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...
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Verse 1.101
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.101:
तस्मादभिन्नकालेषु वर्णवाक्यपदादिषु ।
वृत्तिकालः स्वकालश्च नादभेदाद्विभज्यते ॥ १०१ ॥tasmādabhinnakāleṣu varṇavākyapadādiṣu |
vṛttikālaḥ svakālaśca nādabhedādvibhajyate || 101 ||101. Therefore, due to the difference in time of the manifesting sounds, their own time and that of the duration of their cognition are attributed to the phoneme (varṇa) word (pada) and sentence (vākya) which have no difference in time.
Commentary
In the continued existence of eternal things, the power of time as an auxiliary cause does not play a part. All the sphoṭas, the phonemes, words and sentences, having a greater or lesser magnitude and whose continued existence, during the, according to wordly usage, earlier and later periods, is understood from their cognitions (at the time of their manifestation) do not differ as far as their duration is concerned. When they become objects of cognition, though they have no difference in time, they seem to have the duration of their cognition. What is meant by speed and their own duration is this—the primary sound whose duration is superimposed on the essence of the word, in order that their difference may not be grasped, becomes the cause of the use of the expression short, long and protracted. The secondary sound brings about the external difference of speed, quick etc.