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 2.55
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.55:
अनर्थकान्युपायत्वात् पदार्थेनार्थवन्ति वा ।
क्रमेणोच्चरितान्याहुर्वाक्यार्थं भिन्नलक्षणम् ॥ ५५ ॥anarthakānyupāyatvāt padārthenārthavanti vā |
krameṇoccaritānyāhurvākyārthaṃ bhinnalakṣaṇam || 55 ||55. Individual words, meaningless being only a means to an end or having their own meaning only when uttered in a sequence, convey the sentencemeaning which is different from the meanings of individual words.
Commentary
Now the sequence theory is restated.
[Read verse 55 above]
[The meaning of a sentence is the meaning of the individual words in it as syntactically connected with one another. No single word can express this mutually connected meaning. There is not only temporal sequence between the words, but also syntactic connection.]
The sphoṭa view is now stated.