Anekantajay patakakhyam Prakaranam Part 2

Author(s): Haribhadrasuri, Munichandrasuri
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 444

P. 334, 1. 10]
313
we call 'go' is not a-go i. e. it is not a horse, a camel etc. This is the apoha (distinction, difference or exclusion) which, according to the Bauddhas, is the conventional meaning of words.
Apoha is three-fold : (i) व्यावृत्तस्वलक्षणरूप, (ii) अन्यव्यवच्छेदमात्रक and (iii) विकल्पबुद्धिप्रतिभास.
NOTES
Apoha or the doctrine of negative denotation is a logical necessity of kṣanikavāda, and it is endorsed by all the schools of Buddhism. Cf. Stcherbatsky's Conception of the Buddhist Nirvāņa (p. 155, fn. 3). "But the school of Dinnaga have a special theory of their own about the meaning of words according to which words express only relations, or mutual negation ( अपोइ = परस्परपरिहार = अन्यव्यावृत्ति = व्यवच्छेद = परिच्छेद), between point-instants". 1
Ratnakirti who flourished in the tenth century A. D., who is an author of Kṣanabhangasiddhi, Sthirasiddhiduṣana and Citrādvaitasiddhi and who is "very bitter against Dharmottara" has composed a work entitled Apohasiddhi. This is the first of the Six Buddhist Nyaya Tracts in Sanskrit edited by Haraprasad Shastri and published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1910 A. D. In its preface (p. i) we have:
"The first, Apohasiddhi deals with the imports of words. The theory it propounds is that a word denotes something positive and at the same time differentiates it from all others. The two acts, one positive and the other negative, are simultaneous. It is not a a positive action followed by negation, nor is it a negative act followed by assertion.
In establishing this, the author refutes successively the theories of (1) Kumarila, (2) Trilocana, (3) Nyāyabhusana, (4) Vacaspati Misra and (5) Dharmottara."
Ratnakirti has not put forward this doctrine of apoha in the extreme form in which is has been taken by its critics. This is borne out by Apohasiddhi (p. 3) where he has said:
"नास्माभिरपोहशब्देन विधिरेव केवलोऽभिप्रेतः । नाप्यन्यव्यावृत्तिमात्रं, किन्तु अन्यापोहविशिष्टो विधिः शब्दानामर्थः । ततश्च न प्रत्येकप्रक्षोपनिपातिदोषावकाशः ।”
The subject of apoha is discussed in Mimaṁsās lokavārtika in Tattvasangraha (v. 910-1012) andits Pañjikā (pp. 290-366), in Siddharṣi's Nyāyāvatāravṛtti (pp. 4-5), in Jayanta's Nyāyamañjarī (vol. I, pp. 290327) and in l'attvabodhavidhayini (pp. 173-270).
P. 334, 1. 10. This line means: words originate from the concepts of things and vice versa. Its second hemistich is as under:"कार्यकारणतया तेषां नार्थ शब्दाः स्पृशन्त्यपि ।"
It means: words do not affect things as they are related as cause and effect. Thus the idea is to suggest that they are distinct from each other. The complete verse with the second hemistich " तेषामन्योन्यसम्बन्धो नार्थान् a: Haeft" is quoted in Syādvādaratnākaru (p. 701), Nyāyakumudacandra
1 Quoted from "Notes" (p. 352) on SM. 40