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 3.14.421
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.121:
प्राप्तिः प्रगृह्यसंज्ञाया न स्यात् प्रत्ययलक्षणात् ।
कुमार्यगारे न ह्यस्ति समासो वचनान्तरे ॥ १२१ ॥prāptiḥ pragṛhyasaṃjñāyā na syāt pratyayalakṣaṇāt |
kumāryagāre na hyasti samāso vacanāntare || 121 ||121. Śyāmā śastrī yathā, śyāmā śastrīkalpā, so are the analytical sentences put. In them, the adjective śyāmā is to be supplied for the upamāna and the upameya respectively.
Commentary
The idea that one would have to supply much (bahvapekṣyam) is now explained differently.
[Read verse 421 above]
[If the word śyāmā in the compound refers to the upameya, the analytic sentence would be: śyāmā śastrī yathā. The M. Bhā. puts it as: śastrīva śyāmā (Devadatta). In this case, another word śyāmā would have to be supplied to qualify śastrī. If the word syāmā in the compound refers to the upamāna, the analytic sentence would be: śyāmā śastrī kalpā. The M. Bhā puts it as: yathā śastrī śyāmā tadvad iyaṃ Davadattā. In this case another word śyāmā would have to be supplied to qualify Devadattā. Because, when a quality is mentioned as related to one, it has to be understood as related to the other also, because comparison between two things is based upon the existence of a common property. This necessity of having to infer what is mentioned as related to one as related to the other also is what is meant by bahvapekṣyam.]
An attempt is made to meet this difficulty as follows—[Read next verse]