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 2.47
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.47:
नियतं साधने साध्यं क्रिया नियतसाधना ।
स सन्निधानमात्रेण नियमः सन् प्रकाशते ॥ ४७ ॥niyataṃ sādhane sādhyaṃ kriyā niyatasādhanā |
sa sannidhānamātreṇa niyamaḥ san prakāśate || 47 ||47. An accessory (sādhana) necessarily presupposes an action to be accomplished (sādhya) and an action is necessarily connected with accessories. This necessity which is present becomes evident in the presence (of the meaning of other words).
Commentary
[Action and accessory presuppose each other. It is only when the words expressive of them enter into the sentence that what is presupposed becomes manifest. So the sentence is nothing more than the individual words presupposing one another and the sentence-meaning is nothing more than the word-meanings presupposing one another.
The Vṛtti points out that this mutual requirement of action and accessory is one and indivisible. It is not felt in the absence of the other. It becomes manifest in the mere presence of the word expressive of the other and not because of the help of any other factor. As the Vṛtti puts it: nityaniyatatvācca niyamo'pyatra vidheyaḥ, sanstu niyamaḥ prayoge sannidhimātreṇa padāntarāṇāṃ puruṣaṃ prati prakāśate, nānugṛhyate.]
If the mutual requirement of the meanings of the words of a sentence is equal, how to decide which is primary and which is secondary.