________________
A NOTE ON MAHĀBHĀŞYA II 366.26
29 likelihood for the assumption that what the Indians had in view when thinking of the arka in connection with something characterized by extreme cottonlike lightness were neither the silky bast fibres nor the tomentum of the leaves as both these parts of the shrub would first have to be obtained or torn off before they can exhibit the corresponding property. It is hence much more probable that it is the long silky coma which is referred to; for thanks to it the seeds are when ripened easily driven away by the wind. This assumption is confirmed 1) by the fact that e.g. in Yogasutra 3. 42 it is cotton itself (tala), i.e. "the white fibrous substance which clothes the seeds of the cotton plant" (Oxford Dict.), which is adduced as an example for something very light (laghu) and 2) by the observation that it is precisely the idea of being driven away by the wind which one finds closely connected with arkatala in some other cases, too, viz. e.g. in Pārsvanāthacarita 2. 926 (aho mama kva tad geham kva paricchadah / vidhina kváham anttah pavanen arkatalavat // ; cf. also 1. 740) and in Trişaştiśalākāpuruşacarita 3. 1. 52 (v atena tena mahatā sa mahan api väridah / arkatalam ijod dh û ya disodiśam aniyata/1). -As for arka in the proverb arke cen madhu vindeta kimartham parvatam vrajet cf. Nilmadhav Sen, “A Note on akka - A Ghost Word in Sanskrit" in : Sanskrit and Indological Studies. Dr. V. Raghavan Felicitation Volume, ed. by R. N. Dan.
dekar et al., Delhi 1975, 341-349. 35) Cf. NĀA 302. 26 ff. : alpavācini kani (cf. Pän. 5. 3. 85] lo ha pinda kah palamätrapra
manorkatalabharal laghtyan palasatika tula, vimsatis tula bharah' [ ] iti paribhasitatvät / ayaspindo gurur api laghur arkatalo laghur api gurur drsta ity anavasthitaikagurutvalaghutvatattve gurulaghutve, apeksikatvad asman prati na gurulaghutve parasparato 'nye, tato näyaspindarkatula
drstanto 'sti/. 36) Cf. fn. 27. 37) Cf. NAA 303. 12-17. 38) Cf. the immediately following passage of the NC (303. 4 ff.) and Simhasüri's commentary
on it (NĀA 303. 18 ff.). 39) Cf, also the expression ekatvagati NC 304. 1. 40) Cf. also NĀA 306. 6 f. 41) Cf. also NĀA 73. 25 ff. 42) See also below p. 23. 43) Cf. the article mentioned in asterisked (*) fn., p. 370. 44) Viz. "Tippanāni" p. 16. 35 ff. 45) 0.c. (cf. fn. 3), p. 257. 46) It forms part of several ślokavārttika (on which in general cf. Cardona, O. c., p. 247) stanzas
on Pan. 4. 1.3 and is quoted in M. I 245. 25. On M. II 197. 26 Nāgesa remarks (IV 22a 30-32): sāmkh yamatāvastambhenäha-sv a krtanta iti / etena samkhyaśāstrānusäritvam vyakaranasyeti
súcitam /. 47) Neither H. Scharfe's rendering of samstyana by "Schwellen" (Die Logik im Mahābhāşya,
Berlin 1961, p. 147) (cf. also Seyfort Ruegg, who o. c., p. 40, translates it by "expansion ") nor that of H. Jacobi by "congelation ", " The Dates of the Philosophical Satras of the Brahmans" in: JAOS 31 (1911), p. 27. = Kleine Schriften, hrg. von B. Kölver, Wiesbaden 1970, p. 27) nor that of Strauss by "Dickwerden” (“Altindische Spekulationen über die Sprache und
