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" THE REVEALED WORD."
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other sounds or by articulation, and yet you also posit a potency or capacity : so also is the embellishment held by us.-As declared in the Bhasya (Shabara on Sû. 1. 1. 13)— What happens is that the air-particles disturbed by the sound-provoking stroke, strike against the stagnant air-particles and pro- . duce Conjunctions and Disjunctions (i.. ripples) on all sides, which go on spreading as long as the momentum lasts; the Conjunctions and Disjunctions (Ripples) are not perceived, because the Air (of which they are ripples) is imperceptible; and as for the Sound, it is heard only so long and so far as the ripples do not cease, and after they have ceased, the Sound is not heard'-(Translation, p. 35).
Objection: If that is so, then there is no difference between the view that Sound is produced and the view that it is embellished.
Answer Similarly, etc. etc.' Peculiar forms',-1.e. peculiarities of embellishment are possible through the peculiarities in the cognition of the Sound. Hence the apprchonsion and non-apprehension by remote and proximate persons cannot be similar ; as the embellishment would vary with each person.—(2176-2180)
Question Why is there no cognition of Sound when there are obstructions like the intervening wall ?
Answer (from the Mimamsaka) :
TEXTS (2181-2182). "THE INTERCEPTION CAUSED BY OBSTACLES LIKE THE WALL IS QUITE POSSIBLE IN THE CASE OF Air. THE STRIKING AGAINST THE TYMPANUM (OF WHICH WE ARE AT TIMES COGNISANT) IS DUE TO THE FORCE OF THE AIR-CURRENT. AND INASMUCH AS THE AIR PROCEEDS IN SUCCESSION AND HAS A WANING INTENSITY AND VELOCITY, IT BECOMES THE CAUSE OF THE SEQUENCE AND VARYING GRADES OF INTENSITY OF THE EMBELLISHMENT PRODUCED BY IT."-(Shlokavārtika-ETERNALITY OF WORDS, 128-130].
(2181-2182)
COMMENTARY. Though Sound is not subject to interception, yet, inasmuch as the Air and the Wall are both corporeal substances, they are liable to obstruction and interception; and hence the Air does not reach the Ear (when there is an intervening wall); and hence there is no embellishment of the organ: this is the reason why there is no hearing of the intercepted Sound. The criticism urged therefore is applicable to those for whom there is perception of Sound without its actually reaching the Ear.
To the question-How then is there the diversity of greater and less intensity 1-the answer is the striking against, etc.eta-The verb 'yujyatë', 'is possible', has to be construed with all these sentences.