2.2.7
Nyāya Sūtra / Adhyāya 2 / 2.2.7
न अभावप्रामाण्यं प्रमेयासिद्धेः
na abhāvaprāmāṇyaṃ prameyāsiddheḥ
The line
Absence has no status as a means of knowing, because what it would know is not established.
नेपालीमा
अभावको जान्ने साधनको स्थान छैन, किनकि त्यसले जान्ने कुरा सिद्ध हुँदैन।
Where it sits
2.2.1 offered abhāva (अभाव) as a further means. 2.2.2 answered that it falls under inference. This line gives its own reason against counting it separately. The lines after it keep the argument.
Split: na (न) + abhāva-prāmāṇyam (अभाव-प्रामाण्यम्) + prameya-asiddheḥ (प्रमेय-असिद्धेः)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| na (न) | indeclinable | not |
| abhāva-prāmāṇyam (अभाव-प्रामाण्यम्) | nominative singular, neuter | the status of absence as a means. abhāva (अभाव) is absence. prāmāṇya (प्रामाण्य) is being a pramāṇa (प्रमाण). |
| prameya-asiddheḥ (प्रमेय-असिद्धेः) | ablative singular, feminine | because the object of knowing is not established. prameya (प्रमेय) is what a means would know. asiddhi (असिद्धि) is its not being settled. |
The phrases
The charge is that an absence is not an object you can settle, the way a jar on the floor is an object. If the object is not established, absence cannot be a means that knows it.
2.2.2 had already placed absence under inference. This line is a further argument, later in the same chapter, aimed at absence on its own.
Sanskrit in this line
The file writes abhāvaprāmāṇyaṃ (अभावप्रामाण्यं) with the anusvāra (अनुस्वार). The compound is abhāva-prāmāṇya (अभाव-प्रामाण्य). prameyāsiddheḥ (प्रमेयासिद्धेः) is prameya (प्रमेय) + asiddhi (असिद्धि), a (अ) + a (अ) = ā (आ), and the ablative -eḥ (-एः) of the feminine siddhi (सिद्धि) stem. The privative on siddhi (सिद्धि) is a- (अ-).
Say it back
Say what prameya (प्रमेय) is doing in the reason.