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 3.14.15
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.15:
बुद्धयैकं भिद्यते भिन्नमेकत्वं चोपगच्छति ।
बुद्धयावस्था विभज्यन्ते सा ह्यर्थस्य विधायिका ॥ १५ ॥buddhayaikaṃ bhidyate bhinnamekatvaṃ copagacchati |
buddhayāvasthā vibhajyante sā hyarthasya vidhāyikā || 15 ||15. Through the intellect, one thing is divided into many and what is divided is unified. Conditions are differentiated through the intellect. It is that which creates things.
Commentary
[Words express things as they figure in our cognition. Our cognition presents what is within as external. The two words kṛṣṇāḥ and tilāḥ, before they form a compound, convey two things having two different attributes. When they enter into a compound, the difference is obliterated and the compound conveys a thing having two attributes in an integrated manner. This kind of relationship is what is called sāmānādhikaraṇya = appositional relation].
Kātyāyana is also of the opinion that it is the intellect which presents things as one or as many.