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 3.9.7
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.9.7:
नैको नाप्यनेकोऽस्ति न शुक्लो नापि चासितः ।
द्रव्यात्मा स तु संसर्गादेवंरूपः प्रकाशते ॥ ७ ॥naiko nāpyaneko'sti na śuklo nāpi cāsitaḥ |
dravyātmā sa tu saṃsargādevaṃrūpaḥ prakāśate || 7 ||7. Nothing is one or many, nothing is white or non-white in itself. It is due to association with other things that substance appears in this way or that.
Commentary
[Pure substance, devoid of any association, cannot enter into worldly transaction. When properties like unity inhere in it, it is spoken of as one etc. When qualities like white and black inhere in it, it is described as white or black. If universals like cowness inhere in it, it is said to be a cow etc. In the same way, due to association with actions like being born and so on, Time is differentiated and one speaks about birth-time, existence-time, destruction-time and so on.]