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 2.69
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.69:
शुक्लादयो गुणाः सन्तो यथा तत्राविवक्षिताः ।
तथाऽविवक्षा भेदानां द्रव्यत्वसहचारिणाम् ॥ ६९ ॥śuklādayo guṇāḥ santo yathā tatrāvivakṣitāḥ |
tathā'vivakṣā bhedānāṃ dravyatvasahacāriṇām || 69 ||69. Just as qualities like white, though present (in the rice) are not meant to be conveyed (by the word vrīhi=rice) in the same way, the universals of being particular substances which co-exist with substance in general (dravyatva) are not meant to be conveyed.
Commentary
[A word does not express as its meaning everything that exists in an object. An object, to be expressed by a word, depends upon the desire of the speaker to speak about it. Even existing objects do not exist as meanings of words. The speaker’s desire to speak about a thing depends upon the capacity of the form of the word to express it: rūpasāmarthyanibandhanā as the Vṛtti puts it. Due to the natural power of words, the verb cannot denote the colour which exists in the substance in general which it brings to the mind. Similarly, the verb cannot denote all the particular substances in which dravyatva co-exists with their particular universal.]
The purpose of substitution is now stated.