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 3.14.501
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.501:
क्रिया त्वाश्रीयते यस्मिन् स भेदोऽध्यवसीयते ।
तथान्यथा सर्वथा चेत्यप्रयोगे न विद्यते ॥ ५०१ ॥kriyā tvāśrīyate yasmin sa bhedo'dhyavasīyate |
tathānyathā sarvathā cetyaprayoge na vidyate || 501 ||501. Where an action is resorted to, there that part is understood. If (other words are) not used, neither that nor any other nor all would be there.
Commentary
[Where an action is the common property, there it becomes the expressed meaning of the word which stands for the combination. In the sentence brāhmaṇena tulyam adhīte = ‘he studies like a brāhmaṇa, the act of studying is the common point. This is understood from the presence of the other words in the sentence. So the word brāhmaṇa denotes that part of the combination. If other words are not used, neither that part, nor any other part nor all the parts would be understood. Therefore, in a comparison, it is through some effort like the use of other words in the sentence that a word which ordinarily stands for a combination denotes a part.]