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 2.241
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.241:
वृक्षो नास्तीति वाक्यं च विशिष्टाभावलक्षणम् ।
नार्थेन बुद्धौ सम्बन्धो निवृत्तेरवतिष्ठते ॥ २४१ ॥vṛkṣo nāstīti vākyaṃ ca viśiṣṭābhāvalakṣaṇam |
nārthena buddhau sambandho nivṛtteravatiṣṭhate || 241 ||241. The sentence: ‘tree, there is not’ is the cause of our understanding a particular kind of absence. There is no connection in our mind between the negative particle and the object.
Commentary
[If each word has its own meaning, the first word ‘tree’ (in the sentence ‘tree, there is not’ = vṛkṣo nāsti) conveys the tree as something which exists and the negation which follows denies its existence. If the tree exists, its existence cannot be denied. If it does not exist, its negation is unnecessary. In either case, the word expressing negation is useless. If the sentence is taken as a whole, this difficulty does not arise.]