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 3.7.90
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.90:
क्रियायाः परिनिष्पत्तिर्यद्व्यापारादनन्तरम् ।
विवक्ष्यते यदा तत्र करणत्वं तदा स्मृतम् ॥ ९० ॥kriyāyāḥ pariniṣpattiryadvyāpārādanantaram |
vivakṣyate yadā tatra karaṇatvaṃ tadā smṛtam || 90 ||90. When, after the activity of something the action is meant to be conveyed as accomplished, then that thing is said to be the instrument.
Commentary
The author now takes up the treatment of the accessory called instrument (karaṇa).
[Read verse 90 above]
[Many things are accessories to an action, but the speaker usually means to convey that the action is accomplished after the activity of some particular thing. It is then called the instrument (karaṇa). It is a question of what the speaker wants to convey. This is a general principle in grammar. Ordinarily, the speaker might say dātreṇa lunāti = he cuts with a sickle. Here sickle is the instrument. But sometimes he might say balena lunāti = ‘he cuts with strength’. Here bala (strength) becomes the instrument. Ordinarily, the pot is presented as a receptacle for cooking as in sthālyāṃ pacati = ‘he cooks in the pot’. But sometimes the speaker might present it as the instrument, as in sthālyā pacati = he cooks with the pot. Ordinarily, the eye is presented as the instrument of seeing as in cakṣuṣā paśyati = he sees with the eye, but when the speaker says ālokena paśyati = ‘he sees with light’, āloka becomes the instrument.]
The same idea is now further explained.