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 3.14.196
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.196:
तत्र स्वाभाविकं लिङ्गं शब्दधर्मे व्यपेक्षिते ।
शब्दः कश्चित् तमेवार्थं कथञ्चित् प्रतिपद्यते ॥ १९६ ॥tatra svābhāvikaṃ liṅgaṃ śabdadharme vyapekṣite |
śabdaḥ kaścit tamevārthaṃ kathañcit pratipadyate || 196 ||196. Keeping in view the nature of words, gender has been declared to be natural. Words express the same meaning in different ways.
Commentary
[The same thing is conveyed by words having different genders: kārśyam, kraśimā, and kṛśatā, three words in three different genders but having the same stem convey the same meaning. Similarly, dvaidham (P. 5. 3. 49.) has no gender and number but when the suffix ḍa is added to it, we can have dvaidhāni. The word now expresses the same thing in a different way.]