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CHAPTER IX
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indivisible ākāśa is not a favourable receptacle for the divisibility of an object like a jar' (dravyavibhāgābhāvāt).
The last significant argument which is brought by Abhayadeva to bear upon the present issue concerns the Nyāya view of sound (śabda) as the special quality (višeșaguna) of ākāśa. It is a commonplace universal experience that a particular sound prevails (vartate) only at a particular place (ekadese eva) but not everywhere (na sarvatra) and that the sound subsequently fades away (vinaśyati) from where it is heard. If the Nyāya thesis of the partless-or unitary and, consequently, of the eternal—ākāśa were right, then every sound, for that matter even the distant word uttered by the divine Brahman (brahmabhäșitam) would be straightaway heard by us everywhere (sarvagatatvar syāt), and would remain everlasting (nityam)". In point of fact even the usage (vyapadeśa) that “a particular sound prevails only at a particular place but not everywhere” would be evidently impossible under the conception of a partless ākāśa. Besides even the established fact of the transitoriness of sabda would militate against the Nyāya conception of an all-pervasive
Commenting on his own kā. (5), niravayavatvānupapattiriti cen na dravyavibhāgābhāvāt /, Akalanka observes: yathā ghato dravyato vibhagavan savayavah na ca tathaişām dravyavibhāgostīti niravayatvaṁ prayujyate // TRAG, p. 202. Cf. yadi ca săvayavaň nabho na bhavet tadā śrotrākāśasamavetasya sabdasya brahmabhasitasyāpyupālambho'smadăder bhavet niravayavailakāśaśrotrasamavetatvät/ TBV, p. 641. yadi ca savayavam ākāśam na bhavet, sabdasya nityatvam sarvayatatvan ca syāt / Ibid. na hi niravayavatve 'tasyaikadese eva sabdo vartate na sarvatra' iti vyapadeśaḥ sangacchate/ Ibid.
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