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ABORI : Diamond Jubilee Volume
satisfactory way of arriving at the meaning partisan' from the basic meanings of prati and kañcuka. The same difficulty exists in the case of the Tikā explanation. Thieme ( 1956: 19 footnote 46) suggests that the author of the Tikā “understands pratikañcuka as a bahu-vrihi, to be analyzed : pratinaddhaṁ kañcukam yena", he who has fastened his armour, he who is ready for battle'. However, such a compound would be unique in two ways. The root nah is not known to have been used with the prefix prati, not at least in a sense useful for the Tikā author's derivation. Secondly, the bahu-vrihi compounds with a suppressed participle, praparņa etc. (Trikāņdi 3. 14. 52), are always explained with gata, krānta or a synonym thereof; naddha is unparalleled as an implicit or latent member of a bahu-vrihi. Another difficulty with the Tikā interpretation is that it does not explain how the Sangraha could produce hostile reaction even after Patañjali's time or why the opponents of the Sangraha were interested in expressing opposition to the Mahābhāsya. It is, of course, possible that the Mahābhāsya was viewed unkindly because it was based on the Samgraha. 28 But even then it is puzzling that the Sangraha should have given rise to a long line of opponents so dead set against it that even a work based on it was a target for vehement attacks. Finally, one must note as a problem common to the explanations given by both Goldstücker and the author of the Țikā that the instrumental reading samgraha-pratikañcukaiḥ is not attested in any of the manuscripts known so far.
5.3 The sense counter-armour, defensive armour' attributed by Thieme to the word pratikañcuka is etymologically plausible and, when accepted as a part of a reference to the Mahābhāsya, contextually suitable (see 4.1-2 above). However, one wonders whether prati is really called for if that is what the compound word means. As kañcuka or armour is meant to be a protective, defensive covering, prati adds nothing of significance when taken in the sense 'counter-, defensive '. Secondly, the meaning given by Thieme proves to be partially or entirely unsuitable in the other contexts known so far. As Thieme notes, pratikañcuka occurs in Aryabhasiya, Gola-pāda verse 50 as sukstāyusoh praņāśam kurute pratikañcukam yo 'sya.29 In this concluding verse of his work, Āryabhata clearly wishes to warn the reader that a certain type of activity should not be undertaken with
ever, one the Mahabhically plau
28. Cf. Tika on 483: etena sangrahānusarena bhagavatā patañjalina sathgraha-samkşepa-bhutam eva prayaso bhasyam upanibaddham ity uktar voditavyam.
29. The commentary on the Aryabhatiya explains this as asya sastrasya yaḥ pratikañcukam kurute, doşotpadanena tiraskaranam ity arthah, tasya sukyta yuşoh pranasah syat. Thus, , making something obscure by finding faults in it' is the fifth meaning proposed for pratikañcuka. Since it fails to be applicable in 484 and in the passage from Kumarila eited in 5. 4, it must be rejected.
