294 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1910 



msm ^rafforew fr^iT^r w*ij *u3w:<nT^*T i *itotc[ i 





Pragasiapdda Bhasya, p. 205. 

 Translation. — " In the aphorism * *QW%. ^HZT* 3TKW ^^frf*! 



f^trfv WWTfw ^rfw §filhfr*j ' (Vaigesika Aphorisms ix. 2, 1), the 

 enumeration of effect, cause, etc., is meant to serve as mere 

 illustrations. It is not to be understood that these are the 

 only kinds of inference. Why? Because there are excep- 

 tions; as for instance, the uttering of Om by the adhvaryu-priest 

 serves as a sign to the hot a- priest, the rise of the moon is a 

 sign of the rise of water in the ocean and of the blooming of 

 the kumuda flower, the clear waters of the autumn is a sign of 

 the rise of the constellation Agastya. All these and similar other 

 cases of inference are to be treated as covered by the first two 

 words of the Sutra 4 ^b^j T^T< which point out a mere relation 

 without specifying it." 



Pragustapada, like most other Hindu writers, was labour- 

 ing under the supposition that the old nsis were infallible and 

 omniscient. Such a supposition is directly opposed to the 

 historical spirit. Hence it is no wonder that we find Pragasta- 

 pada attributing a later theory to Kandda, and trying to ex- 

 plain away the incongruity pointed out before on the gratui- 

 tous assumption that Kandda was merely giving illustrations in 

 his treatment of deduction. Kagyapa is not Kandda; and 

 PragastapcKla's identification of the two must be rejected as 

 uncritical. 



According to the Japanese tradition, Aksapada discovered 

 the "nine reasons and fourteen fallacies/ 5 which contains an 

 analysis of the true theory of the syllogism. Hence Aksa- 

 pada must be credited with a knowledge of the true theory of 



deduction. Is Aksapada then different from the author of the 

 Nyaya-sutras ? 



The vydpti seems to have been rather vaguely conceived 

 by the author of the Nyaya bhasya as well. The Mimdm- 

 sagloka-vdrtika of Kumdrila mentions the word vydpti in 

 its logical sense. Mahdmahopddydya Dr. S. C. Vidyabhusana 

 will lay Sanskrit scholars under a great debt, if he would 

 point out the history of the word vydpti or its equivalents 

 in Buddhist logic. It seems that the true history of the theory 

 of deduction should have to be worked out by the joint efforts 

 of the students of Hindu and Buddhist Logic. 



It has been observed above that Vdtsayana's idea of 

 deduction was rather vague. IncommantW on the 



n*rr%*iimr 



Nyay 



