11
Viṃśatikā / All 22 verses / 11
न तदेकं न च अनेकं विषयः परमाणुशः न च ते संहता यस्मात् परमाणुर् न सिध्यति
na tad ekaṃ na ca anekaṃ viṣayaḥ paramāṇuśaḥ na ca te saṃhatā yasmāt paramāṇur na sidhyati
The line
That object is not one, nor is it many by way of atoms, nor are those atoms a heap, because the atom is not established.
नेपालीमा
त्यो वस्तु एक होइन, परमाणुका रूपमा धेरै पनि होइन, र ती परमाणु थुप्रो पनि होइनन्, किनकि परमाणु सिद्ध हुँदैन।
Where it sits
The opening verses answered the dream-objection. From here the opponent is the one who believes in atoms, including the Vaiśeṣika (वैशेषिक) reader. The claim is not yet the list of reasons. The claim is the fork: one, or many, or a heap, and none of them stand.
Split: na (न) + tad (तद्) + ekam (एकम्) + na (न) + ca (च) + anekam (अनेकम्) + viṣayaḥ (विषयः) + paramāṇuśas (परमाणुश) + na (न) + ca (च) + te (ते) + saṃhatāḥ (संहताः) + yasmāt (यस्मात्) + paramāṇuḥ (परमाणुः) + na (न) + sidhyati (सिध्यति)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| na (न) | indeclinable | not. |
| tad (तद्) | nominative singular, neuter | that. The object, the viṣaya (विषय). |
| ekam (एकम्) | nominative singular, neuter | one. |
| na (न) | indeclinable | not. |
| ca (च) | indeclinable | and. |
| anekam (अनेकम्) | nominative singular, neuter | many, not-one. |
| viṣayaḥ (विषयः) | nominative singular, masculine | the object. The thing a cognition would be of. |
| paramāṇuśas (परमाणुश) | indeclinable | by way of atoms. paramāṇu (परमाणु) is the smallest particle. -śas (-शस्) means 'piece by piece.' |
| na (न) | indeclinable | not. |
| ca (च) | indeclinable | and. |
| te (ते) | nominative plural, masculine | they, the atoms. |
| saṃhatāḥ (संहताः) | nominative plural, masculine | heaped, joined into a mass. The file writes saṃhatā (संहता) before yasmāt (यस्मात्), and the visarga is in the sandhi. |
| yasmāt (यस्मात्) | indeclinable | because. |
| paramāṇuḥ (परमाणुः) | nominative singular, masculine | the atom. The file joins paramāṇurna (परमाणुर्न). |
| na (न) | indeclinable | not. |
| sidhyati (सिध्यति) | present, third person singular | is established, is proved. |
The phrases
An external object has to be either one whole or many atoms. It is not one. It is not many atoms either, and the atoms cannot be rescued by saying they form a heap, because a single atom never gets established. Verses 12 to 15 say why.
yasmāt (यस्मात्) points forward to the failure of the atom, and backward as the reason the heap fails.
Sanskrit in this line
-śas (-शस्) is an adverbial suffix, 'in the manner of, distributed as.' paramāṇuśaḥ (परमाणुशः) means taken atom by atom.
Say it back
What three shapes of an object does the verse refuse?