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 1.137
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 1.137:
शब्दानामेव सा शक्तिस्तर्को यः पुरुषाश्रयः ।
स शब्दानुगतो न्यायोऽनागमेष्वनिवन्धनः ॥ १३७ ॥śabdānāmeva sā śaktistarko yaḥ puruṣāśrayaḥ |
sa śabdānugato nyāyo'nāgameṣvanivandhanaḥ || 137 ||137. Reasoning based on human intelligence (as distinct from written tradition) is also ultimately the power of words. Argument not based on words among those who have no written tradition, is really without any basis.
Commentary
It is the word which is the instructor. Speakers follow the power of words and act when urged by a desire to speak based on the availability of the right word. When the hearer follows the fixed power of words to convey a meaning, through reasoning based on meaning, context, indication, interconnection etc., people look upon the capacity of the words as the reasoning of the hearer.1 As for the reasoning which does not proceed from the power of words, but follows the similarities and dissimilarities of objects, it is destructive of all tradition, without any basis and it is called ‘dry reasoning.’ As in the following—
“If the drinking of wine contained in a big circle of rose-coloured jars cannot take one to heaven, what can the little that is drunk in a sacrifice do?”2
Or in the following—
“To say that one should express oneself in words means that one should do so in the Drāmilaka language.”
Notes
1. The relevant considerations for determining the meaning of words are given in Vāk. a. II, p. 214 ff.
2. M. Bhā, I, p. 3, 1. 3.