Verse 201

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

एककार्योपयोगित्वादेकशब्दस्य गोचरः ।
साध्योऽप्येवंविधोऽभीष्टो यदि सिद्धप्रसाधनम् ॥ २०१ ॥

ekakāryopayogitvādekaśabdasya gocaraḥ |
sādhyo'pyevaṃvidho'bhīṣṭo yadi siddhaprasādhanam || 201 ||

It is because it is used for a single purpose that it is spoken of as ‘one’. if something like this is what you desire to prove, then your effort is futile (proving what is already admitted).—(201)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

Question—“What is the basis of this assumption?”

The answer comes in the following Text:—[see verse 201 above]

Because the ‘glance of the Dancing Girl’ is used for the purpose of bringing about the single effect in the form of Visual Cognition,—therefore, even though diverse, it is spoken of as ‘one

It might be urged by the Opponent—“It is just such a Probandum, of which the one-ness is assumed, that we mean; so that the Corroborative Instance cannot be said to be ‘devoid of the Probandum’.”

The answer to this is that—if something like this is what you desire to prove, then it involves the fallacy of ‘futility’, ‘proving what is already proved’; as (according to us) several Impressions appearing consecutively do form the objects of the apprehension of several things, which go to make up a single Cognition.—(201)