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 3.7.167
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.167:
तस्माद् यत् करणं द्रव्यं तत् कर्म न पुनर्भवेत् ।
सर्वस्य चान्यथाभावस्तस्य द्रव्यात्मनो भवेत् ॥ १६७ ॥tasmād yat karaṇaṃ dravyaṃ tat karma na punarbhavet |
sarvasya cānyathābhāvastasya dravyātmano bhavet || 167 ||167. Whatever substance is instrument would not become the object. Otherwise all substance would change into something else.
Commentary
[The conclusion is that what is called means is the power of a thing and not the thing itself. As the powers are many, the same thing armed with this power or that, becomes the means in the accomplishment of different actions and is therefore, called by different names.]