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A NOTE ON MAHĀBHĀŞYA II 366.26
15 which Matilal speaks of “the third attempt", however, runs thus (M. II 200. 25-26):
anvartham khalv api nirvacanam / guṇasamdrāvo dravyam /. Therefore, what has to be examined first of all, is the question if the particles khalv api are similarly indicative of the fact that still another attempt is made by Patañjali or not. The meaning assigned to khalv api in the small Petrograd Dictionary is “nun auch ", the remark being added that it is used “ beim Uebergange zu etwas noch zu Besprechendem”. This observation, though based on another text, proves quite useful in the case of the M., too.
For, to start with the very first instance where it occurs, what else should be its function in M. I 1. 4: vaidikāḥ khalv api/than to indicate that the person who had answered the question keşām śabdānām / by saying laukikānām vaidikānām ca (M. I 1. 3) is now turning to the explanation of the term which has still to be “talked about ”, viz. vaidikāḥ [śabdāḥ] ?. And the next instances found on the same page (lines 16 and 18) are of exactly the same nature--and this holds good also for those referred to by Böhtlingk. Yet, it is by no means easy to exclude the possibility that a slight contrast is also expressed in these cases apart from calling the attention of the person who had asked the aforementioned question or of the other participant of the discussion) to the other or next topic.
Įt is therefore advisable to examine instead only those instances where khalv api is used in sentences which are, except for their context, identical with that of M. II 200. 25. And there are, if I am not mistaken, just two of them.
The first is found in the discussion on Pāṇ. 5. 2. 29 and 30, viz. M. I 206. 21-25:
kuto nu khalv etad aca ete gunās tatsāmīpyāt tu vyañjanam api tadgunam upalabhyata iti na punar vyañjanasyaite guņāḥ syus tatsāmipyāt tv aj api tadguna upalabhyata iti / antareņāpi vyañjanam aca evaite gunā laksyante na punar antareņācam vyañjanasyoccāraṇam api bhavati/a n varth am k halv a pi nirvacan a m / svayam rājante svarā anvag bhavati
