Text 10.188 [Uttara]

42. Uttara

उत्तर-श्रुति-मात्रतः |
प्रश्नस्योन्नयनं यत्र क्रियते तत्र वा सति ॥ १०.१२१bcd ॥
असकृद् यद् असम्भाव्यम् उत्तरं स्यात् तद् उत्तरम् ॥ १०.१२२ab ॥

uttara-śruti-mātrataḥ |
praśnasyonnayanaṃ yatra kriyate tatra vā sati ||10.121bcd||
asakṛd yad asambhāvyam uttaraṃ syāt tad uttaram ||10.122ab||

uttara—an answer; śruti—of hearing; mātrataḥ—only because; praśnasya—of a question; unnayanam—the deduction; yatra—in which; kriyate—is made; tatra vā sati—or when there is that (a question); asakṛt—repeatedly; yat—which; asambhāvyam—out of the ordinary (“not imaginable”); uttaram—an answer; syāt—there is; tat—that; uttaram—the ornament called uttara.

Uttara (answer) has two varieties: (1) A question is inferred from an answer, and (2) A question is stated, the answer is out of the ordinary, and this occurs more than once.

prativacana-śravaṇād eva cet praśnaḥ kalpyate, tad ekam uttaram. praśnānantaraṃ ced asakṛd vicitram uttaraṃ syāt tadā tu dvitīyam ity arthaḥ.

If a question is deduced only because of stating the answer, that is one variety of uttara. And if, as a series of questions and answers, an amazing answer is stated after a question, that is the second variety.

Commentary:

Uttara and parisaṅkhyā are very similar. The difference between them is that in parisaṅkhyā the answer negates other similar things. Still, when the negation is implied, quite often the distinction between the two ornaments is not apparent.

P.V. Kāṇe writes:

“This figure must be distinguished from parisaṅkhyā. In parisaṅkhyā the express mention of a thing, which is (pramāṇāntara-prāpta) well-known from some source, serves to exclude another thing like it; while in uttara, there is no idea of excluding another thing, but there is simple assertion of a thing, which is not well-known.”^[1]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kane, P.V. (1995), The Sāhitya-darpaṇa, p. 278.