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 2.371
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 2.371:
सङ्घैकशेषद्वन्द्वेषु केचित्सामर्थ्यलक्षणम् ।
प्रत्याश्रयमवस्थानं क्रियाणां प्रतिजानते ॥ ३७१ ॥saṅghaikaśeṣadvandveṣu kecitsāmarthyalakṣaṇam |
pratyāśrayamavasthānaṃ kriyāṇāṃ pratijānate || 371 ||371. Scholars declare that when expressions relating to the class are used or when there is retention of one or when the dvandva compound is used, the actions are related to each one of their substrata because of the nature of the word itself.
Commentary
It is the sentence which is being discussed in this part of the text. One point which is discussed is whether the action conveyed by the sentence is carried out individually or by the group.
[Read verse 371 above]
[By substrata (āśraya) of the action, the agents are meant. The examples of the three cases envisaged are: (1) brāhmaṇā bhojyantām (saṃgha = class). (2) brāhmaṇo bhojyatām (ekaśeṣa), and (3) Devadatta-Yajñadatta-Viṣṇumitrā bhojyantām (dvandva). In all these sentences, the action of feeding has to be applied to each agent separately.]
It is now stated why an action like eating cannot rest in many at the same time.