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Studies in Indian Philosophy
(iii) being other than something (tadanyatvam) ‘mutual absence'
as in anaśvaḥ 'other than a horse'. (iv) smallness of something (tadalpatā ) as in anudarā kanya
'a girl with a thin belly'. (v) impropriety or unfitness (aprāśastya) as in apaś ivah un
fit animals (for sacrifice) (vi) contrarity (virodha) as in adharma contrary to dharma'.
(Sara, p. 515) Of these six meanings only one meaning is primarily denoted by nan, namely, abhāva. The rest are secondary to this primary meaning (Sāra, p. 515).
According to the Naiyāyikas there are two primary meanings of nas, namely, abhāva 'absence' as in apāpam 'absence of sin’ and anyonyābhāva 'mutual absence' as in asaḥ 'other than he.' But according to KB the basic meaning of nañ is only absence (Bhūşaņa, pp. 201-202).
Patañjali explains that the function of nañ is to convey the sense nivșttapadārthaka, i.e., bringing the absence of something to our notice. In other words the function of nan is to convey the absence of somethtng in physical reality. Kaiyața interpreis the Bhāşya to mean that a word like brāhmaṇa in abrāhmaṇa is used in a secondary sense, namely, that of ksatriya, etc. upon whom braminhood has been superimposed. The function of nañ in abrahmana is only to bring out to our notice that brāhmaṇa in abrāhmaṇa is used in the secondary sense (Bhūsana, p. 203).
KB criticises Kaiyața's view. In jostaoce like ghaço nāsti 'there is no jar', abrāhmana '(he is) not a brahmin', the particle nañ has not two different meanings : (i) absence, (ii) superimposition (āropitatva). In both the cases nañ denotes the sense nivsttapadārthaka which implies that nañ brings to our notice that something is absent. In other words, according to Patañjali nañ denotes absence. He further argues that if superimposition would be the meaning of nañ as Kaiyata thinks, then nañ also
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