Verse 1097

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

असम्भवो विधेरुक्तः सामान्यादेरसम्भवात् ।
शब्दानां च विकल्पानां वस्तुनो विषयत्वतः ॥ १०९७ ॥

asambhavo vidheruktaḥ sāmānyāderasambhavāt |
śabdānāṃ ca vikalpānāṃ vastuno viṣayatvataḥ || 1097 ||

The ‘impossibility of the positive’ has been averred oh the ground that such things as the ‘universal’ and the like cannot form the subject of words and determinate conceptions.—(1097)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

The following might be urged by the other party:—“If it is admitted that the Word does denote positive entities, then, how is it that in the Hetumukha, the Lakṣaṇakāra has spoken of the ‘impossibility of the positive’?”

The answer to this is as follows:—[see verse 1097 above]

Inasmuch as there are no real ‘denoted things’ or ‘denotative words’ in the shape of the ‘Universal’ and the like,—there can be no real subject for Words and Determinate Conceptions,—it has been asserted by the great Teacher,—in view of the real state of things,—that ‘there is impossibility of the Positive’; hence there is no contradiction at all.—(1097)