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 3.14.343
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.343:
पाकौ पाका इति यथा मेदकः कैश्चिदाश्रयः ।
इष्यते चानुपादानो धर्मोऽसौ गुणवाचिनाम् ॥ ३४३ ॥pākau pākā iti yathā medakaḥ kaiścidāśrayaḥ |
iṣyate cānupādāno dharmo'sau guṇavācinām || 343 ||343. Some consider the substratum to be the differentiating agent though not mentioned as in pākau, pākāḥ. This is the attribute of words expressive of qualities.
Commentary
[Another view is now stated. The word pāka denotes an action and not the substratum of the action. And yet the substratum plays a part by giving the word its number. So we say pākau, pākāḥ. The action of cooking is known to reside in the thing cooked and according to the diversity in the things cooked, the word takes different numbers. Words expressive of quality take the gender and number of this substrata though they do not express them. Similarly, words expressive of the universal, though not expressive of the substance, take its gender and number.
But this is not the correct view. An action differs with its substratum and ultimately the number becomes that of the action itself. Quality words become identified with their substrata and they are given as analogy in the M.Bhā. I.p. 246, 1. 18. The universal, like a quality, inheres in the substratum.]