Abhidha

Author(s): Tapasvi Nandi, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 47

[38]
upādāna-sāmarthyāt sambandha-mātra-parikalpita-tattvāropam tad adhikaranabhāvopagama-yogyam arthāntaram eva taţādi-rūpam anumāpayanti.
Mahimā further observes that only similarity cannot be the cause of identification or superimposition. Other relations such as 'samyoga' or conjunction, etc. also can be the cause. So, through 'Gangā' etc. the objects such as the bank etc. are inferred, and not through any other vịtti or function of a word, because the fact of being the substratum of the hamlet cannot be understood by any other way : (pp. 119, ibid)
“na hi tat sādrśyam eva ekam tattvāropa-nibandhanam isyate, kim tarhi ? tat-sambandhădir api, iti tat-sambandha-mātra-samāropita-tadbhāvas tatādir eva ghosādyadhikaranabhāvopādāna-anyathā-anupapattyā gangādīnām arthānām anumeya eva bhavitum arhati.
Mahimā accepts only one power of the word and that is the power of direct expression viz. abhidhā. He rejects anything else than that and whatever other meaning is comprehended, he holds, is through 'anumāna' or inference. He firmly believes that the power of a word is exhausted after giving its expressed sense. So, it has no capacity even to know about the existence of the secondary sense, such as the 'tata' or bank, in this case. What to think of actually touching this secondary sense ? The metaphorical expression is resorted to only to convey the knowledge of the existence of coolness and purity of the Ganges resting in the hamlet, the object of superimposition, and not similarity, as in the first illustration. The cause viz. 'tattvāropa' i. e. superimposition is identical in both the cases. Mahimā holds that similarity of the object which is superimposed or its samyogādi relations are manifold. He quotes a famous kārikā here, with a difference in reading from the same quoted by Abhinavagupta in his locana on Dhv. i. e. with reference to the expression, "bhāktam āhuḥ tam anye.”
Mahimā observes : (pp. 119, ibid) : "śabdah punah svārthābhidhānamātra-vyāpāra-paryavasita-sāmarthyo na arthāntarasya tatāder vārtām api veditum utsahate, kim punah samsparsam iti uktam.
prayojanam punah asya evam-vidhasya ukti-vaicitrya-parigrahasya tatādau āropa-visaye vastuni āropyamāna-gangādi-gata-punyatva-sitalatvādi