________________
452
THE ADYAR LIBRARY BULLETIN hę wishes to obtain. But as for the person who owns the cows and not the beans, how/. why should the beans be for him something which he wishes to obtain ?"57— For him also the beans are doubtless58 something which he wishes to obtain (i.e. to preserve), and to be more precise, they are something which he wishes to obtain (i.e. which he does not wish to be destroyed) because he keeps the cows away from them.' 59
Though this counter argument is valid, it is not on the level of the Bh. alone absolutely clear why the herdsman or the owner of the cattle keeps them away from the beans: Because he does not want the beans to be injured since they are living beings or because he is afraid of the legal consequences of his cattle causing damage to the beans belonging to somebody else ? In this case, however, the commentators do not entertain any doubts, but are unanimously of the opinion that it is only the latter reason which can be meant here. Thus Kaiyața explains the question following immediately upon the Bhi passage quoted above viz. iha kūpād andham vārayatīti kāpe 'pādānasamjñā na prāpnoti...(1 328. 12 ff..) by explicitly stating (Pradipa II 251 b 16 f.) kūpād iti/ andhasambandhe kūpasya na vināśo napi rājabhayam iti prašnaḥ // 'this question arises because in connection with a blind man [to be kept away from a well] neither can [that from which he is kept away, i.e.] the well, be destroyed nor [is there any reason] to be afraid of the king.' The implication, of course, is that it is these very reasons which make the herdsman keep his cows away from the beans. 60 And statements to the same
