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SOS
TATTVASANGRAHA: CHAPTER XIX.
The term pramanābhāva' may be taken either as the GenitiveTatpurusa Compound, or as the Kärmadharaya.
In some places the reading is 'pramānē-abhava), in which the meaning of the Locative ending would be among Pramanas',--the singular number in pramana' being due to all Pramānas being referred to as a class.
Thus has Shabara-svămin declared (under Sa. 1. 1. 5) Negation consists in the absence of the Means of Cognition and it gives rise to the notion of a certain unseen object not existing'.
Question "What is this non-functioning (of the Moans of Cognition)?”
Answer: This may consist, etc. etc. This .e. the non-functioning of Perception and the rest, -may be said to consist in the Soul in a state of rest, not becoming modified into the form of the cognition of the Jar or any such thing which may be meant to bo denied or it may consist in the cognition of the spot on the ground as devoid of the said Jar, etc. -(1649)
Objection :- It is the absence of things that is called 'Abhāva', Negation'; how then can it be an entity ? Certainly the absence cannot be an entity.
Anticipating this objection, the Mimāmsaka proceeds to prove that Negation is an entity
TEXT (1650).
"THE NEGATION (ABSENCE OF THINGS IS APPREHENDED WHEN THERE IS NO APPREHENSION OF THE THINGS THEMSELVES; AND IT IS DIVIDED UNDER FOUR HEADS—THE PREVIOUS
NEGATION AND THE REST."-(1650)
COMMENTARY.
If the 'Negation of the Means of Cognition' were not an entity, then, as a non-entity, it would have no capacity at all; so that there could be no cognition or idea of it;- nor would there be any division of Negation into the four kinds of Previous Negation and so forth. And yet this is not so. Hence inasmuch as the Idea of Negation cannot be otherwise explained, and as the well-known fourfold division also of it cannot be otherwise accounted for,-Negation must be regarded as an entity.
Some people hold that these two ‘Presumptions' afford the proof for Negation being an entity.
Others however explain that the sentence in the Text) to the effect It is divided under four heads' embodies an Inference ; and they formulate it as follows:-Negation is an entity-because it is divided, like the Jar and other things.-(1650)
The following Teats proceed to show how heads
it is divided under four