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 1.31
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.31:
धर्मस्य चाव्यवच्छिन्नाः पन्थानो ये व्यवस्थिताः ।
न तांल्लोकप्रसिद्धत्वात् कश्चित्तर्केण बाधते ॥ ३१ ॥dharmasya cāvyavacchinnāḥ panthāno ye vyavasthitāḥ |
na tāṃllokaprasiddhatvāt kaścittarkeṇa bādhate || 31 ||31. Nobody can violate, on the basis of reasoning, those paths of Dharma which have come down without a break, because they are accepted in the world.
Commentary
In spite of many variations in the doctrines of the cultured, there are well-known beneficial modes of conduct, common to all; to go against them would not be liked by the people. They have never been refuted by mere reasoning. It may be that some do, on the basis of some passage in the tradition itself,1 resort to a reprehensible mode of conduct, opposed to what is accepted in the world.
Notes
1. Te'pi hi vedāntadarśanam anyathā parikalpya pravṛttāḥ—Vṛ. According to this, it is some passage of the Vedānta, i.e., the Upaniṣads, which is misunderstood by some people and made the basis of reprehensible conduct. Could it be such a passage as na kāñcana pariharet (Chā. Up. 2.13.)