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 3.14.449
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.449:
तृतीयाऽप्याश्रितो भेदो धर्मः साधारणो द्वयोः ।
व्यापारवान् न कृत्स्नस्य साम्यं कृत्स्नेन विद्यते ॥ ४४९ ॥tṛtīyā'pyāśrito bhedo dharmaḥ sādhāraṇo dvayoḥ |
vyāpāravān na kṛtsnasya sāmyaṃ kṛtsnena vidyate || 449 ||449. The third factor, the distinguishing attribute existing in the two things (upamāna and upameya) is active (vyāpāravān). The whole of one thing is not identical with the whole of the other.
Commentary
[It is not on a functionless common property, the third factor in all comparison, the other two factors being upamāna and upameya, that there is dependence but on an active one (vyāpāravān). It inheres in the other two factors. As the common property inheres in the action it is active in making it the standard of comparison Then it loses its character of being a process and becomes substance, a concrete thing. Because of the common property which inheres in it, it becomes capable ol determining or measuring the object of comparison. If it were confined within itself, it could not perform the function of determining something else. Thus, what is conveyed by the word tailapāka can be referred to by a pronoun and becomes the substratum of the common property and a substance. So is the case with what is conveyed by words like hotavya. When these words end in the third case-affix, they are not expressive of action. It is not objects of the external word which are here spoken of as action or as substance, but what is conveyed by words. Words can present one and the same thing like sound, for instance, as action quality or substance. It is with such things that grammar is concerned. So words ending in kṛt suffixes do not present action as a process but as substance, a thing. Why the common property is said to be active here is this: there is some common property but the whole of one thing is not absolutely identical with the whole of the other thing. Otherwise, there would be no difference and therefore, no resemblance, the basis of the relation of the standard and the object of comparison.]