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ajaya-, ajeya- and ajayya
M. A. MEHENDALE*
According to the lexicons of Böhtlingk-Roth (BR), Monier-Williams (MW), V.S. Apte and Deccan College (DC) all the three words mean 'invincible, unconquerable, unsurpassable'. Of the three words ajaya occurs both as an adjective and noun, while the other two only as adjectives.' As noun, ajaya means 'defeated'.
It is necessary to look a little more closely at the adjectival meaning of these words.
1. ajaya-: As mentioned above, it functions both as adjective and as noun.
A. ajaya- Adjective: i) Meaning 'invincible'. In this meaning na jayah yasya or nästi parair jayo yasya (Apte) 'who cannot be defeated' the genitive yasya is treated as objective genitive (karmani şaşṭhi). There are many examples of this meaning given in the dictionaries.
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Jain Education International
ii) Meaning 'who cannot win'. This meaning is given only by the author of Kāśikāvṛtti while commenting on Pāņini 6.2.157. According to this sūtra3, if the words ending in the suffix ac (a) and ka (a) are preceded by nañ and if the meaning intended to be conveyed is incapability (to do something), the end syllable of the compound receives the acute accent. The Kāśikā gives two examples for the affix -ac, viz. apacá and ajayá and explains the former as yaḥ paktum na śaknoti 'one who cannot cook'. Obviously, the latter example ajayá is to be understood as yah jetum na saknoti' who cannot win'.4 However, there is no example of the use of ajayá in this meaning in any of the dictionaries.
B. ajaya- noun: Meaning 'non victory, defeat' (na jayaḥ).
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