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 3.14.300
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.300:
अविद्यमानब्राह्मण्यो यादृशो ब्राह्मणो भवेत् ।
अङ्गीकृतोपमानेन तथान्यार्थोभिऽधीयते ॥ ३०० ॥avidyamānabrāhmaṇyo yādṛśo brāhmaṇo bhavet |
aṅgīkṛtopamānena tathānyārthobhi'dhīyate || 300 ||300. Through the inclusion of a comparison, it (the negative compound abrāhmaṇa) conveys an outside object, similar to a brāhmaṇa in whom brāhmaṇya is absent.
Commentary
[After giving the above illustrations, an application is made to the present case. The three compounds śastrīśyāmā, asāsnaḥ and kaṇṭakavān refer to an external object on the basis of comparison. Similarly, the compound abrāhmaṇa refers to an outside object like kṣattriya on the basis of resemblance: that is, except for the universal brāhmaṇatva, the other properties of a brāhmaṇa are present in the preson in question. One does see other negative compounds also based on resemblance. For example: avarṣā hemantaḥ = “winter without rain”. It means that there is resemblance between winter and the rainy season.]