________________
CHAPTER IX
281
indivisible ākāśa is not a favourable receptacle for the divisibility of an object like a jar' (dravyavibhāgābhāvāt).
The last significant argument which is brought by Abhayadeva to bear upon the present issue concerns the Nyāya view of sound (sabda) as the special quality (viśeșaguna) of ākāśa. It is a commonplace universal experience that a particular sound prevails (vartate) only at a particular place (ekadeśe eva) but not everywhere (na sarvatra) and that the sound subsequently fades away (vinaśyati) from where it is heard. If the Nyāya thesis of the partless-or unitary and, consequently, of the eternal-ākāśa were right, then every sound, for that matter even the distant word uttered by the divine Brahman (brahmabhāṣitam) would be straightaway heard by us' everywhere (sarvagatatvaṁ syāt), and would remain everlasting (nityam)". In point of fact even the usage (vyapadeśa) that "a particular sound prevails only at a particular place but not everywhere” would be evidently impossible under the conception of a partless äkāśa. Besides even the established fact of the transitoriness of sabda would militate against the Nyāya conception of an all-pervasive
1. Commenting on his own kā. (5), niravayavatvānu papattiriti
cen na dravyavibhāgābhāvāt /, Akalanka observes: yathā ghato dravyato vibhāgavān sāvayavah na ca tathaiņām dravyavibhāgostīti niravayatvar prayujyate // TRAG, p. 202. Cf. yadi ca săvayavaṁ nabho na bhavet tadā śrotrākāśasamavetasya śabdasya brahmabhāṣitasyāpyupālambho'smadăder bhavet nirava
yavaikākāśaśrotrasamavetatvāt/ TBV, p. 641. 3. yadi ca săvayavam ākāśam na bhavet, śabdasya nityatvaḥ sarvāya
tatvaṁ ca syāt / Ibid. 4. na hi niravayavatve 'tasyaikadese eva sabdo vartate na sarvatra'
iti vyapadeśaḥ sangacchate/ Ibid.
