Studies On Bhartrhari 5 Bhartrhari And Vaisesika

SR No.: 269426
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst
Total Pages: 20
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 13

BHARTRHARI AND VAIŚESIKA
87
believes that contacts and separations produce [sounds rather than manifest them], contacts and separations, which occur in wind, will produce (sounds) nowhere else than in wind, because they subsist in wind; just as yarns produce a cloth in the yarns themselves." Sabara's ideas are frequently close to those of the Vaišesikas, so that it is possible to believe that he had the Vaiśesikas in mind while writing this passage. For the Vaiśesikas do indeed believe that sounds are produced, not manifested. It is therefore possible that Sabara, too, still knew of Vaiśesikas who believed that sound is wind.
4. The omnipresent soul?
VS 5.2.18-20 read, in Candrānanda's version:
5.2.18: kāyakarmanātmakarma vākhyātam 5.2.19: apasarpanam upasarpanam asitapitasaryogah
kāryāntanasamyogaś cety adrstakāritāni 5.2.20: tadabhāve saryogābhāvo 'prādurbhāvah sa moksah
The first of these sūtras has a different form in the Vyākhyā edited by Thakur: kāyakarmanātmakarmadharmayor anupapattiḥ (5.2.16); as observed by A. Wezler (1982: 659), it is difficult to make satisfactory sense of this reading. Nothing corresponding to this sūtra is found in the version known to Sankara Miśra. The remaining two sūtras, on the other hand, occur in the other versions with only insignificant variations.26
Candrānanda's explanation of these sūtras contains some suspect features, most notably the following: 1) Candrānanda interprets ātman in 5.2.18 to mean wind (vāyu). 2) In his interpretation 5.2.19 is about the manas. A straightforward interpretation of the sūtras would rather suggest that 5.2.18 talks about the acitivity of the soul (ätmakarman), and that 5.2.19 continues this topic and therefore talks about the soul too.29 Regarding 5.2.19 we know that already Prasastapāda interpreted it like Candrānanda: his Padārthadharmasangraha refers to this sūtra in the
27 Some of the questions here discussed have also been dealt with in a paper called
"Mysticisme et rationalité en Inde: le cas du Vaišesika", to be published in the Proceedings of the Colloque 'Mystique et rationalité: Inde, Chine, Japon' (Geneve, November 29-30, 1990), Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques 47 (4), 1993.
..pītasaryogah instead of pītasarnyogah; "prādurbhāvas ca instead of 'prădurbhāvah. 29 See Wezler, 1982: 654f.