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 3.14.530
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.14.530:
उष्ट्रावयवतुल्येषु मुखेषूष्ट्रश्रुतिर्यथा ।
वर्तते गृहतुल्ये च प्रासादे मधुराश्रुतिः ॥ ४३० ॥uṣṭrāvayavatulyeṣu mukheṣūṣṭraśrutiryathā |
vartate gṛhatulye ca prāsāde madhurāśrutiḥ || 430 ||530. Just as the word uṣṭra = camel stands only for the face of the camel (in the compound uṣṭramukha), in the same way. the word madhurā, stands for its palatial buildings which the houses (of Pāṭaliputra) resemble, (in the expression madhurāvat pāṭaliputre gṛhāḥ).
Commentary
[While explaining the previous sūtra, it was pointed out that words sometimes stand only for a part of their meaning, as, for instance, the word brāhmaṇa which, though normally expressive of a combination of qualities, may sometimes denote only a part of them, such as the action of studying well. In the same way, according to the present sūtra also, the suffix vati is added to a word which stands for a part of its normal meaning. The word Madhurā, for instance, stands normally for all that that citv contains but when one says: Madhurāvat pāṭaliputre gṛhāḥ = houses in Pāṭaliputra are like those in Madhurā, the latter word stands for its palatial houses only, because it is only they which resemble the houses of Pāṭaliputra. This kind of thing happens elsewhere also. For instance, in the compound uṣṭramukha = ‘one who has a camel face’, the word uṣṭra stands only for a part of its normal meaning, namely, its face.]