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 3.13.27
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.13.27:
उत्पत्तिः प्रसवोऽन्येषां नाशः संस्त्यानमित्यपि ।
आत्मरूपं तु भावानां स्थितिरित्यपदिश्यते ॥ २७ ॥utpattiḥ prasavo'nyeṣāṃ nāśaḥ saṃstyānamityapi |
ātmarūpaṃ tu bhāvānāṃ sthitirityapadiśyate || 27 ||27. According to some, birth is prasava, death is saṃstyāna and the existence of things in their own form is sthiti.
Commentary
[So far, gender was explained on the basis of the Sāṅkhya conception of the three principles sattva, rajas and tamas. Now it is explained according to the Vaiśeṣikas and others. For them what is called prasava is production or birth, the coming into being of new parts, whereas for the Sāṅkhyas, it was just manifestation (āvirbhāva). What is called Saṃstyānam is the decay of parts, destruction without a trace and that is the feminine gender. Before it was said to be disappearance or hiding (tirobhāva). The own nature of eternal and transitory things is sthiti and that is the neuter gender. In the former view, one spoke of manifestation and disappearance in the case of eternal things like consciousness and ākāśa when they are in association with transitory things like body etc. A similar explanation has to be adopted in this view also. As for transitory things, the fact of their being recognised as the same things in the midst of change shows that something persists that is the basis of the neuter gender.]