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 3.6.8
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.6.8:
स्वाङ्गाद् व्यवस्था या लोके न तस्यां नियता दिशः ।
प्रत्यङ्मुखस्य यत् पश्चात्तत्पुरस्ताद्विपर्यये ॥ ८ ॥svāṅgād vyavasthā yā loke na tasyāṃ niyatā diśaḥ |
pratyaṅmukhasya yat paścāttatpurastādviparyaye || 8 ||8. The Directions would not be fixed if they were based on one’s body. What is behind when one faces west would be in front when one faces the other way.
Commentary
It is now shown that expressions like prior and posterior cannot be based on one’s own body.
[Read verse 8 above]
[It has been said so far that Dik has to be postulated in order to explain the notions of the prior, posterior, etc. But cannot they be explained in relation to one’s own body? What is in front of one’s body would be ‘prior’ (pūrva) and what is behind would be posterior (paścāt). We also use such expressions as hastadakṣiṇa and hastavāma (M. Bhā. I. p. 118, 1. 23.) to designate what is on our right or on our left, showing that our own body can be the basis of the expression. This view is not correct, because there would be no fixity in our notions of pūrva, para etc., because one would be constantly changing the position which one faces. Therefore, it is better to accept the view that notions of priority and posteriority are based on Dik which has come down from time immemorial.]