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BHARTRHARI ON SPHOTA AND UNIVERSALS
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In the translation of VP 3.3 we may replace the word 'indicates' with 'coimplies', a term which renders the Sanskrit upalaksana at least as well, and makes very good sense. In the injunction "Tie up the beast to a post of khadira," the word khadira refers to the universal of khadira wood and, by coimplication, to the capacity of khadira wood to perform its function.
3) In order to substantiate the hierarchical structure of word universals, Herzberger adduces several stanzas. Consider first her translation of VP 3.7-8 (p. 31, 85; what follows is really an amalgamation based on these two translations):8
Just as the essence (tattva), which is in the quality red, is designated in lacquer (kasāya) and, as a result of contact with the conjoint (samyogisannikarşa), is grasped even in garments; so also the universal, which is fixed in a word, as a result of the relation between word and object, brings about the effect of universals (jātikārya), when universals belonging in things are designated.
Herzberger makes much of the phrase "the effect of universals' (jātikārya) in the second of these two stanzas. "The effect of universals'," she observes on p. 33, "derives from the hierarchical structure to which a universal located in a name has access. ... Thus the name simšapā has access through its universal, siṁsapātvam to vrksatvam (treeness) which is located in the name vrksa. The name, on the basis of its own universal, has negative access to the universal located in the name palasa." Later on the same page she sums up: "Thus the effect of universals' ... represents a theory of the analytic and antonymic content of names."
These statements do not, of course, constitute evidence for the correctness of their contents, and Herzberger is aware of it. The evidence, as she indicates on p. 33, follows these statements, and it seems clear that VP 3.10 is adduced to fulfil this role. This stanza has to be read in combination with the one that precedes it, and I reproduce both of them as found in Rau's critical edition:
VP 3.9: jātisabdaikaśese sā jātinām jātir isyatel
śabdajātaya ity atra tajjatih sabdajatisull VP 3.10: ya sabdajatiśabdesu śabdebhyo bhinnalaksanal
jātih sā sabdajātitvam avyatiloramya vartatell
The two stanzas deal with certain complications arising in connection with ekasesa - translated by Herzberger as 'Remaindering of One'. An ordinary ex
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VP 3.7-8: yathā rakte gune tattvam kasāye vyapadiśyatel samyogisamnikarşāc ca vastrādişv api srhyatell tathā sabdārthasambandhāc chabde jātir avasthitā) vyapadese 'rthajatinām jātikāryāya kalpatell
