1.2.3
Vaiśeṣika Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.2.3
सामान्यविशेष इति बुद्ध्यपेक्षम्
sāmānyaviśeṣa iti buddhyapekṣam
The line
What we call universal and particular depends on the cognition.
नेपालीमा
सामान्य र विशेष भन्ने कुरा ज्ञानमा भर पर्छ।
Where it sits
1.1.4 named sāmānya (सामान्य) and viśeṣa (विशेष) as the fourth and fifth categories and then spent the first day on the first three. They are taken up now. 1.2.4 says pure being is a universal only.
Split: sāmānya-viśeṣa (सामान्य-विशेष) + iti (इति) + buddhi-apekṣam (बुद्धि-अपेक्षम्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| sāmānya-viśeṣa (सामान्य-विशेष) | nominative singular, neuter | the pair, universal and particular. Said here as one topic. |
| iti (इति) | indeclinable | thus. 'Universal and particular,' so called. |
| buddhi-apekṣam (बुद्धि-अपेक्षम्) | nominative singular, neuter | dependent on cognition. apekṣā (अपेक्षा) is regard, a waiting upon. buddhi is a knowing, from the list in 1.1.6. |
The phrases
The same thing can be a universal from below and a particular from above. Cow-ness is general for the cows, and it is particular beside horse-ness, under the wider animal. Which word you use depends on the knowing that is comparing.
The line does not say the universal is only a word. It says the assignment of the two names waits on the cognition.
Sanskrit in this line
apekṣa (अपेक्ष) means it looks toward, it depends. iti quotes the two names as the thing that so depends.
Say it back
Why can one thing be called both?
Next
1.2.4. Being is only a universal, because all it causes is recurrence.