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 3.14.454
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.454:
यो य उच्चार्यते शब्दः स स्वरूपनिबन्धनः ।
यथा तथोपमानेषु व्यपेक्षा न निवर्तते ॥ ४५४ ॥yo ya uccāryate śabdaḥ sa svarūpanibandhanaḥ |
yathā tathopamāneṣu vyapekṣā na nivartate || 454 ||454. Whatever word is uttered is based on its form. Similarly, in comparisons also, dependence on some basis or other is never absent.
Commentary
[Just as, for the expression of degree some quality or other is always postulated as the basis as long as words can express it or just as a form of the word is always postulated, in the same way, in the matter of comparison also, some common property or other is always postulated as the basis, so that three things are always involved in it, namely, the standard of comparison, the object of comparison and their common property. When one says ‘brāhmaṇavad kṣattriyo'dhīte’ = the kṣattriya studies like a brāhmaṇa’, the action of studying is the common property. When one says: brāhmaṇādhyayanena tulyaṃ kṣattriyādhyayanam = the kṣattriya’s action of studying is like the brāhmaṇa’s action of studying, a quality like excellence is the common property. And if the two excellences are compared, then some common property, existing in both, would have to be postulated. As the process would end somewhere, the defect of regressus ad infinitum would not result.]