Vakyapadiya

The Vakyapadiya of Bhartrihari (c. 5th century CE) is a foundational text in the Indian linguistic tradition (Vyākaraná) and the philosophy of language. It explores the relationship between word (śabda), meaning (artha), and the ultimate reality (Brahman), specifically through the doctrine of Sphoṭa.

Verses

• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.30-32: Dharma cannot be determined by reasoning alone, without the help of tradition. Even the knowledge…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.35-36: The experts’ knowledge of the genuineness of precious stones and coins, uncommunicable to others,…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.38: The words of those who, with their divine vision, see things which are beyond the senses and unkn…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.40-41: In order to decide what is good and what is bad, all men, including the lowest, have very little …
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.46: Just as the fire which is within the churnsticks is the cause of the other fire (which is kindled…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.49-50: Just as a reflection, found elsewhere (as in water) seems to have movement because of the movemen…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.55: Just as light has two powers, that of being revealed and that of being the revealer, similarly, a…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.93: Some have declared the universal manifested by the individuals to be the sphoṭa and what are call…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.97: Just as there is an eternal fitness between the senses and the objects, in the same way, there is…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.99: The thing that is revealed follows the differences of the revealors. This is evident in the case …
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.103: Whether the sound in question is short or long, the time of the sphoṭa is invariable. The series …
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.107: Air, atoms, or knowledge is said to be transformed into the word according to some. Thus, in the …
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.112-1.114: This inner knower, at first identical with the subtle word, transforms himself into the gross wor…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.118: The power which creates and regulates this universe rests on words, It is through that eye that a…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.120-121: Knowers of tradition (the Vedas) have declared that all this is the transformation of the word. I…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.123-126: There is no cognition in the world in which the word does not figure. All knowledge is, as it wer…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.130-132: It has been said that the Self, which is within the speaker is the word, the great Bull with whom…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.135: Reasoning which does not go against the Vedas and the Śāstra is authority for those who cannot se…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.137: Reasoning based on human intelligence (as distinct from written tradition) is also ultimately the…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.142: This Science of Grammar is the supreme and wonderful source of the knowledge of the threefold wor…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.144-145: Scripture (Śruti) has been declared to be beginningless, continuous and without an author. Writte…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.147: When one wants to utter the word gauḥ and actually utters one which is devoid of correctness to c…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 1.154: This Divine Speech has been mixed up (with the corrupt forms) by incapable speakers. Those who co…
• Vakyapadiya Verse 2.8-9: Just as the One picture is explained through its different colours like blue which belong to its …

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