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 2.213
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.213:
आत्मभेदो न चेत् कश्चिद्वर्णाभ्यः पदवाक्ययोः ।
अन्योन्यापेक्षया शक्त्या वर्णाः स्यादभिधायकः ॥ २१३ ॥ātmabhedo na cet kaścidvarṇābhyaḥ padavākyayoḥ |
anyonyāpekṣayā śaktyā varṇāḥ syādabhidhāyakaḥ || 213 ||213. If the word and the sentence are not different from the phonemes, the latter would ultimately become expressive by virtue of the power of mutual requirement.
Commentary
[The view which is criticized here is that there is no such thing as the word or the sentence apart from the phonemes. If the phonemes are expressive and if the word and the sentence do not exist as distinct from the phonemes, the latter cannot be said to be expressive and that would go against the accepted view that it is they which are expressive.]