directly.]