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 3.14.356
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.356:
अपृथक्च्छब्दवाच्यापि भेदमात्रे प्रवर्तते ।
यदा सम्बन्धवज्जातिः सापि द्रव्यपदार्थता ॥ ३५६ ॥apṛthakcchabdavācyāpi bhedamātre pravartate |
yadā sambandhavajjātiḥ sāpi dravyapadārthatā || 356 ||356. When, though conveyed by the same word, the universal, like relation in a compound, does no more than qualify, then also substance is the main meaning.
Commentary
[Though both are conveyed by the same word, Vyāḍi and others look upon substance as the main meaning because it is capable of being connected with action. The function of the universal is only to specify the substance (individual). It is like the function of relation in a tatpuruṣa compound like rājapuruṣa. The second constituent is the main one here and the relation which is the meaning of the compound as a whole, only serves to specify the thing related. Words like gauḥ convey the unified specified object and not the universal and the substance one after another with an interval. That is what the compound rājapuruṣa also does: it conveys a specified thing. But in gargāḥ which is also a complex formation (vṛtti-taddhita), an interval exists between the understanding of the meaning of the stem and that of the taddhita suffix, namely the idea of offspring.